Blagar language
Blagar is a Papuan language of Pantar island in the Alor archipelago of Indonesia. The Tereweng dialect spoken on Tereweng Island off the southeast coast of Pantar[2] is sometimes considered a separate language.[3] The increasing prominence of Indonesian has been putting pressure on the Blagar language although the language is still used by all age groups.[4] By the 1970s Indonesian replaced Blagar as the language of churches and mosques, and in the early 2000s the spread of Indonesian was furthered by the introduction of electricity on Pura Island.[4] PhonologyVowelsBlagar has five vowels, with a sharp contrast between short and long vowels.[5]
Consonants
GrammarThe morphological typology of Blagar is categorized as isolating.[7] Writing systemBlagar uses the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, and has two digraphs: ⟨ng⟩ and ⟨sy⟩.
⟨c⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨sy⟩ are only used in foreign place names and loanwords.[3] Another writing system is also used, which is phonemic and is similar to the writing system of Indonesian.[8]
References
Bibliography
External linksFor a list of words relating to Blagar language, see the Blagar language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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