Sahu language

Sahu is a North Halmahera language. Use is vigorous; dialects are Pa’disua, Tala’i, Waioli, and Gamkonora. A fifth dialect, Ibu, used to be spoken near the mouth of the Ibu River. Ethnologue considers Waioli and Gamkonora to be separate languages.
Sahu has many Ternate loanwords, a historical legacy of the dominance of the Ternate Sultanate in the Moluccas.

Phonology

Source:
Sahu, like other North Halmahera languages, is not a tonal language.

Consonants

When preceding /a/, /o/, and /u/, the consonants /d/, /ɗ/, and /l/ become retroflex. The trill /r/ alternates freely with, but, according to Visser and Voorhoeve, is the more usual allophone. The glottal /h/ may be realized as by educated speakers for certain words deriving from Arabic.

Vowels

The phoneme /ə/ is only found in loans.