Ngadha language

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Not to be confused with Nga:da language.
Ngadha
Bahasa Ngadha
Native toIndonesia
RegionFlores
Native speakers
(ca. 65,000 cited 1994–1995)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
nxg – Ngadʼa
nea – Eastern Ngadʼa
Glottologngad1261

Ngadha (IPA: [ŋaᶑa], also spelled Ngada, Ngadʼa or Ngaʼda[2]) is an Austronesian language, one of six languages spoken in the central stretch of the Indonesian island of Flores.[3] From west to east these languages are Ngadha, Nage, Keo, Ende, Lio, and Palu'e. These languages form the proposed Central Flores group of the Sumba–Flores languages, according to Blust (2009).[4]

Djawanai (1983) precises that Ngadha somewhat deviates from Austronesian norms, in that words do not have clear cognates and the grammatical processes are different;[5] for example, the Austronesian family of languages makes an abundant use of prefixes or suffixes (which form new words by adding extensions either before or after root-words, such as [per-]form or child[-hood]), whereas the Ngadha language uses no prefixes or suffixes.[6]

Ngadha is one of the few languages with a retroflex implosive /ᶑ /.

Phonology

The sound system of Ngadha is as follows.[7]

Vowels

Ngadha vowels[8]
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə̆ o
Low a

The short vowel /ə̆/ is written ⟨e⟩ followed by a double consonant, since phonetically a consonant becomes geminate after /ə̆/.[8] It is never stressed and does not form sequences with other vowels except where glottal stop has dropped (e.g. limaessa 'six', from lima 'five' and 'essa 'one').

Within vowel sequences, epenthetic [j] may appear after an unrounded vowel (e.g. in /eu/, /eo/) and [w] after a rounded vowel (e.g. in /oe/, /oi/). Double vowels are sequences. Vowels tend to be voiceless between voiceless consonants and pre-pausa after voiceless consonants.

Stress is on the penultimate syllable, unless that contains the vowel /ə̆/, in which case stress is on the final syllable.[9]

Consonants

Ngadha consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Palato-
alveolar 		Retroflex Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate 		unaspirated b d̪ dʒ ɡ ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
implosive ɓ ᶑ
Fricative voiced v z ɣ
voiceless f s x
Liquid lateral l
trill r

The implosives have been spelled ⟨bʼ dʼ⟩, ⟨ʼb ʼd⟩ and ⟨bh dh⟩. The velar fricatives are spelled ⟨h, gh⟩.[2]

The trill is short, and may have only one or two contacts.

Glottal stop contrasts with zero[clarification needed] in initial position, as in inu 'drink', or 'inu 'tiny'. In rapid speech it tends to drop intervocalically[clarification needed].[10]

Phonetically [#C̩CV] words are analyzed as having an initial schwa. In initial position the consonant is always voiced (otherwise the schwa remains)[clarification needed]. Examples are emma [mma] 'father', emmu [mmu] 'mosquito', enna [nna] 'sand', Ennga [ŋŋa] (name), ebba [bba] 'swadling sling', ebbu [bbu] 'grandparents', Ebbo [bbo] (name), erro [rro] 'sun' – also in medial position with voiceless consonants, as in limaessa [limassa] 'six'.[11]

References

  1. ^ Ngadʼa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Eastern Ngadʼa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b Djawanai, Stephanas; Grimes, Charles E. (1985). "Ngada". In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.). Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. pp. 593–599. doi:10.1515/9783110884012.1.593.
  3. ^ "Introduction". Rongga Documentation Project. Archived from the original on 2006-08-24. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  4. ^ Blust, Robert (2008). "Is There a Bima-Sumba Subgroup?". Oceanic Linguistics. 47 (1): 45–113. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0006. JSTOR 20172340. S2CID 144311741.
  5. ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 2.
  6. ^ Peter ten Hoopen. "Ikat from Ngadha, Indonesia". ikat.us. Online Museum of Indonesian ikat textiles, curator: Dr Peter Ten Hoopen. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  7. ^ Djawanai, Stephanus (1983). Ngadha Text Tradition: The Collective Mind of the Ngadha People, Flores. Pacific Linguistics Series D – No. 55. Canberra: Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-D55. hdl:1885/145062. ISBN 978-0-85883-283-1.
  8. ^ a b Djawanai 1983, p. 115.
  9. ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 120.
  10. ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 118.
  11. ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 118-119.

External links

Retrieved from "https://mdwiki.org/wiki/Ngadha_language"