Blagar language
Blagar | |
---|---|
Tereweng | |
Native to | Indonesia |
Region | Pantar Island |
Native speakers | 10,000 (2014)[1] |
Trans–New Guinea ?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:beu – Blagartwg – Tereweng |
Glottolog | blag1240 Blagartere1277 Tereweng |
ELP | Blagar |
Languages of the Alor Islands. Blagar is shown in yellow. |
Blagar is a Papuan language of Pantar island in the Alor archipelago of Indonesia. The Tereweng lect spoken on Tereweng island off the southeast coast of Pantar[2] is sometimes considered a separate language.[3]
Use of the language is declining in favor of Indonesian.[4] In the 1970s Indonesian replaced Blagar as the language of the church and the mosque.[4] In the early 2000s the introduction of electricity on Pura Island further increased the influence of Indonesian.[4]
Phonology
Vowels
Blagar has five vowels, with a sharp contrast between short and long vowels.[4]
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | /i/ /i:/ |
/u/ /u:/ |
Mid | /e/ /e:/ |
/o/ /o:/ |
Open | /a/ /a:/ |
Consonants
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p b | t̪ d | k g | ʔ | |
Implosive | ɓ | ||||
Fricative | s z | h | |||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Trill | r | ||||
Lateral | l | ||||
Approximant | j |
Grammar
Blagar is morphologically simple.[5] It has a limited number of pronouns, adverbs, particles, auxiliaries and clitics, but an unrestricted number of verbs and nouns.[5] Verbs can be transitive or intransitive, and nouns can be alienable or inalienable.[5] Nouns are placed before adjectives.[4]
Blagar | Gloss | English |
---|---|---|
Ne koŋdo boʔori. | 1SG.POSS shirt yellow | My shirt is yellow. |
Mehal ʔaŋu guru niaŋ. | man that teacher not | That man is not a teacher. |
ʔana naiŋ bue. | 3SG.SBJ 1SG.OBJ hit | He/she hit me. |
Na aiŋ bue niaŋ. | 1SG.SBJ 2SG.OBJ hit not | I didn't hit you. |
Na ne mol veŋ niaŋ. | 1SG.SBJ 1SG.POSS banana with not | I don't have a banana. |
Questions
Blagar | Gloss | English |
---|---|---|
ʔ-ene nuba? | 3SG-name who | What's his/her name? |
Id ʔaŋa ʔ-ene naba? | star this 3SG-name what | What's the name of this star? |
Vet ʔaŋa nuba ʔe? | coconut this who 3SG.POSS | Whose coconut is this? |
Writing system
The Blagar language uses the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, and has two digraphs: ⟨ng⟩ and ⟨sy⟩.
Uppercase letters | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lowercase letters | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
IPA | /a/ | /b/ | /t͡ʃ/ | /d/ | /e/ | /f/ | /g/ | /h/ | /i/ | /d͡ʒ/ | /k/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /o/ | /p/ | /k/, /q/ | /r/~/ɾ/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /f/, /v/ | /w/ | /ks/ | /j/ | /s/, /z/ |
Digraphs | ng | sy |
---|---|---|
IPA | /ŋ/ | /ʃ/ |
⟨c⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨sy⟩ are only used in foreign place names and loanwords.[3]
Another writing system is also used, which is phonemic and is similar to the writing system of Indonesian.[6]
Letters | a | b | b’ | d | e | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | ng | o | p | q | r | t | u | v | y |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IPA | /a/ | /b/ | /ɓ/ | /d/ | /e/ | /g/ | /h/ | /i/ | /ɟ/, /ɟ͡ʝ/ | /k/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /o/ | /p/ | /ʔ/ | /r/ | /t/ | /u/ | /w/ | /j/ |
References
- ^ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
- ^ "Tereweng". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
- ^ a b c d "Blagar alphabet, prounciation [sic] and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Steinhauer, Hein (2014). "Blagar". In Schapper, Antoinette (ed.). The Papuan Languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar: Volume 1: Sketch Grammars. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 147–219.
- ^ a b c H. Steinhauer. ""Going" and "Coming" in the Blagar of Dolap (Pura--Alor--Indonesia) 1)" (PDF). SEAlang. Retrieved 2018-06-28.
- ^ Steinhauer, Hein; Gomang, Hendrik D.R. (2016). Kamus Blagar-Indonesia-Inggris: Blagar-Indonesian-English Dictionary. ISBN 978-602-433-356-0.
Further reading
- Steinhauer, Hein; Gomang, Hendrik D.R. (2016). Kamus Blagar-Indonesia-Inggris: Blagar-Indonesian-English Dictionary. ISBN 978-602-433-356-0.
External links
- Alphabet and pronunciation
- Audio speech of the Pura dialect of Blagar
- Description of the Blagar language
- Blagar Swadesh list at TransNewGuinea.org
- Blagar Swadesh List by The Rosetta Project at the Internet Archive
- Genesis, Mark, and Acts in the Pura dialect of the Blagar language of Indonesia
- Blagar Dadibira Collection at The Language Archive