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Marovo language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marovo
RegionSolomon Islands
Native speakers
(8,100 cited 1999)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3mvo
Glottologmaro1244

Marovo is an Austronesian language of the Solomon Islands. It is spoken in the New Georgia Group on islands in Marovo Lagoon and on the neighbouring islands of New Georgia, Vangunu and Nggatokae. The usual word order in sentences is verb–subject–object.

Names for local fauna are similar to but still much distinct from those in Roviana (and presumably other New Georgia languages).[2]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop/
Affricate
voiceless p t k
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᶮdʒ ᵑɡ
Fricative β s ɣ
Lateral l
Tap ɾ

Vowels

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Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a
Vowel length is also distinctive.[3]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Marovo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Read & Moseby (2006)
  3. ^ Hviding, Edvard (1996). Guardians of Marovo Lagoon: Practice, Place, and Politics in Maritime Melanesia. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press. pp. xxvii–xxix.

References

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