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 is sometimes considered a separate language. The Blagar speakers themselves describe their language as pi abaŋ hur ().
The increasing prominence of Indonesian and Alor Malay has been putting pressure on the Blagar language although the language is still used by all age groups. By the 1970s, Indonesian and Alor Malay replaced Blagar as the language of churches and mosques, and in the early 2000s the spread of Indonesian and Alor Malay was furthered by the introduction of electricity on Pura Island.
Phonology
Vowels
Blagar has five vowels, with a sharp contrast between short and long vowels.
+ Front Back Close Mid Open
Consonants
+ Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive Implosive Fricative Nasal Trill Lateral Approximant
Grammar
The morphological typology of Blagar is categorized as isolating.
Writing system Blagar uses the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, and has two digraphs: and .
+Uppercase letters A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZLowercase letters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y zIPA , ~ , ,
+Digraphs ng syIPA
, , , and are only used in foreign place names and loanwords.
Another writing system is also used, which is phonemic and is similar to the writing system of Indonesian.
Letters a b b’ d e g h i j k l m n ng o p q r t u v yIPA ,
References
Bibliography
External links
Alphabet and pronunciation Audio speech of the Pura dialect of Blagar Description of the Blagar language Blagar Swadesh list at TransNewGuinea.org Blagar Swadesh List by The Rosetta Project at the Internet Archive Genesis, Mark, and Acts in the Pura dialect of the Blagar language of Indonesia Blagar Dadibira Collection at The Language Archive