Santa Cruz
  • Natqgu
  • Natügu
Native toSolomon Islands
RegionSanta Cruz Islands, Eastern Solomons.
Native speakers
(5,900 cited 1999)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
ntu – Natügu
nlz – Nalögo
npx – Noipx
Glottolognatu1250
Coordinates: 10°40′S 165°50′E / 10.667°S 165.833°E / -10.667; 165.833
A Natügu speaker, recorded in the Solomon Islands.

The Santa Cruz language, locally known as Natqgu (new orthography) or Natügu (old orthography), is the main language spoken on the island of Nendö or 'Santa Cruz', in the Solomon Islands.

Name

The name Natügu means "our language" (natü "language, word" + -gu "1st + 2nd person plural suffix").

Genetic affiliation

It was widely believed until recently that Santa Cruz was a Papuan language. Like the rest of the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages, however, it has been shown to be a member of the Austronesian language family.[2]

Dialects

Dialects are Bënwë (Banua), Londai, Malo, Nea, Nooli. Speakers of most dialects understand Lwowa and Mbanua well. The Nea and Nooli dialects are the most divergent, actually a separate language (Nalögo).

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
plain round pal. plain round pal. plain round pal.
Stop voiceless p pʷ pʲ t tʷ k kʷ kʲ
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
voiced b bʷ bʲ d dʷ ɡ ɡʷ
Nasal m mʷ n nʲ ŋ ŋʷ
Fricative v s
Approximant l j w

Voiced stops can also be heard as prenasalized.[3]

Vowels

Oral vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ʉ u
Close-mid e ɵ o
Near-open æ ə ɔ
Open a
Nasal vowels
Front Central Back
Close ũ
Close-mid ẽ ɵ̃ õ
Near-open æ̃ ə̃ ɔ̃
Open ã

Orthography

The Santa Cruz language has two orthographies. The old orthography uses diacritics to mark vowel quality and nasalization while the new orthography uses no diacritics. The new orthography was developed in 1994, motivated by concerns about the difficulty of reading and typesetting the old orthography.[4][5]

Consonants
Grapheme Phoneme
b /b/
d /d/
g /ɡ/
h[a] —
j[b] /dʒ/
k /k/
l /l/
m /m/
n /n/
p /p/
s /s/
t /t/
v /β/
w /w/
y /j/
Vowels
Grapheme (old) Grapheme (new) Phoneme
a a /a/
e e /e/
i i /i/
o o /o/
u u /u/
â[c] c /ɔ/
ü q /ʉ/
ö r[d] /ɵ/
ä x /æ/
ë z /ə/

In the old orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a tilde over the vowel letter. In the new orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a straight apostrophe after the vowel letter.


References

  1. ^ Natügu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Nalögo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Noipx at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Næss, Åshild and Brenda H. Boerger (2008). "Reefs – Santa Cruz as Oceanic: Evidence from the Verb Complex". Oceanic Linguistics. 47: 185–212. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0000. hdl:1959.13/1052427.
  3. ^ Boerger, B. H. (2012). Sociological factors in Reefs-Santa Cruz language vitality: a 40 year retrospective. Walter de Gruyter.
  4. ^ Boerger, Brenda H., A Grammar Sketch of Natqgu [ntu]: An Oceanic language of Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands
  5. ^ Boerger, Brenda H., When c, q, r, x, and z are vowels: An informal report on Natqgu orthography (PDF)

External links

Languages of the Solomon Islands
Austronesian languages
Authority control databases: National
Categories