Hawu language
The Hawu language, also known as Havu, historically Sawu, and known to outsiders as Savu or Sabu (thus Havunese, Savunese, Sawunese), is the language of the Savu people of Savu Island in Indonesia and of Raijua Island off the western tip of Savu. While past studies have suggested that Hawu may be a non-Austronesian (Papuan) language (See Savu languages for details.), the more-accepted classification is that it is a Central Malayo-Polynesian language that is most closely related to Dhao (spoken on Rote) and the languages of Sumba.[3] Dhao was once considered a dialect of Hawu, but the two languages are not mutually intelligible.[4]
| Hawu | |
|---|---|
| Sabu | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈhavu] |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Lesser Sunda Islands |
Native speakers | 110,000 (1997)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | hvn |
| Glottolog | sabu1255 |
| ELP | Hawu[2] |
 | |
The following description is based on Walker (1982) and Grimes (2006).
Dialects
The Seba (Mèb'a in Hawu) dialect is dominant, covering most of Savu Island and the main city of Seba. Timu (Dimu in Hawu) is spoken in the east, Mesara (Mehara in Hawu) in the west, and Liae on the southern tip of the island. Raijua is spoken on the island of the same name (Rai Jua 'Jua Island'), just off-shore to the west of Savu.[5]
Phonology
Hawu shares implosive (or perhaps pre-glottalized) consonants with the Bima–Sumba languages and languages of Flores and Sulawesi, such Wolio.
Hawu *s, attested during the Portuguese colonial era, has shifted to /h/, a change that has not happened in Dhao. The Hawu consonant inventory is smaller than that of Dhao:
| Lab. | Apic. | Lam. | Vel. | Glot. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Voiceless stop | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| Voiced stop | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ɠ | |
| Fricative | v~β | h | |||
| Approximant | l, r | (j) |
Consonants of the /n/ column are apical, those of the /ɲ/ column laminal. In common orthography, the implosives are written ⟨b', d', j', g'⟩. ⟨w⟩ is pronounced [v] or [β]. A wye sound /j/ (written ⟨y⟩) is found at the beginning of some words in Seba dialect where Timu and Raijua dialects have /ʄ/.
Vowels are /i u e ə o a/, with /ə/ written ⟨è⟩ in common orthography. Phonetic long vowels and diphthongs are vowel sequences. The penultimate syllable/vowel is stressed. (Every vowel constitutes a syllable.) A stressed schwa lengthens the following consonant:
/ŋa/ [ŋa] 'with', /niŋaa/ [niˈŋaː] 'what?', /ŋaʔa/ [ˈŋaʔa] 'eat, food', /ŋali/ [ˈŋali] 'senile', /ŋəlu/ [ˈŋəlːu] 'wind'.
Syllables are consonant-vowel (CV) or vowel-only (V).
Historical vowel metathesis
The phonological history of Hawu is characterized by an unusual, but fully regular vowel metathesis, which affects the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) vowel sequences *uCa/*uCə and *iCa/*iCə. The former changes into əCu, the latter into əCi, as illustrated in the following table.[6]
| PMP | Hawu | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| *buta | ɓədu | blind |
| *Rumaq | əmu | house |
| *um-utaq | mədu | to vomit |
| *qulun-an | nəlu | headrest |
| *ŋuda | ŋəru | young |
| *bulan | wəru | moon, month |
| *pusəj | əhu | navel |
| *kudən | əru | cooking pot |
| *lima | ləmi | five |
| *pija | əri | how many |
| *ma-qitəm | mədi | five |
Grammar
Hawu is an ergative–absolutive language with ergative preposition ri (Seba dialect), ro (Dimu), or la (Raijua).[4] Clauses are usually verb-initial. However, the presence of the ergative preposition allows for a freer word order. Among monovalent verbs, S may occur before or after the verb. According to speakers, there is no difference in meaning between the two following constructions.
| SV Word Order | |
|---|---|
| jaa | bəʔi |
| 1SG | sleep |
| 'I sleep.' | |
| VS Word Order | |
|---|---|
| bəʔi | jaa |
| sleep | 1SG |
| 'I sleep.' | |
In the absence of the ergative preposition, bivalent constructions have strict AVO word order.
| AVO Word Order | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Haʔe | ta | ngaʔa | terae |
| H. | NON.PST | eat | sorghum |
| 'Hae eats sorghum.' | |||
When the ergative preposition is present, word order becomes quite free. In addition, with the presence of the ergative preposition, many transitive verbs have a special form to indicate singular number of the object by replacing the final vowel of the verb with "-e" when the verb ends in /i/, /o/, or /a/ (e.g. ɓudʒu 'touch them', ɓudʒe 'touch it') or "-o" when the verb ends in /u/ (bəlu, bəlo 'to forget'). Verbs that end in /e/ have no alternation. The following examples (from the Seba dialect) present a few of the word order options available, and also show the alternation of the verb nga'a 'to eat' to nga'e when ri is present.[7]
| OVA Word Order | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Terae | ngaʔe | ri | Haʔe |
| sorghum | eat | ERG | H. |
| 'Hae eats sorghum.' | |||
| VAO Word Order | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ngaʔe | ri | Haʔe | terae | nane |
| eat | ERG | Hae | sorghum | DEM |
| 'Hae eats sorghum.' | ||||
Within noun phrases, modifiers usually follow the noun, though there are some possibly lexicalized exceptions, such as ae dəu 'many people' (compare Dhao ɖʐəu ae 'people many').
Apart from this, and unlike in Dhao, all pronominal reference uses independent pronouns. These are:
| I | Seba: jaa Dimu: ʄaa Raijua: ʄaa, dʒoo |
we (incl) | dii |
|---|---|---|---|
| we (excl) | ʄii | ||
| you (sg.) | əu, au, ou | you (pl.) | muu |
| s/he | noo | they | roo Raijua: naa |
The demonstratives are complex and poorly understood. They may be contrasted by number (see Walker 1982), but it is not confirmed by Grimes.
| just this | ɗii |
|---|---|
| this | nee |
| the | əne, ne |
| that | nəi |
| yon | nii |
These can be made locative (here, now, there, then, yonder) by preceding the n forms with na; the neutral form na əne optionally contracting to nəne. 'Like this/that' is marked with mi or mi na, with the n becoming h and the neutral əne form appearing irregularly as mi (na) həre.
Sample clauses (Grimes 2006). (Compare the Dhao equivalents at Dhao language#Grammar.)
ta nəru ke Simo oro ŋidi dahi. NPST? walk ? (name) along edge sea - 'Simo was walking along the edge of the sea.'
ta nəru ke roo teruu la Həɓa. NPST? walk (?) they cont. to Seba - 'They kept walking to Seba.'
ta la əte ke ri roo ne kətu noo. NPST? go cut.off (?) ERG they the head he/his - 'They went and cut off his head.'
tapulara pe-made noo ri roo. but CAUS-die he ERG they - 'But they killed him.'
ki made ama noo, if/when die father he/his - 'When his father dies,'
ɗai təra noo ne rui. very much he the strong - 'He was incredibly strong.'
Notes
- Hawu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Endangered Languages Project data for Hawu.
- Blust, Robert. "Is there a Bima-Sumba subgroup?". Oceanic Linguistics: 45–113.
- Grimes, Charles E. (2006). Hawu and Dhao in eastern Indonesia: revisiting their relationship (PDF). 10th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Puerto Princessa, Philippines, 17-20 January 2006.
- Walker 1982, pp. 1–2
- Blust, Robert (2012). "Hawu Vowel Metathesis". Oceanic Linguistics. 51 (1): 207–233. JSTOR 23321852.
- Walker, Alan (1982). A Grammar of Sawu. NUSA.
References
- Capell, Arthur (1975). "The "West Papuan Phylum": General, and Timor and Areas Further West". In Wurm, S.A. (ed.). New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study. volume 1: Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene. Canberra: Pacific Linguisticss, The Australian National University. pp. 667–716. doi:10.15144/PL-C38. hdl:1885/145150.
- Walker, Alan T. (1982). A Grammar of Sawu. NUSA Linguistic Studies in Indonesian and Languages of Indonesia, Volume 13. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa, Universitas Atma Jaya. hdl:1885/111434. ISSN 0126-2874.