Papuan language spoken in Solomon Islands
7°55′S 156°40′E / 7.92°S 156.66°E / -7.92; 156.66Bilua (also known as Mbilua or Vella Lavella)[2] is the most populous Papuan language spoken in the Solomon Islands.[3] It is a Central Solomon language spoken by about 9,000 people on the island of Vella Lavella. It is one of the four Papuan non-Austronesian languages spoken in the Solomon Islands.[4]
Classification
"Bilua is sometimes grouped with the other Central Solomons languages and beyond (Wurm 1975b) but closer inspection shows that a genealogical relation is not demonstrable (Dunn and Terrill 2012, Terrill 2011)" (Hammarström, forthcoming).
Phonology
The consonant and vowels sounds of Bilua.[5]
Consonants
The voiced stops and affricate sounds /b d ɡ dʒ/ can occur as prenasalized allophones, when occurring intervocalically [ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ ⁿdʒ]. Other consonant allophones include [w tʃ] for /β dʒ/.
Vowels
Four vowel sounds /i u e o/ have allophones but only in diphthongs as [ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ].
Verb construction
Sample Verbs
Noun classification
Bilua has a masculine-feminine gender system with no neuter nouns. Truly males are always male and truly female are always female.[3]
Numerals
References
Footnotes
- ^ Bilua at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "OLAC resources in and about the Bilua language". www.language-archives.org. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
- ^ a b Woodley (2002)
- ^ Obata (2003), p. 1
- ^ Obata (2003), pp. 8–11
Sources
- Obata, Kazuko (2003). A Grammar of Bilua: a Papuan language of the Solomon Islands (PDF). Pacific Linguistics 540. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-540. hdl:1885/146708. ISBN 0-85883-531-2.
- Woodley, Ellen Joanne (2002). Local and indigenous knowledge as an emergent property of complexity: A case study in the Solomon Islands (PhD thesis). University of Guelph. S2CID 129399351.
Further reading
- Terrill, A (2011). Languages in Contact: An Exploration of Stability and Change in the Solomon Islands. Oceanic Linguistics. University of Hawai'i Press.
- Dunn, M., Reesink, G., & Terrill, A. (2002), "The East Papuan Languages: A Preliminary Typological Appraisal", Oceanic Linguistics, 41 (1): 28–62, doi:10.2307/3623327, hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1ADC-1, JSTOR 3623327
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Terrill, A. (2002), "Systems of Nominal Classification in East Papuan Languages", Oceanic Linguistics, 41 (1): 63–88, doi:10.2307/3623328, hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0013-189B-5, JSTOR 3623328
- Donohue, Mark, and Simon Musgrave (2007), "Typology and the Linguistic Macrohistory of Island Melanesia.", Oceanic Linguistics, 46 (2): 348–387, doi:10.1353/ol.2008.0011, S2CID 127188288
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "The Bilua Verb". Verbix Languages. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
- "Numerals". Numeral Systems of the World's Languages. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
External links
- Paradisec open access collection of recordings of Bilua.
- Bilua words 1 - 209, two texts
Word List
Texts 1 - 11
Texts 12 - 20
Texts 21 - 27
Texts 28 - 39
Texts 40 - 49
Texts 50 - 62
Texts 64 - 66
Texts 67 - 68
Texts 69 - 72
Conversation - The Endangered Language Project
- Bilua Grammar