Social:Ngadha language

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Short description: Language in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
Ngadha
Bahasa Ngadha
Native toIndonesia
RegionFlores
EthnicityNgada
Native speakers
(ca. 65,000 cited 1994–1995)[1]
Austronesian
  • Malayo-Polynesian
    • Central–Eastern MP
      • Sumba–Flores
        • Ende–Manggarai
          • Central Flores
            • Ngadha–Soʼa
              • Ngadha
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
nxg – Ngadʼa
nea – Eastern Ngadʼa
Glottologngad1261[2]

Ngadha (ru, also spelled Ngada, Ngadʼa or Ngaʼda[3]) is an Austronesian language, one of six languages spoken in the central stretch of the Indonesian island of Flores.[4] 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).[5]

Djawanai (1983) precises that Ngadha somewhat deviates from Austronesian norms, in that words do not have clear cognates and the grammatical processes are different;[6] 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.[7]

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

Phonology

The sound system of Ngadha is as follows.[8]

Vowels

Ngadha vowels[9]
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/.[9] 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.[10]

Consonants

Ngadha consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Palato-
alveolar
Retroflex Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate
unaspirated b ɡ ʔ
aspirated
implosive ɓ
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⟩.[3]

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].[11]

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'.[12]

References

  1. Ngadʼa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Eastern Ngadʼa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Ngad'a". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/ngad1261. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Djawanai, Stephanas; Grimes, Charles E. (1985). "Ngada". in Darrell T. Tryon. Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. pp. 593–599. doi:10.1515/9783110884012.1.593. 
  4. "Introduction". http://rspas.anu.edu.au/linguistics/projects/iwa/Web-Pages/RonggaPRoject%20-%20Home.htm. 
  5. Blust, Robert (2008). "Is There a Bima-Sumba Subgroup?". Oceanic Linguistics 47 (1): 45–113. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0006. 
  6. Djawanai 1983, p. 2.
  7. Peter ten Hoopen. "Ikat from Ngadha, Indonesia". Online Museum of Indonesian ikat textiles, curator: Dr Peter Ten Hoopen. https://ikat.us/ikat_flores%20group_ngadha.php. 
  8. 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. ISBN 978-0-85883-283-1. 
  9. 9.0 9.1 Djawanai 1983, p. 115.
  10. Djawanai 1983, p. 120.
  11. Djawanai 1983, p. 118.
  12. Djawanai 1983, p. 118-119.

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