| Language name: | SAMA |
| UPSID number: | 2412 |
| Alternate name(s): | BAJO, BAJAU |
| Classification: | Austro-Tai, West Malayo-Polynesian |
| This language has | 32 segments |
| Its Frequency index is | 0.416297118 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
| The language has these sounds: | p "t k ? mp "nt Nk b "d g mb tS ntS dZ ndZ h "s "ns m "n nj N "r "l j w i "e a "o u "@ |
| Comment: | Sama is spoken in the Capul Island near San Bernadino Strait, northwest Samar in the phillipines. All vowels except schwa occur long and short and all consonants except /h/ and /?/ may appear geminate. Long vowels do not occur before geminates. Since prenasalized consonants can be geminated and permit a long vowel to precede they are treated as single consonants. Verheijen's final diphthongs /ai,au/ are interpreted as /aj,aw/. |
| Source(s): | Verheijen, J.A.J. 1986. The Sama/Bajau Language in the Lesser Sunda Islands. Pacific Linguistics, Series D, No. 70. Materials in Languages of Indonesia, No. 32, series editor W.A.L Stokhof. Australian National University, Canberra. |