Savo Island, north of Guadalcanal, Central Solomons.
Native speakers
(2,400 cited 1999)[1]
Language family
Central Solomons
Savosavo
Language codes
ISO 639-3
svs
Glottolog
savo1255
ELP
Savosavo
Savosavo is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
Savosavo is an endangered language spoken on Savo, a small volcanic island north of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Savosavo is one of the Central Solomon languages, which are Papuan languages, unlike most of the languages in the vicinity, which are members of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. There are close to 3,000 speakers of Savosavo, and it is the easternmost Papuan language in the Pacific. Savosavo is the main language of nine of the twelve districts in the Solomon Islands.[clarification needed] The closest Papuan language to Savosavo is the Central Solomon Lavukaleve, spoken in the Russell Islands to the west. Other neighbor languages are Bughotu, Ghari, and Lengo, Bughotu is to the north, while Ghari and Lengo are to the south, and are spoken on Guadalcanal.[2]
^Savosavo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Savosavo is an endangered language spoken on Savo, a small volcanic island north of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Savosavo is one of the Central...
Solomon languages such as Bilua, Lavukaleve, Savosavo and Touo constitute an independent family within the Papuan languages. Two other language families...
before /a/. The Gela dominant voiced is "h" not "z". "Z" is found in Savosavolanguage speakers (and Bugotu and part of Guadalcanal) who also speak Gela...
Islands, and Savosavo of Savo Island. The four Central Solomon languages were identified as a family by Wilhelm Schmidt in 1908. The languages are at best...
in the north of the island. The indigenous language of Savo is the Savosavolanguage, an East Papuan language. Savo Island also has a minority of Gela speakers...
The East Papuan languages is a defunct proposal for a family of Papuan languages spoken on the islands to the east of New Guinea, including New Britain...
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia...
of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials (grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database...
Oxford University Press. Wegener, Claudia (2008). A Grammar of Savosavo, a Papuan Language of the Solomon Islands (PhD thesis). Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen...
Most of the indigenous languages are Austronesian languages. The Central Solomon languages such as Bilua, Lavukaleve, Savosavo and Touo constitute an...
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