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Ngadha language
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Ngadha
Bahasa Ngadha
Native toIndonesia
RegionFlores
EthnicityNgada
Native speakers
(ca. 65,000 cited 1994–1995)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
nxg – Ngadʼa
nea – Eastern Ngadʼa
Glottologngad1261

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]

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

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The sound system of Ngadha is as follows.[7]

Vowels

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Ngadha vowels[8]
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

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Ngadha consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Palato-
alveolar
Retroflex Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate
unaspirated b ɡ ʔ
aspirated
implosive ɓ
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

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