The Kwaraʼae or Kwaraqae language is spoken in the West, Central & Eastern regions of Malaita Island in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, there were 32,400 people known to speak the language. It is the largest indigenous vernacular of the Solomon Islands.
| Kwaraʼae | |
|---|---|
| Kwaraqae | |
| Fiu | |
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Region | Malaita Island |
Native speakers | (32,000 cited 1999)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kwf |
| Glottolog | kwar1239 |
Phonology
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nor. | lab. | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||
| Fricative | (f) | s | x ~ h | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | |||
| Rhotic | ɾ | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||
The /f/ sound is merged with /h/. Most speakers of Kwaraʼae choose to pronounce /h/ as an /f/ sound in some vocabulary.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Low | a |
The sound [ə] is recognized as an allophone of /a/.[2] There is vowel reduction, so final /i/ and /u/ are often deleted. Before /i/, the vowel /a/ may become [e], forming the diphthong [ei].
References
edit- ^ Kwaraʼae at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Macdonald, Daryl Eveline (2010). A Grammar Sketch of Kwaraqae (Master of Arts thesis). University of Waikato. hdl:10289/5755.
External links
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