Fordata (Vai Fordata, Vai Tnebar) is an Austronesian language spoken in the Tanimbar Islands of the Moluccas. It is closely related to Kei, and more distantly to Yamdena, both also spoken in the Tanimbar Islands.[2]
Fordata | |
---|---|
Vaidida | |
Native to | Indonesia |
Region | Tanimbar Islands |
Native speakers | 50,000 (2000)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | frd |
Glottolog | ford1242 |
Phonology
editConsonants
editLabial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | |||
Plosive | voiceless | t̪ | k | ʔ ⟨'⟩ | ||
voiced | b | d | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | ||
voiced | v | |||||
Lateral | l | |||||
Trill | r | |||||
Semivowel | w | j ⟨y⟩ |
- Glottal sounds /h ʔ/ only occur intervocalically.
- /v/ can often be heard as [w] among younger speakers.
- /r/ can also be heard in free variation with a flap sound [ɾ].
Vowels
editFront | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
References
edit- ^ Fordata at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Mills, Roger F. (1991). "Tanimbar-Kei: An Eastern Indonesian Subgroup". In Robert Blust (ed.). Currents in Pacific Linguistics: Papers on Austronesian Languages and Ethnolinguistics in Honour of George W. Grace. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 241–263.
- ^ Marshall, Craig (2000). "A Phonological Description of Fordata". In Grimes, C. E. (ed.). Spices from the East: Papers in Languages of Eastern Indonesia. PL-503. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 181–235. doi:10.15144/PL-503.181.