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Oroha
Region	South Malaita, Solomon Islands
Ethnicity	Oroha people
Native speakers	(38 cited 1999)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southeast Solomonic Malaita – San Cristobal Malaita Southern Oroha
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ora
Glottolog	oroh1237

Oroha, categorized as an Austronesian language, is one of many languages spoken in the Solomon Islands by the Melanesian people. It is also known as Maramasike (after the Maramasike Passage that separates Malaita Province's two main islands, and masike meaning "little"), Mara Ma-Siki (meaning Little Mala or Mara [to 'Tolo' people who do not possess the letter l in their language] after the area), Oraha, and Oloha, and is used primarily in the southern part of Malaita Island within the Malaita Province. There are 38 people who still currently use this language today. Oroha is an indigenous, endangered Oceanic language, and its current status is shifting, meaning it is in the process of speaking a different language, to the language known as "Sa'a," another language used by the people that reside in the Solomon Islands. Most of the Oroha speakers already know how to read Sa'a, therefore, it is easy to convert to using this other language. Sa'a can be compared to the Oroha language in some cases and can see how they may share similar origins as well. For example, a d in the Sa’a language can correspond with a s in Oroha, but would most likely translate to a t.

The Oroha people have come from the dividing channel in Mala to their current residence. Most of the Oroha language speakers believe in Christianity.

Little Mala is composed of three indigenous languages of the 'Tolo' people which are Na’oni, Pau, and Oroha. They are all slightly different, yet come from the same origin. The three languages may be thought of as different dialects of the same language. The three Tolo villages now harbor schools under the Melanesian Mission.

Phonology

Consonants

The Oroha language consists of ten consonants: w, r, k, t, n, m, p , h, f, and s.

Consonant Phonemes

	Labial	Dental	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless Stop	p	t	k
Fricative	f	s		h
Nasals	m	n
Liquid		r
Glide	w

Vowels

This language includes five vowels: a, e, i, o, and u.

Vowel Phonemes

	Front	Mid	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Diphthongs

Diphthongs included are: ae, ai, ao, au, ei, and ou.

Allophones

Vowels have long and short sounds. Doubling a vowel elongates the sound. A ʻ indicates the removal of a consonant in which consonants k and t are usually removed. The k creates a hard sound. They do not roll the r. Instead of using ng, there is only the presence of the nasalization of the n sound. The same goes for m or p which can sometimes be mistaken with mw or pw which is not found in the Oroha language.

There are sometimes different ways to spell some words, which then result in slightly different pronunciation as well.

Example: raa or ra means "go, come".

Syllable Structure

This language consists only of open syllables. There are no closed syllables.

Reduplication

Verbs may be reduplicated to emphasize the meaning of words. This may be done in three ways: (1) repetition of the first syllable; (2) repetition of the whole word; (3) repetition of the whole word with the omission of the inner consonant in the former member. The differences between these three methods does not change the meaning in any way.

Morphology

Affixes

Prefixes

Adjective Prefixes

Prefixes that precede some adjectives include ma, taʻi, take, tara, and tata.

Verb Prefixes

There are causative and prefectural prefixes that are added to the beginning of verbs. There are a few that may also be prefixed to nouns and adjectives as well.

Plurality

Moi and mo are put in front of nouns to indicate plurality.

Example: Mo hanua iwera can mean either "many lands" or "many people".

Suffixes

Noun Suffixes

Pronouns can be suffixed to other words to either add on to or change the meaning of a word. This is used mainly to show possession of an object with a noun.

Example: Maa meaning "eye" can be changed to "my eye" by adding a suffix to create maaku.

In other cases, pronouns can be added as a suffix to verbs or prepositions to create the object of the sentence.

Adjective Suffixes

Terminations ʻa and taʻa are placed in back of some adjectives.

Verb Suffixes

Suffixes may be included at the end of verbs in order to indicate gender.

Syntax

Word Order

The word order for Oroha sentence structure is typically Subject, Verb, Object (SVO).

Adjectives tend to take place after the noun.

Verb particles are placed before verbs.

Example sentence: Nemo [Rain] paina [great], mane [man] ka maʻumaʻu [fears] uhi [yams] ineʻia [his] ka taʻa [are spoilt], ka iria [says] huni [to] mane [man] saia [(that) knows]: "Noko [I] waaiʻo [reward you] ana [with] haʻa [shell money], poo [pigs], oko [you] haʻasaso [make sun] roʻu [again]." Mane [Man] saia [(that) knows] ka iria [says]: "Siena [Good], neʻia kaʻu [wait awhile], ka saso [fine (weather)] roʻu [again]."

Word Classes

Nouns

Nouns can be categorized into two settings: either (1) verbal nouns or (2) independent nouns.

Verbal nouns are produced when adding na, ta, ra, raa, ha, or h to the end of a noun. For example, if you take a verb and include one of these terminations to the back of it, it then creates a noun.

Example: Mae means "to die," but if you have maena with na in the back of mae, then it changes to the meaning "death."

This may also apply to adjectives as well by adding a termination to the end of it.

Example: sieni means "good," but adding na to the end of that word then creates sienina" resulting in "goodness."

Independent nouns are created using na, however, it is added to the back of a noun to either indicate some kind of relationship or to change cardinal numbers to ordinal ones (see Numerals table at the bottom of the page).

Verbs

Verbs depict an action. The Oroha language has something known as verb particles. These particles are used as prefixes with the actual verb to create words. The particles ko, koi, ka, ke, and kaʻi may be used.

Adjectives

Words used for describing, adjectives come after the noun in a sentence.

Special adjectives can be used to compare objects. They are usually paired together with prepositions or adverbs to show this comparison.

Example: riutaa meaning "beyond, in excess" shows a comparison between two or more objects.

Adverbs

There are four categories of adverbs: condition, manner, time, and place.

Numerals

Number	Normal numbers	Ordinal numbers
1	ʻeta	ʻetana
2	rua	ruana
3	ʻooru	ʻooruna
4	hai	haina
5	nima	nimana
6	ʻoono	ʻoonona
7	hiu	hiuna
8	waru	waruna
9	siwa	siwana
10	tanaharu	tanaharuʻana

Ordinal numbers come before the noun when describing how many of an object exist.

External links

• OrohaLanguage.org - an online, in-progress grammar of Oroha
• Online version of the 1927 Ivens "A Study of the Oroha Language" article
• Materials on Oroha are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1 and AC2) held by Paradisec.

Category:Southern Malaita languages Category:Languages of the Solomon Islands Category:Endangered Austronesian languages