| Tabaru | |
| States: | Indonesia |
| Region: | Halmahera |
| Speakers: | 15,000 |
| Date: | 1991 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | West Papuan? |
| Fam2: | North Halmahera |
| Fam3: | Galela–Tobelo |
| Iso3: | tby |
| Glotto: | taba1263 |
| Glottorefname: | Tabaru |
Tabaru is a North Halmahera language of Indonesia.
Tabaru has a simple five vowel system: a, e, i, o, u.[1]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Semivowel | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
On the surface level, Tabaru only allows syllables of the type (C)V. Words with an underlying final consonant add an echo vowel: (/ngowak/) ′child′, (/oker/) ′drink′, (/sarim/) ′paddle′, (/odom/) ′eat′, (/palus/) ′answer′. The echo vowel is dropped when a suffix is added: (/woisen/) ′hear′, but (/woisen/ + /oka/) ′heard′. Stress regularly falls on the penultimate syllable, but shifts to the antepenultimate when the word takes an echo vowel.[2]