Bilua language

Bilua is the most populous Papuan language spoken in the Solomon Islands. It is a Central Solomon language spoken by about 9,000 people on the island of Vella Lavella. It is one of the four Papuan non-Austronesian languages spoken in the Solomon Islands.

Classification

"Bilua is sometimes grouped with the other Central Solomons languages and beyond but closer inspection shows that a genealogical relation is not demonstrable ".

Phonology

The consonant and vowels sounds of Bilua.

Consonants

The voiced stops and affricate sounds /b d ɡ dʒ/ can occur as prenasalized allophones, when occurring intervocalically . Other consonant allophones include for /β dʒ/.

Vowels

Four vowel sounds /i u e o/ have allophones but only in diphthongs as .

Verb construction

Sample Verbs

Noun classification

Bilua has a masculine-feminine gender system with no neuter nouns. Truly males are always male and truly female are always female.