Ngadha (IPA: [ŋaᶑa], also spelled Ngada, Ngadʼa or Ngaʼda[2]) is an Austronesian language, one of six languages spoken in the central stretch of the Indonesian island of Flores.[3] 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).[4]
| Ngadha | |
|---|---|
| Bahasa Ngadha | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Flores |
Native speakers | (ca. 65,000 cited 1994–1995)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:nxg – Ngadʼanea – Eastern Ngadʼa |
| Glottolog | ngad1261 |
Djawanai (1983) precises that Ngadha somewhat deviates from Austronesian norms, in that words do not have clear cognates and the grammatical processes are different;[5] 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.[6]
Ngadha is one of the few languages with a retroflex implosive /ᶑ /.
Phonology
editThe sound system of Ngadha is as follows.[7]
Vowels
edit| 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/.[8] 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.[9]
Consonants
edit| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Retroflex | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
unaspirated | b | d̪ | dʒ | ɡ | ʔ | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||||
| implosive | ɓ | ᶑ | ||||||
| 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⟩.[2]
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].[10]
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'.[11]
References
edit- ^ Ngadʼa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Eastern Ngadʼa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ a b Djawanai, Stephanas; Grimes, Charles E. (1985). "Ngada". In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.). Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. pp. 593–599. doi:10.1515/9783110884012.1.593.
- ^ "Introduction". Rongga Documentation Project. Archived from the original on 2006-08-24. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
- ^ Blust, Robert (2008). "Is There a Bima-Sumba Subgroup?". Oceanic Linguistics. 47 (1): 45–113. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0006. JSTOR 20172340. S2CID 144311741.
- ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 2.
- ^ Peter ten Hoopen. "Ikat from Ngadha, Indonesia". ikat.us. Online Museum of Indonesian ikat textiles, curator: Dr Peter Ten Hoopen. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- ^ 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. hdl:1885/145062. ISBN 978-0-85883-283-1.
- ^ a b Djawanai 1983, p. 115.
- ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 120.
- ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 118.
- ^ Djawanai 1983, p. 118-119.
External links
edit- "Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database > Ngadha". abvd.eva.mpg.de. University of Auckland. Retrieved 2024-06-08.