Sawai

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A language of Indonesia

ISO 639-3
szw
Alternate Names
Weda, Weda-Sawai, Were
Population

12,000 (2000 SIL), increasing. Few monolinguals.

Location

North Maluku Province, Gane Timur and Weda districts,13 villages. Halmahera island, southeast peninsula, Weda bay, both coasts.

Language Maps
Language Status

6b (Threatened).

Classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, South Halmahera-West New Guinea, South Halmahera, Southeast
Dialects

Faya-Mafa, Kobe, Messa-Dote, Sawai, Weda. Lexical similarity: 64% with North Nuaulu [nni].

Language Use

Some domains, local commerce. Youth are taught Indonesian [ind] first; then learn to understand Sawai. Positive attitudes. Also use North Moluccan Malay [max], Tidore [tvo], Ternate [tft], Tobelo [tlb], Patani [ptn], Buli [bzq], Maba [mqa], Gane [gzn], or Indonesian [ind].

Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: field: 5,000 can read, 1,000 can write. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–50%. 5,000 can read it, 1,000 can write it. Bible portions: 1994–2005.
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Different from Saleman [sau]. Muslim, Christian.