Sahu language
North Halmahera language spoken in Indonesia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sahu (Sa’u, Sahu’u, Sau) is a North Halmahera language. Use is vigorous; dialects are Pa’disua (Palisua), Tala’i, Waioli, and Gamkonora. A fifth dialect, Ibu, used to be spoken near the mouth of the Ibu River.[2] Ethnologue considers Waioli and Gamkonora to be separate languages.
| Sahu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Halmahera |
Native speakers | (7,500 excluding Waioli and Gamkonora cited 1987)[1] (12,000 cited in 1987)[2] |
West Papuan?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:saj – Sahuibu – Ibu |
| Glottolog | sahu1245 Sahuibuu1240 Ibu |
| ELP | Ibu |
Sahu has many Ternate loanwords, a historical legacy of the dominance of the Ternate Sultanate in the Moluccas.[3]
Phonology
Source:[2]
Sahu, like other North Halmahera languages, is not a tonal language.
Consonants
When preceding /a/, /o/, and /u/, the consonants /d/, /ɗ/, and /l/ become retroflex (/ɖ/, /ᶑ/, and /ɭ/, respectively). The trill /r/ alternates freely with /ɾ/, but, according to Visser and Voorhoeve, /r/ is the more usual allophone. The glottal /h/ may be realized as /χ/ by educated speakers for certain words deriving from Arabic.
Vowels
The phoneme /ə/ is only found in loans (primarily from Indonesian).
