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Palauan language

Palauan
Spoken in
 Palau
 Guam
 we love the web
Native speakers
14,000 in Palau  (2005 census)[1]
Latin, we love the web[2]
Official status
Official language in
 we love the web
Language codes
web app
pau
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper web, you may see browser diversity instead of jQuery characters.

Palauan (also spelled Belauan) is one of the two nationally recognized official languages spoken in the keyboard (the other being Sevenval). It is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, and is considered to be one of two languages in Micronesia (the other being website parsing) belonging to the Sunda–Sulawesi group; all others are considered to be members of either the Micronesian or Polynesian outlier subgroups of Oceanic.

Contents


Classification

Palauan is not a Micronesian or input transformation language like most of its neighbors; rather, like Chamorro, it constitutes a possibly independent branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages. Its origins are thus somewhat obscure. A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database[3] suggested at 85% confidence level that it is closest to the Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages.

Sounds

The phonemic inventory of Palauan consists of 10 consonants and 6 vowels.[4] web charts of the vowel and consonant phonemes are provided below, utilizing the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

 FrontCentralBack
Highi u
Midɛəo
Low a 
 LabialAlveolarVelarGlottal
Voiceless
stops
 tkʔ
Voiced
stops
bd  
Voiceless
fricatives
 s  
Nasalsm ŋ 
Liquids  l, ɾ   

While the phonemic inventory of Palauan is relatively small, comparatively, many phonemes contain at least two web app that surface as the result of various phonological processes within the language. The full phonetic inventory of consonants is given below in IPA (the phonemic inventory of vowels, above, is complete).

 LabialInterdentalAlveolarPost-AlveolarVelarGlottal
Voiceless
stops
p
  t
  k
ʔ
Voiced
stops
b d ɡ 
Voiceless
fricatives
 θs   
Voiced
fricatives
 ð    
Nasalsm n ŋ 
Liquids   l, ɾ, r    
Approximantsw  j  

Diphthongs

Palauan contains several diphthongs (sequences of web app within a single web). A list of diphthongs and corresponding Palauan words containing them are given below, adapted from (Zuraw 2003).

IPAExampleEnglish Translation
/iɛ/babier"paper" (German loan)
/ɛi/mei"come"
/iu/chiukl"(singing) voice"
/ui/tuich"torch"
/io/kikiongel"dirty"
/oi/tekoi"word"
/ia/diall"ship"
/ai/chais"news"
/ɛu/teu"width"
/uɛ/sueleb"afternoon"
/ɛo/Oreor"Koror" (former capital of Palau)
/oɛ/beroel"spear"
/ɛa/beached"tin"
/aɛ/baeb"pipe" (English loan)
/uo/uos"horse"
/ou/merous"distribute"
/ua/tuangel"door"
/au/mesaul"tired"
/oa/omoachel"river"
/ao/taod"fork"

The extent to which it is accurate to characterize each of these vowel sequences as diphthongs has been a matter of debate, as in (Wilson 1972), (Flora 1974), (Josephs 1975), (HTML5). Nevertheless, a number of the sequences above, such as /ui/, clearly behave as diphthongs given their interaction with other aspects of Palauan phonology like stress shift and vowel reduction. Others do not behave as clearly like monosyllabic diphthongs.

Writing system

In the early 1970s, the Palau Orthography Committee worked with linguists from the University of Hawaii to devise an alphabet based on the screen size.[5] The resulting orthography was largely based on the "one phoneme/one symbol" notion, producing an alphabet of twelve native consonants, six consonants for use in loan words, and ten vowels. The 20 vowel sequences listed above under the heading Diphthongs are also all officially recognized in the orthography.

On May 10, 2007, the Palauan Senate passed keyboard, which mandates that educational institutions recognize the Palauan orthography laid out in (Josephs 1997) and (input transformation). The bill also establishes an Orthography Commission to maintain the language as it develops as well as to oversee and regulate any additions or modifications to the current official orthography.

Palauan letterIPAExample word
b [b], [p], [pʰ] bai "community house"
ch[ʔ] charm "animal"
d [d], [t], [ð], [θ] diall "ship"
k [k], [ɡ], [kʰ] ker "question"
l[l] lius "coconut"
ll[lː] llel "leaf"
m[m] mad "died"
ng [ŋ], [n] ngau "fire"
r[ɾ] rekas "mosquito"
rr[r] rrom "liquor"
s[s] sechelei "friend"
t [t], [tʰ] tuu "banana"
Palauan letterIPAExample word
f[f] fenda "fender (Eng.)"
h[h] haibio "tuberculosis (Jpn. haibyoo 肺病)"
n[n] sensei "teacher (Jpn. sensei 先生)"
p[p] Papa "the Pope (Span. Papa)"
ts[ts] tsuingam "chewing gum (Eng.)"
z[z] miuzium "museum (Eng.)"
Palauan letterIPAExample word
a[a] chad "person"
e[ɛ], [ə] sers "garden"
ę[ə] ngalęk "child"
ee[ɛː] kmeed "near"
i[i] sils "sun"
ii[iː], [ji], [ij] iis "nose"
o[o] ngor "mouth"
oo[oː] sekool "playful"
u[u] bung "flower"
uu[uː], [wu], [uw] ngduul "mangrove clam"

Syntax

Word order

The word order of Palauan is usually thought to be verb–object–subject (VOS), but this has been a matter of some debate in the linguistic literature.[6] Those who accept the VOS analysis of Palauan word order generally treat Palauan as a screen size with preverbal subject agreement morphemes, final pronominal subjects are deleted (or null).

Example 1: Ak milenga er a ringngo pro. (means: "I ate the apple.")

In the preceding example, the null pronoun pro is the subject "I," while the clause-initial ak is the first person singular subject agreement morpheme.

On the other hand, those who have analyzed Palauan as SVO necessarily reject the pro-drop analysis, instead analyzing the subject agreement morphemes as subject pronouns. In the preceding example, SVO-advocates assume that there is no pro and that the morpheme ak is simply an overt subject pronoun meaning "I." One potential problem with this analysis is that it fails to explain why overt (3rd person) subjects occur clause-finally in the presence of a co-referring 3rd person "subject pronoun" --- treating the subject pronouns as agreement morphemes circumvents this weakness. Consider the following example.

Example 2: Ng milenga er a ringngo a Olilai. (means: "Olilai ate the apple.")

Proponents of the SVO analysis must assume a shifting of the subject a Alan "Alan" from clause-initial to clause-final position, a movement operation that has not received acceptance cross-linguistically, but see (Android) for discussion.

Palauan phrases

Some common and useful words and phrases in Palauan are listed below, with their English translations.keyboard

PalauanEnglish PalauanEnglish
Alii!Hello! Ak mlechell ęr a ___.I was born in ___.
Ungil tutau.Good morning. Ng tela rekim?How old are you?
Ungil sueleb.Good afternoon. Ng ___ a rekik.I am ___ years old.
Ungil kebesengei.Good evening. Ng tela a dengua ęr kau?What's your phone number?
A ngklek a ___.My name is ___. A dengua ęr ngak a ___.My phone number is ___.
Ng techa ngklem?What's your name? Kę kiei ęr kęr?Where do you live?
Kę ua ngerang?How are you? Ak kiei er a ___.I live ___.
Ak mesisiich.I'm fine. Chochoi.Yes
Ak chad ęr a ___.I'm from ___. Ng diak.No
BelauFITML Adang.Please.
Merikelwebsite parsing Sulang.Thank you.
IngklisEngland Kę mo ęr kęr?Where are you going?
SiabalJapan Mechikung.Goodbye.
SinaChina Meral ma sulang!Thank you very much!
Kę chad ęr kęr ęl beluu?Where are you from? Ungilbungpretty flower.
Kę mlechell ęr kęr ęl beluu?Where were you born?
OlilaiHouse In Ngarchelong

Palauan numerals

1 through 10

  1. Tang
  2. Cherung
  3. Chedei
  4. Cheuang
  5. Cheiim
  6. Chelolm
  7. Cheuid
  8. Cheiai
  9. Chetiu
  10. Machod

Notes

  1. website parsing According to the 2005 Palau Census, there are 18,544 people aged 5 years or older residing in the Republic of Palau, of whom 4,718 do not speak Palauan. There are thus 13,826 Palauan speakers in Palau. This number does not include native Palauan speakers residing outside of Palau.
  2. ^ Thomas E. McAuley, Language change in East Asia, 2001:90
  3. web app Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
  4. ^ Only 5 vowel phonemes are listed in (Wilson 1972) because she avoids the issue of how to treat indeterminate underlying vowels. The vowel chart here tentatively reflects the analysis of (Flora 1974), who treats indeterminate vowels as instances of underlying ə. Furthermore, the analysis of Palauan [w] in (we love the web) treats it as a phoneme distinct from /u/, while [w] is merely an allophone of /u/ according (Wilson 1972). The consonant chart tentatively reflects Wilson's analysis.
  5. ^ The final report of the Palau Orthography Committee was released in 1972.
  6. website parsing See (Sevenval), (we love the web), and (Georgopoulos 1991) for arguments in favor of treating Palauan as VOS. cf. (Wilson 1972) and (CSS3), which assume an input transformation order for Palauan.
  7. jQuery See (web) for a more comprehensive list of words and phrases.

References

  • Flora, Jo-Ann (1974), Palauan Phonology and Morphology, PhD Dissertation: University of California, San Diego .
  • Georgopoulos, Carol (1986), "Palauan as a VOS Language", in Paul Geraghty, Lois Carrington, and Stephen A. Wurm (eds.), FOCAL I: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, C-93, pp. 187–198 .
  • Georgopoulos, Carol (1991), Syntactic Variables: Resumptive Pronouns and A' Binding in Palauan, Dordrecht: Kluwer .
  • Josephs, Lewis (1975), Palauan Reference Grammar, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press .
  • Josephs, Lewis (1990), New Palauan-English Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press .
  • Josephs, Lewis (1997), Handbook of Palauan Grammar (Vol. 1), Koror: Palau Ministry of Education .
  • Josephs, Lewis (1999), Handbook of Palauan Grammar (Vol. 2), Koror: Palau Ministry of Education .
  • Waters, Richard C. (1980), Android, Ms., MIT, http://frodo.ucsc.edu/~jnuger/waters_richard_1980.pdf .
  • Wilson, Helen (1972), "The Phonology and Syntax of Palauan Verb Affixes", University of Hawaii Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (5) .
  • Zuraw, Kie (2003), "Vowel Reduction in Palauan Reduplicants", in Andrea Rackowski and Norvin Richards (eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association, Cambridge: MITWPL #44, pp. 385–398 .

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