Savu languages

The Savu languages, Hawu and Dhao, are spoken on Savu and Ndao Islands in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

Classification

Cappell noted a large amount of non-Austronesian vocabulary and grammatical features in the Central [Malayo-Polynesian languages] of East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku, notably in Hawu. While he generally spoke of a non-Austronesian substratum, Hawu is so divergent from Austronesian norms that he classified it as a non-Austronesian language. He says,
However, it is now generally accepted that Savu is no more divergent than the other Central Malayo-Polynesian languages, all of which display a non-Austronesian component that defines Melanesian languages.

Phonology

The Savu languages have the same vowels and stress rules. They share implosive consonants with the Bima–Sumba languages and with languages of Flores and Sulawesi further north, such Wolio, and languages of Flores such as Ngad'a have rather similar lengthening of consonants after schwa. Dhao has the larger inventory, but even where the languages have the same consonants, there is often not a one-to-one correspondence. Apart from Hawu, Dhao is more conservative. Hawu *s, *c shifted to in historical times. Non-obvious correlations are:

Dhao	Hawu	example	gloss
tʃ	h	tʃaʔe ~ haʔe	climb
s	h	risi ~ rihi	more
h	h	həba ~ həɓa	mouth
h	v	hahi ~ vavi	pig
ɖʐ	d	maɖʐe ~ made	dead
d	ɗ	məda ~ məɗa	niɡht
ɗ	ɗ	loɗo	sun, day
bβ	b	bβəni ~ bəni	woman
b	ɓ	həba ~ həɓa	mouth
ɓ	ɓ	saɓa ~ haɓa	effort
#dʒ	#ʄ, #j	dʒaʔa ~ ʄaa/jaa	I, me
.dʒ	.dʒ	padʒuu ~ pedʒuu	command
ʄ	ʄ	aʄu	tree

For initial in Dhao, there is dialectical variation between and in Hawu. Most other consonants have a one-to-one correspondence, but a few are not well-enough attested to be certain.

Pronouns

Independent personal pronouns are similar.

	Dhao	Hawu
I	dʒaʔa	ʄaa
thou	əu	əu
s/he	nəŋu	noo
we	əɖʐi	dii
we	dʒiʔi	ʄii
y'all	miu	muu
they	rəŋu	raa

Parenthetical forms in Hawu are dialectical.