| Gela | |
|---|---|
| Nggela | |
| Native to | CentralSolomon Islands |
| Region | Big Nggela, Small Nggela, Sandfly and Buenavista Islands |
Native speakers | (12,000 cited 1999)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nlg |
| Glottolog | gela1263 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Gela (English:/ˈɡeɪlɑː/GAY-lah), also known asNggela[ᵑgela][2] and formerly asFlorida,[3] is anOceanic language spoken in theNggela Islands, in the middle of theSolomon Islands. It belongs to theSoutheast Solomonic group of theOceanic family.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Gela was used by theMelanesian Mission of theAnglican Church of Melanesia, as a language of Christianisation[4] ‒ along withMota, a language of theBanks islands of northernVanuatu. The first translation of thescriptures in Gela was published in 1882.[3]
The threedialects of Gela are very similar, differing mainly on a small number of phonological points.
Gela has the following consonant phonemes:
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Stop | p | b | t | d | k | g |
| Fricative | v | s | z | ɣ | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
The fricative /z/ is realized as [ð] in alternation with a retroflex sibilant [ʐ], initially before /a/.[5]
The Gela dominant voiced is "h" not "z". "Z" is found in Savosavo language speakers (and Bugotu and part of Guadalcanal) who also speak Gela - primarily due to their use of the Church of Melanesia Common Prayer Books and Hymns (written in Gela in the 1940s).
Gela uses/i,e,a,o,u/ with no contrastive vowel length.
Stress generally occurs on each word's penultimate syllable.
In general, for two-digit numbers, numbers are expressed as a*10+b, where a and b are numbers ranging from 1 to 9.