Santa Cruz language

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A Natügu speaker, recorded in the Solomon Islands.

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

The name Natügu means "our language" (natü "language, word" + -gu "1st + 2nd person plural suffix").

Genetic affiliation

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.[1]

Dialects

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

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
plain round pal. plain round pal. plain round pal.
Stop voiceless Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
aspirated Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
voiced Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Nasal Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Fricative Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Approximant Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

Voiced stops can also be heard as prenasalized.[2]

Vowels

Oral vowels
Front Central Back
Close Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Close-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Near-open Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Open Template:IPA link
Nasal vowels
Front Central Back
Close Template:IPA link
Close-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Near-open Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Open Template:IPA link

Orthography

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.[3][4]

Consonants
Grapheme Phoneme
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d Script error: No such module "IPA".
g Script error: No such module "IPA".
h<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>[a]
j<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>[b] Script error: No such module "IPA".
k Script error: No such module "IPA".
l Script error: No such module "IPA".
m Script error: No such module "IPA".
n Script error: No such module "IPA".
p Script error: No such module "IPA".
s Script error: No such module "IPA".
t Script error: No such module "IPA".
v Script error: No such module "IPA".
w Script error: No such module "IPA".
y Script error: No such module "IPA".
Vowels
Grapheme (old) Grapheme (new) Phoneme
a a Script error: No such module "IPA".
e e Script error: No such module "IPA".
i i Script error: No such module "IPA".
o o Script error: No such module "IPA".
u u Script error: No such module "IPA".
â<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>[c] c Script error: No such module "IPA".
ü q Script error: No such module "IPA".
ö r<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>[d] Script error: No such module "IPA".
ä x Script error: No such module "IPA".
ë z Script error: No such module "IPA".

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.

  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^a The letter h is used only in English loanwords.
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^b The letter j is used natively in one dialect, and otherwise only used in English loanwords.
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^c The letter â was written in earlier versions of the old orthography.
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^d The letter r is also used as a consonant in English loanwords.

References

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External links

Template:Languages of the Solomon Islands Template:Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages Template:Authority control