Nalögo language
Oceanic language spoken in Solomon Islands
title: "Nalögo language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-the-solomon-islands", "temotu-languages"] description: "Oceanic language spoken in Solomon Islands" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalögo_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Oceanic language spoken in Solomon Islands ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Santa Cruz |
| nativename | |
| states | Solomon Islands |
| region | Santa Cruz Islands, Eastern Solomons |
| coordinates | |
| speakers | 1,500 |
| date | 2012 |
| ref | |
| familycolor | Austronesian |
| fam2 | Malayo-Polynesian |
| fam3 | Oceanic |
| fam4 | Temotu ? |
| fam5 | Reefs – Santa Cruz |
| iso3 | nlz |
| glotto | nalo1235 |
| glottorefname | Nalögo |
| :: |
|name=Santa Cruz |nativename= |pronunciation= |states=Solomon Islands |region=Santa Cruz Islands, Eastern Solomons |coordinates = |speakers=1,500 |date=2012 |ref= |familycolor=Austronesian |fam2=Malayo-Polynesian |fam3=Oceanic |fam4=Temotu ? |fam5=Reefs – Santa Cruz |iso3=nlz |glotto=nalo1235 |glottorefname=Nalögo
Nalögo is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of Nendö or 'Santa Cruz', in the Solomon Islands. It used to be lumped together with Natügu under a single language called "Santa Cruz language"; but the two varieties were finally recognized to be two distinct languages.
Together, Nalögo, Natügu and Nanggu are the three indigenous languages of Nendö island.
Nalögo has been described by linguist Valentina Alfarano.
The language
Name
The name Nalögo (new orth. Nalrgo) comes from nalö-go , literally "our language" – from nalö "language, word" + -go "1st + 2nd person augmented enclitic").
Genetic affiliation
Like its neighbours Natügu and Nanggu, Nalögo was once thought to be dialects of a language labelled “Santa Cruz”; and the latter was long thought to be a Papuan language. In the 2000s however, it became clear that was shown to be a member of the Austronesian language family, like the rest of the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages.{{cite journal | last1= Næss | first1= Åshild | author2= Brenda H. Boerger | title= Reefs – Santa Cruz as Oceanic: Evidence from the verb complex | journal= Oceanic Linguistics | year= 2008 | volume= 47 | pages= 185–212 | doi= 10.1353/ol.0.0000 | hdl= 1959.13/1052427 | hdl-access= free
Dialects
Nalögo and Natügu are recognised as opposite ends of a dialect continuum. The Nalögo section of the dialect chain includes two named dialects, Nea and Nooli.
Phonology
Consonants
Alfarano's analysis counts 15 consonant phonemes. They are indicated here, with the orthography in : ::data[format=table]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | Stop | voiceless | prenaszd | Affric. | prenaszd | Nasal | Fricative | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⁿd͡ʒ | ||||||||||||
| :: |
Nalögo has the same consonants as those of neighbouring Natügu – with the addition of .
Prenasalized stops can optionally be realized as plain voiced consonants.
Vowels
Nalögo has ten vowel phonemes: ::data[format=table title="Oral vowels"]
| Front | Central | Back | Close | Close-mid | Near-open | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
These vowels can be nasalized; but Alfarano does not consider nasalization to be phonemic in the language.
Notes
References
Bibliography
References
- (January 2012). "Recognizing Nalögo and Natügu as separate languages: Code-splitting in ISO 639-3". Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
- {{Harvcoltxt. Alfarano. 2021.
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