Galela is the second most populous
Papuan language
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...
spoken west of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
, with some 80,000 speakers. Its dialects are Kadai (41,000), Morotai (24,000), Kadina (10,000), and Sopi (4,000). Its closest relative is the
Loloda language.
Galela is spoken on the eastern side of the northern tip of
Halmahera
Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coa ...
island (in
the Galela districts and in neighbouring villages in the Tobelo and Loloda districts), on
Morotai Island to the north, on the
Bacan and
Obi islands to the south of Halmahera, and in scattered settlements along the southwest coast. All are in
North Maluku
North Maluku (; ) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the south. It shares marit ...
province of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
.
Phonology
The following sound inventory is based on Shelden (1998).
Vowels
Galela has a simple five vowel system: , , , , .
Consonants
Galela orthography largely follows Indonesian spelling conventions. If orthography differs from IPA, the orthography is in .
Grammar
Pronouns
Galela has two free pronoun sets, and two sets of bound pronominal prefixes.
External links
* Materials on Galela are included in the open access Arthur Capell
Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages.
Early life
Capell was born in Newtown, New South W ...
collection
AC2
held by Paradisec.
References
Languages of Indonesia
North Halmahera languages
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