Santa Cruz language
| Santa Cruz | |
|---|---|
| |
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Region | Santa Cruz Islands, Eastern Solomons. |
Native speakers | (5,900 cited 1999)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:ntu – Natügunlz – Nalögonpx – Noipx |
| Glottolog | natu1250 |
| Coordinates: 10°40′S 165°50′E / 10.667°S 165.833°E | |
The Santa Cruz language, locally known as Natqgu (new orthography) or Natügu (old orthography), is the main language spoken on the island of Nendö or 'Santa Cruz', in the Solomon Islands.
Name
[edit]The name Natügu means "our language" (natü "language, word" + -gu "1st + 2nd person plural suffix").
Genetic affiliation
[edit]Until the beginning of the 21st century, it was widely believed that Santa Cruz is a Papuan language. Like the rest of the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages, however, it was shown to be a member of the Austronesian language family in the 2000s.[2]
Dialects
[edit]Dialects are Bënwë (Banua), Londai, Malo, Nea, Nooli. Speakers of most dialects understand Lwowa and Mbanua well. The Nea and Nooli dialects are the most divergent, actually a separate language (Nalögo).
Phonology
[edit]Consonants
[edit]| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | round | pal. | plain | round | pal. | plain | round | pal. | |||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʷ | pʲ | t | tʷ | k | kʷ | kʲ | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | ||||||||
| voiced | b | bʷ | bʲ | d | dʷ | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | nʲ | ŋ | ŋʷ | |||||
| Fricative | v | s | |||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||||
Voiced stops can also be heard as prenasalized.[3]
Vowels
[edit]| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ʉ | u |
| Close-mid | e | ɵ | o |
| Near-open | æ | ə | ɔ |
| Open | a |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ũ | ||
| Close-mid | ẽ | ɵ̃ | õ |
| Near-open | æ̃ | ə̃ | ɔ̃ |
| Open | ã |
Orthography
[edit]The Santa Cruz language has two orthographies. The old orthography uses diacritics to mark vowel quality and nasalization while the new orthography uses no diacritics. The new orthography was developed in 1994, motivated by concerns about the difficulty of reading and typesetting the old orthography.[4][5]
| Grapheme | Phoneme |
|---|---|
| b | /b/ |
| d | /d/ |
| g | /ɡ/ |
| h[a] | — |
| j[b] | /dʒ/ |
| k | /k/ |
| l | /l/ |
| m | /m/ |
| n | /n/ |
| p | /p/ |
| s | /s/ |
| t | /t/ |
| v | /β/ |
| w | /w/ |
| y | /j/ |
| Grapheme (old) | Grapheme (new) | Phoneme |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | /a/ |
| e | e | /e/ |
| i | i | /i/ |
| o | o | /o/ |
| u | u | /u/ |
| â[c] | c | /ɔ/ |
| ü | q | /ʉ/ |
| ö | r[d] | /ɵ/ |
| ä | x | /æ/ |
| ë | z | /ə/ |
In the old orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a tilde over the vowel letter. In the new orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a straight apostrophe after the vowel letter.
- ^a The letter h is used only in English loanwords.
- ^b The letter j is used natively in one dialect, and otherwise only used in English loanwords.
- ^c The letter â was written o̲ in earlier versions of the old orthography.
- ^d The letter r is also used as a consonant in English loanwords.
References
[edit]- ^ Natügu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Nalögo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Noipx at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ Næss, Åshild and Brenda H. Boerger (2008). "Reefs – Santa Cruz as Oceanic: Evidence from the Verb Complex". Oceanic Linguistics. 47: 185–212. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0000. hdl:1959.13/1052427.
- ^ Boerger, B. H. (2012). Sociological factors in Reefs-Santa Cruz language vitality: a 40 year retrospective. Walter de Gruyter.
- ^ Boerger, Brenda H., A Grammar Sketch of Natqgu [ntu]: An Oceanic language of Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands
- ^ Boerger, Brenda H., When c, q, r, x, and z are vowels: An informal report on Natqgu orthography (PDF)
External links
[edit]- Buk Ngr Nzangiongr Anglican Book of Worship in the Natqgu Language
- Paradisec has a number of collections with Natügu materials