Nauruan has 16–17consonantphonemes. Nauruan makes phonemic contrasts between velarized and palatalized labial consonants. Velarization is not apparent before long back vowels and palatalization is not apparent before non-low front vowels.[6]
Voiceless stops aregeminated and nasals also contrast in length.[9] Dental stops/t/ and/d/ become[tʃ] and[dʒ] respectively before high front vowels.[10]
The approximants become fricatives in "emphatic pronunciation".Nathan (1974) transcribes them as ⟨j⟩ and ⟨w⟩ but also remarks that they contrast with the non-syllabic allophones of the high vowels./w/ can also be heard as a fricative[ɣʷ].
Depending on stress,/r/ may be a flap or a trill. The precise phonetic nature of/rʲ/ is unknown.Nathan (1974) transcribes it as ⟨r̵⟩ and speculates that it may pattern like palatalized consonants and be partially devoiced.
Between a vowel and word-final/mˠ/, an epenthetic[b] appears.[6]
There are 12 phonemic vowels (six long, six short). In addition to the allophony in the following table fromNathan (1974), a number of vowels reduce to[ə]:[7]
Phoneme
Allophones
Phoneme
Allophones
/ii/
[iː]
/uu/
[ɨː~uː]
/i/
[ɪ~ɨ]
/u/
[ɨ~u]
/ee/
[eː~ɛː]
/oo/
[oː~ʌ(ː)~ɔ(ː)]
/e/
[ɛ~ʌ]
/o/
[ʌ]
/aa/
[æː]
/ɑɑ/
[ɑː]
/a/
[æ~ɑ]
/ɑ/
[ɑ~ʌ]
Non-open vowels (that is, all but/aa/,/a/,/ɑɑ//ɑ/) become non-syllabic when preceding another vowel, as in/e-oeeoun/ →[ɛ̃õ̯ɛ̃õ̯ʊn] ('hide').[11]
Stress is on the penultimate syllable when the final syllable ends in a vowel, on the last syllable when it ends in a consonant, and initial with reduplications.[7]
Twelveconsonants: b, d, g, j, k, m, n, p, q, r, t, w
The letters c, f, h, l, s, v, x, y, and z were not included. With the growing influence of foreign languages, in particularGerman,English,Gilbertese, and part of thePama-Nyungan family, more letters were incorporated into the Nauruan alphabet. In addition, phonetic differences of a few vowels arose, so thatumlauts and other similar sounds were indicated with atilde.[citation needed]
In 1938, there was an attempt by the Nauruan language committee andTimothy Detudamo to make the language easier to read for Europeans and Americans. It was intended to introduce as manydiacritical symbols as possible for the different vowel sounds to state the variety of the Nauruan language[clarification needed] in writing. It was decided to introduce only acircumflex accent in the place of the formertilde, so that the characters "õ" and "ũ" were replaced by "ô" and "û". The "ã" was replaced with "e".
Also, "y" was introduced in order to differentiate words with the English "j" (puji). Thus, words likeijeiji were changed toiyeyi. In addition, "ñ" (which represented thevelar nasal) was replaced with "ng", to avoid confusion with theSpanishÑ. "bu" and "qu" were replaced with "bw" and "kw", respectively. "ts" was replaced with "j" (since it represented a sound similar to the English "j"); and the "w" written at the end of words was dropped.
These reforms were only partly carried out: the symbols "õ" and "ũ" are still written as such, with tildes. However, the letters "ã" and "ñ" are now only seldom used, being replaced with "e" and "ng", as prescribed by the reform. Likewise, use of the digraphs "bw" and "kw" has been implemented. Although "j" took the place of "ts", certain spellings still use "ts": e.g., the districtsBaiti andIjuw (according to the reformBeiji andIyu) are still written with the old writing conventions. The "y" has become generally accepted.
Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z
The relationship of the above letters and phonemes is:[12][better source needed] a [ɑ/a], ã [ɛ], e [e/e̞/ɛ], i [i/ɪ/ɨ], o [o/ɔ], õ [ø], u [ʊ/ʉ], ũ [y], b [b], bw [bʷ], c [k/s], d [d], di [d͡ʒi], f [f], g [ɡ], gw [ɡʷ], h [h], j [d͡ʒ], k [k], kw [kʷ], nng [ŋː], l [l], m [m], n [n], ñ [ŋ], p [p], qu [kʷ], r [ɾ/r], s [s], t [t], ti [t͡ʃi], ts [t͡ʃ], v [f/v], w [w/ɣ], x [ks], y [j/ʝ], z [z].
According to a report published in 1937 inSydney, Australia, there was a diversity of dialects until Nauru became a colony ofGermany in 1888 and the first texts in Nauruan began to be published. The varieties were so divergent that people from differentdistricts often had problems understanding each other completely. With the increasing influence of foreign languages and the rise in the number of Nauruan texts, the dialects blended into a standardized language, which was promoted through dictionaries and translations byAlois Kayser andPhilip Delaporte.
Today there is significantly less dialectal variation. In the district ofYaren and the surrounding area there is an eponymous dialect spoken, which is only slightly different from other varieties.
In 1907,Philip Delaporte published his pocket German-Nauruandictionary.[1] The dictionary is small (10.5 × 14 cm), with 65 pages devoted to the glossary and an additional dozen to phrases, arranged alphabetically by theGerman. Approximately 1650 German words areglossed in Nauruan, often by phrases or synonymous forms. There are some 1300 'unique' Nauruan forms in the glosses, including all those occurring in phrases, ignoringdiacritical marks. The accents used there are not common; just one accent (thetilde) is in use today.
Nathan, Geoffrey S. (1974), "Nauruan in the Austronesian Language Family",Oceanic Linguistics,12 (1/2), University of Hawai'i Press:479–501,doi:10.2307/3622864,JSTOR3622864
