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| Santa Cruz | |
|---|---|
| |
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Region | Santa Cruz Islands, Eastern Solomons. |
Native speakers | 5,000 (2012)[1]: 100 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:ntu – Natügunpx – Noipx (Noipä) |
| Glottolog | natu1246 |
| Coordinates:10°44′06″S165°49′43″E / 10.73500°S 165.82861°E /-10.73500; 165.82861 | |
Natügu (locally spelledNatqgu), formerly known asSanta Cruz, is the main language spoken on the island ofNendö or 'Santa Cruz', in theSolomon Islands. It is one of the three languages of that island, together withNalögo andNanggu.
The nameNatügu (new orth.Natqgu) comes fromnatq-gu[natʉᵑgu], literally "our language" – fromnatq "language, word" +-gu "1st + 2nd person augmented enclitic").
Until the beginning of the 21st century, it was widely believed that Natügu was aPapuan language. In the 2000s however, it was shown to be a member of theAustronesian language family, like the rest of theReefs – Santa Cruz languages.[2]
Dialects of Natügu are Bënwë (Banua), Londai, Malo. Speakers of most dialects understand Lwowa and Mbanua well.
Nalögo, once considered a dialect of Natügu, is now recognised as a separate language.[1]
Natügu has 14 consonant phonemes.[1]: 112 They are indicated here, with the orthography in⟨angled brackets⟩:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p⟨p⟩ | t⟨t⟩ | k⟨k⟩ | ||
| prenasalised | ᵐb⟨b⟩ | ⁿd⟨d⟩ | ᵑɡ⟨g⟩ | |||
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ŋ⟨ng⟩ | |||
| Fricative | v⟨v⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | w⟨w⟩ | |||
Prenasalized stops can optionally be realized as plain voiced consonants.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ʉ | u |
| Close-mid | e | ɵ | o |
| Near-open | æ | ə | ɔ |
| Open | a |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ũ | ||
| Close-mid | ẽ | ɵ̃ | õ |
| Near-open | æ̃ | ə̃ | ɔ̃ |
| Open | ã |
The Natügu language has two orthographies. The old orthography uses diacritics to mark vowel quality and nasalization while the new orthography uses no diacritics. The new orthography was developed in 1994, motivated by concerns about the difficulty of reading and typesetting the old orthography.[4][5][6]
| Grapheme | Phoneme |
|---|---|
| b | /b/ |
| d | /d/ |
| g | /ɡ/ |
| h[a] | — |
| j[b] | /dʒ/ |
| k | /k/ |
| l | /l/ |
| m | /m/ |
| n | /n/ |
| p | /p/ |
| s | /s/ |
| t | /t/ |
| v | /β/ |
| w | /w/ |
| y | /j/ |
| Grapheme (old) | Grapheme (new) | Phoneme |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | /a/ |
| e | e | /e/ |
| i | i | /i/ |
| o | o | /o/ |
| u | u | /u/ |
| â[c] | c | /ɔ/ |
| ü | q | /ʉ/ |
| ö | r[d] | /ɵ/ |
| ä | x | /æ/ |
| ë | z | /ə/ |
| ◌̃ | ◌' | /◌̃/ |
In the old orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a tilde over the vowel letter. In the new orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a straight apostrophe after the vowel letter.
Natügu has two sets of person and numberenclitics: Set I is used to indicate subjects and third-person objects; Set II replaces Set I when marking subjects following peripheral applicatives and in passive clauses. Set II is also used for possessive constructions and free pronouns. Natügu pronouns have aminimal/augmented number system and fourgrammatical persons: first person, first and second person ("you and I"), second person, and third person.[4]
| Person | Set I | Set II |
|---|---|---|
| 1st minimal | =x | =nge |
| 1st+2nd minimal | =ki | =gi |
| 2nd minimal | =u | =m(q) |
| 3rd minimal | =le | =de |
| 1st augmented | =kr | =gr |
| 1st+2nd augmented | =ku | =gu |
| 2nd augmented | =amu | =mu |
| 3rd augmented | =lr, =ng(q) | =dr, =ng(q) |
Natügu categorisesnouns in four ways:[4]
