Native speakers 12,000 (1999) Glottolog gela1263 | ISO 639-3 nlg | |
Region Big Nggela, Small Nggela, Sandfly and Buenavista Islands Language family AustronesianMalayo-PolynesianOceanicSoutheast SolomonicGela–GuadalcanalGelicGela |
Gela is a Southeast Solomonic language spoken in three dialects on four islands in the central Solomon Islands. Each of the dialects is very similar, differing mainly on a small number of phonological points.
Contents
Consonants
Gela has the following consonant phonemes:
NOTE: The Gela dominant Voiced is "h" not "z". "Z" is found in Savosavo language speakers (and Bugotu and part of Guadalcanal) who also speak Gela - primarily due to their use of the Church of Melanesia Common Prayer Books and Hymns (written in Gela in 1940's).
Vowels
Gela uses /i, e, a, o, u/ with no contrastive vowel length.
Stress
Stress generally occurs on each word's penultimate syllable.
Numbers
- keha (keha or sakai, not keza)
- rua
- tolu
- vati
- lima
- ono
- vitu
- alu
- hiua (not hiwa)
- hangavulu
- hangavulu sakai
- hangavulu rua
- hangavulu tolu
- hangavulu vati
- hangavulu lima
- hangavulu ono
- hangavulu vitu
- hangavulu alu
- hangavulu hiua
- rua hangavulu
- rua hangavulu sakai
- rua hangavulu rua
- rua hangavulu tolu
- rua hangavulu vati
- rua hangavulu lima
- rua hangavulu ono
- rua hangavulu vitu
- rua hangavulu alu
- rua hangavulu hiua
- tolu hangavulu
- tolu hangavulu sakai
- tolu hangavulu rua
- tolu hangavulu tolu
- tolu hangavulu vati
- tolu hangavulu lima
- tolu hangavulu ono
- tolu hangavulu vitu
- tolu hangavulu alu
- tolu hangavulu hiua
- vati hangavulu
- vati hangavulu sakai
- vati hangavulu rua
- vati hangavulu tolu
- vati hangavulu vati
You may now recognized the pattern of number counting above.
References
Gela language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA