// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Saʼa say to its grammar book? You're always tense.

Not to be confused with Saa language.

Saʼa
Region	South Malaita, Solomon Islands
Native speakers	(12,000 cited 1999)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southeast Solomonic Malaita – San Cristobal Malaita Saʼa
Dialects	Saʼa Ulawa Uki
Language codes
ISO 639-3	apb
Glottolog	saaa1240

Saʼa (also known as South Malaita and Apaeʼaa) is an Oceanic language spoken on Small Malaita and Ulawa Island in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, there were around 12,000 speakers of the language.

Phonology

The phonemes of Saʼa are listed below.

Consonants

	Labial		Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
	plain	lab.
Plosive	p	pʷ	t	tʃ	k	ʔ
Fricative			s			h
Nasal	m	mʷ	n		ŋ
Lateral			l
Tap			ɾ
Approximant	w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

External links

• Palona Haalu Ana Nau Maai Saʼa (1979) A Liturgy for Melanesia in Saʼa, digitized by Richard Mammana and Charles Wohlers
• Materials on Karnai are included in the open access Arthur Capell collection (AC2) held by Paradisec.