Natügu language

For other languages named Santa Cruz, see Santa Cruz language.

Natügu (locally spelled Natqgu), formerly known as Santa Cruz, is the main language spoken on the island of Nendö or 'Santa Cruz', in the Solomon Islands. It is one of the three languages of that island, together with Nalögo and Nanggu.

Santa Cruz
Natqgu Natügu
Native to	Solomon Islands
Region	Santa Cruz Islands, Eastern Solomons.
Native speakers	5,000 (2012)[1]: 100
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Temotu ? Reefs – Santa Cruz Santa Cruz
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: ntu – Natügu npx – Noipx
Glottolog	natu1246
Coordinates: 10°44′06″S 165°49′43″E

A Natügu speaker, recorded in the Solomon Islands.

The language

Name

The name Natügu (new orth. Natqgu) comes from natq-gu [natʉᵑgu], literally "our language" – from natq "language, word" + -gu "1st + 2nd person augmented enclitic").

Genetic affiliation

Until the beginning of the 21st century, it was widely believed that Natügu was a Papuan language. In the 2000s however, it was shown to be a member of the Austronesian language family, like the rest of the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages.^[2]

Dialects

Dialects of Natügu are Bënwë (Banua), Londai, Malo. Speakers of most dialects understand Lwowa and Mbanua well.

Nalögo, once considered a dialect of Natügu, is now recognised as a separate language.^[1]

Phonology

Consonants

Natügu has 14 consonant phonemes.^[1]: 112 They are indicated here, with the orthography in ⟨angled brackets⟩:

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar
Stop	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩		k ⟨k⟩
	prenasalised	ᵐb ⟨b⟩	ⁿd ⟨d⟩		ᵑɡ ⟨g⟩
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩		ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Fricative		v ⟨v⟩	s ⟨s⟩
Approximant			l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Prenasalized stops can optionally be realized as plain voiced consonants.^[3]

Vowels

Oral vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ʉ	u
Close-mid	e	ɵ	o
Near-open	æ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close			ũ
Close-mid	ẽ	ɵ̃	õ
Near-open	æ̃	ə̃	ɔ̃
Open		ã

Orthography

The Natügu language has two orthographies. The old orthography uses diacritics to mark vowel quality and nasalization while the new orthography uses no diacritics. The new orthography was developed in 1994, motivated by concerns about the difficulty of reading and typesetting the old orthography.^[4][5][6]

Consonants

Grapheme	Phoneme
b	/b/
d	/d/
g	/ɡ/
h[a]	—
j[b]	/dʒ/
k	/k/
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/
p	/p/
s	/s/
t	/t/
v	/β/
w	/w/
y	/j/

Vowels

Grapheme (old)	Grapheme (new)	Phoneme
a	a	/a/
e	e	/e/
i	i	/i/
o	o	/o/
u	u	/u/
â[c]	c	/ɔ/
ü	q	/ʉ/
ö	r[d]	/ɵ/
ä	x	/æ/
ë	z	/ə/
◌̃	◌'	/◌̃/

In the old orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a tilde over the vowel letter. In the new orthography, nasal vowels are represented with a straight apostrophe after the vowel letter.

Grammar

Pronouns

Natügu has two sets of person and number enclitics: Set I is used to indicate subjects and third-person objects; Set II replaces Set I when marking subjects following peripheral applicatives and in passive clauses. Set II is also used for possessive constructions and free pronouns. Natügu pronouns have a minimal/augmented number system and four grammatical persons: first person, first and second person ("you and I"), second person, and third person.^[4]

Natügu enclitic pronouns

Person	Set I	Set II
1st minimal	=x	=nge
1st+2nd minimal	=ki	=gi
2nd minimal	=u	=m(q)
3rd minimal	=le	=de
1st augmented	=kr	=gr
1st+2nd augmented	=ku	=gu
2nd augmented	=amu	=mu
3rd augmented	=lr, =ng(q)	=dr, =ng(q)

Nouns

Natügu categorises nouns in four ways:^[4]

1. Count nouns vs mass nouns
2. Common nouns vs proper nouns
3. Animate vs inanimate nouns
4. Direct possession vs indirect possession

Notes

1. The letter h is used only in English loanwords.
2. The letter j is used natively in one dialect, and otherwise only used in English loanwords.
3. The letter â was written o̲ in earlier versions of the old orthography.
4. The letter r is also used as a consonant in English loanwords.