Sahu language

Not to be confused with the Saho language.

Sahu
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Halmahera
Native speakers	(7,500 cited 1987)[1]
Language family	West Papuan? North Halmahera Sahu Sahu
Dialects	Waioli Pa'disua Gamkonora Tala'i Ibu †
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: saj – Sahu ibu – Ibu
Glottolog	sahu1245  Sahu ibuu1240  Ibu
ELP	Ibu

Sahu (Sa’u, Sahu’u, Sau) is a North Halmahera language. Use is vigorous; dialects are Pa’disua (Palisua), Tala’i, Waioli, and Gamkonora. A fifth dialect, Ibu, used to be spoken near the mouth of the Ibu River.[2]

Sahu has many Ternate loanwords, a historical legacy of the dominance of the Ternate Sultanate in the Moluccas.[3]

Phonology[4]

Sahu, like other North Halmahera languages, is not a tonal language.

Consonants

Sahu consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Palato- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	dʒ		ɡ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ	ʄ		ɠ
Fricative		f	s
Approximant	central	w			j		h
	lateral		l
Trill			r

When preceding /a/, /o/, and /u/, the consonants /d/, /ɗ/, and /l/ become retroflex (/ɖ/, /ᶑ/, and /ɭ/, respectively). The trill /r/ alternates freely with /ɾ/, but, according to Visser and Voorhoeve, /r/ is the more usual allophone. The glottal /h/ may be realized as /χ/ by educated speakers for certain words deriving from Arabic.

Vowels

Sahu vowel phonemes

		Front	Central	Back
High		i		u
Mid		e	ə	o
Low			a

The phoneme /ə/ is only found in loans (primarily from Indonesian).

References

1. Sahu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Ibu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Visser, L. E. and C.L. Voorhoeve. 1987. Sahu-Indonesian-English Dictionary and Sahu Grammar Sketch. Dordrecht: Foris.
3. Holton, Gary; Klamer, Marian (2018). "The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird's Head". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 569–640. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
4. Visser, L. E. and C.L. Voorhoeve. 1987. Sahu-Indonesian-English Dictionary and Sahu Grammar Sketch. Dordrecht: Foris.