Saa language

Sa or Saa language is an Austronesian language spoken in southern Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. It had an estimated 2,500 speakers in the year 2000.

Dialects and range

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 is spoken on the west coast around Panas, Wali, Panngi and Ranputor.
An eastern dialect 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, characterised by the presence of an f sound, is spoken in the north of the Sa area, at St Henri and by some at Ran'gusuksu. It has close links with neighbouring Ske language and with Doltes, the extinct dialect of Hotwata village.
A southern dialect, notable for the widespread replacement of s with h, is spoken in Bay Martelli and Londar, and has close links with the languages of neighbouring Ambrym island.

The distinctive speech of villages such as Bunlap, Bay Barrier and Wanur appears to comprise mixtures of neighbouring dialects.
People in southern Pentecost remember the existence of additional dialects that are now extinct.

Phonology

The consonants of Sa include b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng, p, r, s, t, and w. In most dialects there is also j, which is apparently an allophone of t found before the vowels i and u although speakers regard it separately. Most speakers also use labiovelar bw, mw and pw, although from some speakers of outlying dialects these are indistinguishable from normal b, m and p. In addition to these consonants, the northern dialect has a bilabial f. In this dialect s may be pronounced like English sh.
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 standard vowels, certain authors have proposed that Sa has additional mid-high vowels ê and ô. 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 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.

	Front	Central	Back
High
Mid-High
Mid
Low

Grammar

Basic word order in Sa is subject–verb–object.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are distinguished by person and number. They are not distinguished by gender. With one exception, subject and object pronouns are identical.
The singular and plural pronouns are as follows:
In addition, there are dual pronouns, which incorporate the particle kô, and paucal pronouns, which incorporate the particle têl or pat.

Nouns

Nouns in Sa are not preceded by articles. Plurality is indicated by placing the pronoun êr or a number after the noun.
Nouns may be either free, or directly possessed. Directly possessed nouns are followed either by a suffix or a noun indicating whom an item belongs to. For example:
The possessive suffixes are as follows:
Possession may also be indicated by the use of the word na- "of", followed either by a possessive suffix or the name of the possessor:
A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of a nominalising suffix -an:
Modifiers generally come after a noun:

Verbs

Verbs in Sa are usually preceded by verb markers indicating the tense, aspect and mood of the action.
In positive statements the marker is typically m-, ma-, mwa-, me- or a variant. Past and present tense are not explicitly distinguished:
In negative statements this marker is replaced with taa- or a variant:
These markers may be combined with a future marker t or te:
In the imperative, the future marker occurs without any other marker:
Hypothetical statements include a particle po:
Completed actions are indicated using tê:
The subject can be omitted from a sentence, as in the second example below:
Transitive and intransitive verb forms are distinguished, with transitive verbs often followed by nê:
Verbs in Sa can be linked together in a variety of serial verb constructions.

Sample phrases

English	Sa - central dialects	Sa - northern dialect	Sa - southern dialect
Where are you going?	O metea bê?	O mfa be?	O metea be?
I'm going to...	Nê metea...	Nê mfa...	Nê metea...
Where have you come from?	O mamra bê?	O mamra be?	O mamra be?
I've come from...	Nê mamra...	Nê mamra...	Nê mamra...
What's your name?	Sêm be sê?	Sêm be sê?	Hêm be hê?
My name is...	Sêk be...	Sêk be...	Hêk be...
How much? / How many?	Beês?	Befês?	Beêh?
one	su	s^huf	hu
two	ru	ru	ru
three	têl	jil	têl
four	êt	fêt	êt
five	lim	lim	lim
It's just fine	I mbetô nga	I mbetô nga	I mbetu nga