The Dhao language, better known to outsiders by its Rotinese name Ndao (Ndaonese, Ndaundau), is the language of

Ndao Island , Rai Dhao , image_name = Ndao.PNG , image_caption = Satellite view of Ndao Island , image_size = , locator_map = , map_caption = , locator_ ...

in Indonesia. Traditionally classified as a Sumba language in the Austronesian family, it may actually be a non-Austronesian ( Papuan) language. It was once considered a dialect of Hawu, but is not mutually intelligible.

Phonology

Dhao phonology is similar to that of Hawu, but somewhat more complex in its consonants. Consonants of the column are

apical Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to: *Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology) *Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...

, those of the column

laminal A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...

. are found in Malay loan words. In a practical orthography developed for writing the language, implosives are written , the affricates (the ''dh'' is slightly

retroflex A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...

), and the voiced glottal onset as a double vowel. The is sometimes silent, but contrasts with a glottal stop onset in vowel-initial words within a phrase. Its phonemic status is not clear. It has an "extremely limited distribution", linking

noun phrase In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...

s ( 'small', 'small child') and clauses ( 'and', 'also'). Vowels are , with written . Phonetic long vowels and diphthongs are vowel sequences. The penultimate syllable/vowel is stressed. (Every vowel constitutes a syllable.) 'this. ', 'this', 'thinking', 'senile', 'wind'. A stressed schwa lengthens the following consonant: 'yesterday', 'night'. Syllables are consonant-vowel or vowel-only. f, q, v, w, x, y and z are only used in loanwords and foreign names.

Grammar

Dhao has a nominative–accusative subject–verb–object word order, unlike Hawu. Within noun phrases, modifiers follow the noun. There are a set of independent pronouns, and also a set of pronominal clitics. When the clitics are used for objects, there are proximal forms in the third person, ' 'this one' and ' 'these', the latter also for collective plurals. When used for subjects and the verb begins with a vowel, they drop their vowel with a few irregularities: ' 'to know'. Many words that translate prepositions in English are verbs in Dhao, and inflect as such. Dhao also has a single ' intradirective' verb, ' 'to go', in which the clitics follow: ' or ' () ''.'' Demonstratives distinguish proximal (here, now, this), distal (there, then, that), and remote (yonder, yon). Sample clauses ().Compare the Hawu equivalents at Hawu language#Grammar.

Notes

References

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External links

Alphabet and pronunciation
{{Languages of Indonesia Savu languages Languages of Indonesia