| Nauruan Language |
Article Index for Nauruan |
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Information AboutNauruan Language |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NAURUAN LANGUAGE | |
| languages of nauru | |
| micronesian languages | |
| austronesian languages | |
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It is a member of the Micronesian family of Austronesian languages. Its ISO 639 codes are 'na' and 'nau'. Nauruan is a UNO recognized language. DIALECTS According to a report published in 1937 in Sydney, there was a diversity of dialects until Nauru became a colony of Germany in 1888, and until the introduction of publication of the first texts written in Nauruan. The variations were largely so different, that people of various districts often had problems to understand each other completely. With the increasing influence of foreign languages and the increase of Nauruan texts, the dialects blended into a standardized language, which was promoted through dictionaries and translations by Alois Kayser and Philip Delaporte . Today there are practically no variations or dialects remaining. Solely in the district of Yaren is there a dialect still spoken, which is only slightly different; the eponymous dialect is spoken in Yaren and the surrounding area. DELAPORTE'S NAURUAN DICTIONARY In . Approximately 1650 German words are glossed in Nauruan, often by phrases or synonymous forms. There are some 1300 'unique' Nauruan forms in the glosses, including all those occurring in phrases, and ignoring Diacritical marks. The accents used there are not common; just one accent (the Tilde ) is in use today. ALPHABET In the Nauruan written language, 17 letters are used: The letters c, f, h, l, s, v, x, y and z are not included. With the growing influence of foreign languages (most of all German , Pidgin English and Kiribati ) ever more letters were incorporated into the Nauruan alphabet. In addition, phoenetic differences of a few vowels arised, so that Umlaut s and other similar sounding sounds could only be seen with a Tilde . Attempt at language reform of 1938 In 1938 there was an attempt by the Nauruan language committee and Timothy Detudamo to make the language easier to understand for Europeans and Americans. It was intended to introduce as many Diacritic al symbols as possible for the different vowel sounds to state the variety of the Nauruan language in writing. Finally it was decided to only introduce diacritical symbols, an accent, in the place of the former Tilde , so that the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" were replaced by "ò" and "ù". The "ã" was substituted with "e". Further, the "y" was introduced, in order to differentiate words with the English "j" (e.g. ''puji''). Thus words like ''ijeiji'' changed to ''iyeyi''. The "ñ" was replaced with "ng" ersetzt, in order to differentiate the Spanish Ñ . Also the double consonants "bu" and "qu" were replaced with "bw" and "kw". In addition, the usual "ts", which is pronounced like the English "j", was replaced with this "j". Also the "w" written at the end of words was removed. These reforms were only partly carried out: the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" are still written with tildes. However today the letters "ã" and "ñ" are only seldomly used and are replaced with "e" and "ng", as it is proscribed by the reform. Likewise the writing of the double consonants "bw" and "kw" has been carried out. The "j" took the place of "ts". Although the "j" took the place of "ts", certain spellings with "ts" remain. For example, the districts Baiti and Ijuw (according to the reform ''Beiji'' and ''Iyu'') are still written with the old writing style The "y" has largely become generally accepted. Today the following 28 Latin letters are used.
To this day the letters v and x are not used. Pronunciation of the vowels
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