Blagar language

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Blagar is a Papuan language of Pantar island in the Alor archipelago of Indonesia. The Tereweng dialect spoken on Tereweng Island off the southeast coast of Pantar[2] is sometimes considered a separate language.[3]

Blagar
Tereweng
Native toIndonesia
RegionPantar Island
Native speakers
10,000 (2014)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
beu – Blagar
twg – Tereweng
Glottologblag1240  Blagar
tere1277  Tereweng
ELPBlagar
Languages of the Alor Islands. Blagar is shown in yellow.

The increasing prominence of Indonesian has been putting pressure on the Blagar language although the language is still used by all age groups.[4] By the 1970s Indonesian replaced Blagar as the language of churches and mosques, and in the early 2000s the spread of Indonesian was furthered by the introduction of electricity on Pura Island.[4]

Phonology

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Vowels

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Blagar has five vowels, with a sharp contrast between short and long vowels.[5]

[5]
Front Back
Close /i/
/i:/
/u/
/u:/
Mid /e/
/e:/
/o/
/o:/
Open /a/
/a:/

Consonants

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[6]
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p   b    d k   g ʔ
Implosive ɓ
Fricative s   z h
Nasal m n ŋ
Trill r
Lateral l
Approximant j

Grammar

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The morphological typology of Blagar is categorized as isolating.[7]

Writing system

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Blagar uses the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, and has two digraphs: ⟨ng⟩ and ⟨sy⟩.

[3]
Uppercase letters A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Lowercase letters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
IPA /a/ /b/ /t͡ʃ/ /d/ /e/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /i/ /d͡ʒ/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /o/ /p/ /k/, /q/ /r/~/ɾ/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /f/, /v/ /w/ /ks/ /j/ /s/, /z/
[3]
Digraphs ng sy
IPA /ŋ/ /ʃ/

⟨c⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨sy⟩ are only used in foreign place names and loanwords.[3]

Another writing system is also used, which is phonemic and is similar to the writing system of Indonesian.[8]

Letters a b b’ d e g h i j k l m n ng o p q r t u v y
IPA /a/ /b/ /ɓ/ /d/ /e/ /g/ /h/ /i/ /ɟ/, /ɟ͡ʝ/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ /o/ /p/ /ʔ/ /r/ /t/ /u/ /w/ /j/

References

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  1. ^ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  2. ^ "Tereweng". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  3. ^ a b c d "Blagar alphabet, pronunciation [sic] and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  4. ^ a b Steinhauer 2014, p. 149.
  5. ^ a b Steinhauer 2014, p. 150.
  6. ^ Steinhauer 2014, p. 152.
  7. ^ Steinhauer 1977, p. 39.
  8. ^ Steinhauer & Gomang 2016, pp. xix–xx.

Bibliography

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