Saa
Native to	Vanuatu
Region	Pentecost Island
Native speakers	2,500 (2001)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic North-Central Vanuatu Central Vanuatu Saa
Dialects	Ponorwal Lolatavola Ninebulo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sax
Glottolog	saaa1241
Sa is not endangered according to the classification system of theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Sa orSaa language is anAustronesian language spoken in southernPentecost Island,Vanuatu. It had an estimated 2,500 speakers in the year 2000.

Sa has numerous dialects, with no well-established names or boundaries. At a meeting in 2008, speakers recognised four main dialects, with sub-dialectal variation and mixing of dialects in some areas.

The two central dialects are relatively similar to one another and are generally understood by all Sa speakers. Most writing and research in Sa has been in one of these dialects:

• A western dialect ("Saa" with a longa) is spoken on the west coast around Panas, Wali, Panngi and Ranputor.
• An eastern dialect ("Sa" with a shorta) is spoken in the south-east around Ranwas. A variant of this dialect with longer vowels in certain words is spoken at Poinkros in the far south, and is used in the Bible Society's recent Gospel translations.

There are also two outlying dialects, which are highly distinctive and difficult for speakers of other dialects to understand:

• A northern dialect ("F dialect"), characterised by the presence of anf sound, is spoken in the north of the Sa area, at St Henri (Fatsare) and by some at Ran'gusuksu. It has close links with neighbouringSke language and with Doltes, the extinct dialect of Hotwata village.
• A southern dialect ("Ha"), notable for the widespread replacement ofs withh, is spoken in Bay Martelli (Harop) and Londar, and has close links with the languages of neighbouringAmbrym island.

The distinctive speech of villages such asBunlap, Bay Barrier (Ranon) and Wanur appears to comprise mixtures of neighbouring dialects.

People in southern Pentecost remember the existence of additional dialects that are now extinct.

Theconsonants of Sa includeb,d,g,h,k,l,m,n,ng (as in English "singer"),p,r,s,t, andw. In most dialects there is alsoj (occasionally written "ts"), which is apparently anallophone oft found before the vowelsi andu although speakers regard it separately. Most speakers also use labiovelarbw,mw andpw, although from some speakers of outlying dialects these are indistinguishable from normalb,m andp. In addition to these consonants, the northern dialect has a bilabialf. In this dialects may be pronounced like Englishsh.

As a general rule, clusters of consonants do not occur within a syllable. Word roots may begin with a pair of consonants, but in speech the first of these consonants is usually either dropped or attached to the final syllable of the preceding word.

In addition to the five standardvowels (a,e,i,o andu), certain authors^[who?] have proposed that Sa has additional mid-high vowelsê (intermediate betweene andi) andô (intermediate betweeno andu). Not all authors have recognised these extra vowels, but they have been accepted by local teachers of vernacular literacy and are used in the Bible Society's recent Gospel translations. Vowels are distinguished for length, with long vowels (aa,ee, etc.) often occurring where a consonant has historically been lost. Vowels can occur alone or in various combinations.

Stress is normally on the penultimate syllable of a word. However, syllables that end with a consonant or a long vowel take stress in precedence to other syllables.

Basic word order in Sa issubject–verb–object.

Personal pronouns are distinguished byperson andnumber. They are not distinguished bygender. With one exception, subject and object pronouns are identical.

The singular and plural pronouns are as follows:

In addition, there aredual pronouns (referring to two people), which incorporate the particlekô, andpaucal pronouns (referring to a small number of people), which incorporate the particletêl orpat.

Nouns in Sa are not preceded byarticles.Plurality is indicated by placing the pronounêr ("them") or a number after the noun.

Nouns may be eitherfree, ordirectly possessed. Directly possessed nouns are followed either by a suffix or a noun indicating whom an item belongs to. For example:

sêk = my name

sêm = your name

sên = his/her name

sê temak = my father's name

The possessive suffixes are as follows:

Possession may also be indicated by the use of the wordna- "of" (ora- in the case of food items), followed either by a possessive suffix or the name of the possessor:

nak ôl = my coconut (belonging)

nam ôl = your coconut (belonging)

nan ôl = his/her coconut (belonging)

ôl na selak = my brother's coconut (belonging)

ak ôl = my coconut (to eat)

am ôl = your coconut (to eat)

an ôl = his/her coconut (to eat)

ôl natê = coconut for it (association)

A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of anominalising suffix-an:

wêl = to dance (verb)

wêlan = a dance (noun)

Modifiers generally come after a noun:

ere = village

ere lêp = big village

Verbs in Sa are usually (though not always) preceded by verb markers indicating thetense,aspect andmood of the action.

In positive statements the marker is typicallym-,ma-,mwa-,me- or a variant (depending on the dialect, the verb and the environment). Past and present tense are not explicitly distinguished:

nêmlos = I bathe / I bathed

nêmarngo = I hear / I heard

Innegative statements this marker is replaced withtaa- or a variant:

nêtaalos = I don't bathe / I didn't bathe

nêtaarngo = I don't hear / I didn't hear

These markers may be combined with a future markert orte:

nê met los = I will bathe

nê meterngo = I will hear

nê taat los = I won't bathe

nê taaterngo = I won't hear

In theimperative, the future marker occurs without any other marker:

Otlos! = [You] bathe!

Oterngo! = [You] listen!

Hypothetical statements include a particlepo:

nê metpo los = I should bathe

Completed actions are indicated usingtê:

nê mlostê = I bathed already

The subject can be omitted from a sentence, as in the second example below:

i meterngo = he will hear it

meterngo = it will be heard

Transitive and intransitive verb forms are distinguished, withtransitive verbs often followed bynê:

êr rôs = they move

êr rôsnê at = they move the stone

Verbs in Sa can be linked together in a variety ofserial verb constructions.

• Crowley, Terry. 2000. The language situation in Vanuatu.Current Issues in Language Planning. Vol 1, No 1.
• Gray, Andrew. 2012.The Languages of Pentecost Island. British Friends of Vanuatu Society.
• Lynch, John and Crowley, Terry. 2001.Languages of Vanuatu: A New Survey and Bibliography. Pacific Linguistics. Canberra: Australian National University.

• The Languages of Pentecost Island - further information on Sa
• Article on Bible translation into Saa
• ELAR archive ofA preliminary audiovisual documentation of Ha
• Paradisec hasa number of collections with Saa materials, including two collections fromArthur Cappell.

• Languages of Vanuatu
• Penama languages

• Pages containing links to subscription-only content
• Language articles citing Ethnologue 18
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases
• Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from May 2024