Sounds of MAKASAE OSOROA

People in Nahareka and Waibobo villages of Ossu, where I am from, normally do not produce /p/ sound, instead they produce /f/ fricative which is very common among other Makasae speakers populating other parts of Vikeke and Baukau. 

Contrary to common belief that Makasae people do not have [h] sound, Makasae speakers in Ossu have /h/ sounds in words like 'aha' (mango), 'gehe' (to drink), 'naha' (burden), and so forth.  In every day conversation, however, many people just get rid of [h] sound by saying [a:] (mango), [ge:] (to drink), and so on.  Although the two sounds seem to be interchangeable (conditions would be analyzed), the underlying existence of /h/ in those words is still understood among speakers of this language under many circumstances. 

Table 1 and Table 2 are Makasae Osoroa phoneme charts based on our preliminary analysis. 

Table1.  Makasae-Osoroa Vowel Phoneme Chart.



Table2.  Makasae-Osoroa Consonant Phoneme Chart.

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Last Update: March 17, 2005