| Hawu | |
|---|---|
| Sabu | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈhavu] |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Lesser Sunda Islands |
Native speakers | (100,000 cited 1997)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | hvn |
| Glottolog | sabu1255 |
| ELP | Hawu |
 | |
| 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. | |
TheHawu language (Hawu:Lii Hawu) is the language of theSavu people ofSavu Island in Indonesia and ofRaijua Island off the western tip of Savu. Hawu has been referred to by a variety of names such asHavu,Savu, Sabu, Sawu, and is known to outsiders asSavu orSabu (thusHavunese, Savunese, Sawunese).[2][3] Hawu belongs to theMalayo-Polynesian branch of theAustronesian language family, and is most closely related toDhao (spoken on Rote) and the languages ofSumba.[4] Dhao was once considered a dialect of Hawu, but the two languages are notmutually intelligible.[5]
The Seba (Mèb'a in Hawu) dialect is dominant, covering most of Savu Island and the main city ofSeba. 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.[2]
The following description is based on Walker (1982) and Grimes (2006).
Hawu *s, attested during thePortuguese colonial era, hasdebuccalized to/h/, a change that has not happened in Dhao. The Hawu consonant inventory is smaller than that of Dhao:
| Labial | Apical | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Stop | Voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| Voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ɠ | ||
| Fricative | v~β | (s) | h | |||
| Liquid | l,r | |||||
| Approximant | (w) | (j) | ||||
Consonants of the/n/ column areapical, those of the/ɲ/ columnlaminal. In common orthography, the implosives are written⟨b', d', j', g'⟩.⟨w⟩ is pronounced[v],[β], or[w]. 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/iueəoa/, 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).
Implosives
Hawu sharesimplosive (or perhapspre-glottalized) consonants with several other languages of the Lesser Sundas, includingBimanese,Kambera,Komodo,Li'o,Ngad'a, andRiung. While these languages are somewhat geographically close, they are not necessarily closely related. Many belong to different high-order Austronesian subgroups. As a result, implosives seem to be an areal feature—perhaps motivated by language contact and the reduction of homorganic nasal clusters in some languages—as opposed to an innovated feature.[6]
Hawu, however, is the only language in the region with four implosives in its phonological inventory. All four implosives can occur both word-initially and intervocalically.[2]
The phonological history of Hawu is characterized by an unusual, but fully regular vowelmetathesis, which affects theProto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) vowel sequences *uCa/*uCə and *iCa/*iCə. The former changes intoəCu, the latter intoəCi, as illustrated in the following table.[7]
| 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 | black |
Hawu is anergative–absolutive language with ergative prepositionri (Seba dialect),ro (Dimu), orla (Raijua).[8] Clauses are usuallyverb-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.
In the absence of the ergative preposition, bivalent constructions have strict AVO word order.
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 theobject 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 verbnga'a 'to eat' tonga'e whenri is present.[9]
Ngaʔe
eat
ri
Haʔe
Hae
terae
sorghum
nane
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 asae dəu 'many people' (compare Dhaoɖʐəu 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 then forms withna; the neutral formna əne optionally contracting tonəne. 'Like this/that' is marked withmi ormi na, with then becomingh and the neutraləne form appearing irregularly asmi (na) həre.
Sample clauses (Grimes 2006). (Compare the Dhao equivalents atDhao language#Grammar.)
ta
nəru
walk
ke
?
Simo
(name)
oro
along
ŋidi
edge
dahi.
sea
ta nəru ke Simo oro ŋidi dahi.
NPST? walk ? (name) along edge sea
'Simo was walking along the edge of the sea.'
ta
nəru
walk
ke
(?)
roo
they
teruu
cont.
la
to
Həɓa.
Seba
ta nəru ke roo teruu la Həɓa.
NPST? walk (?) they cont. to Seba
'They kept walking to Seba.'
ta
la
go
əte
cut off
ke
(?)
ri
roo
they
ne
the
kətu
head
noo.
he/his
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
but
pe-made
noo
he
ri
roo.
they
tapulara pe-made noo ri roo.
but CAUS-die he ERG they
'But they killed him.'
ki
if/when
made
die
ama
father
noo,
he/his
ki made ama noo,
if/when die father he/his
'When his father dies,'
ɗai
very
təra
much
noo
he
ne
the
rui.
strong
ɗai təra noo ne rui.
very much he the strong
'He was incredibly strong.'
The Alan T. Walker Collection[10] contains a number of resources produced through Hawu language documentation, including audio recordings, handwritten field notes, and narrative texts. An accompanyingFinding Aid and Inventory[3] was created for the collection in order to more easily navigate its contents in thePARADISEC archive.
The "Results of Linguistic Fieldwork and Documentation Training Program in East Nusa Tenggara" collection, which is also archived with PARADISEC, contains audio recordings of Hawu conversations, narratives, elicitation, genealogies, and wordlists. Several are also accompanied by video files.[11]
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