Owa

Owa is a member of the Southeast Solomonic group of Oceanic Malayo-Polynesian languages. It is spoken by about 8,400 people mainly in the south of Makira Island (San Cristobal), and on Owaraha (Santa Ana) and Owariki (Santa Catalina) islands in Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands.

Owa was formerly known as Santa Ana, and is closely related to Kahua, which is spoken in the same area. It was first written by Anglican missionaries in the 1930s using the Latin alphabet. A number of religious texts have been translated into Owa.

Owa alphabet and pronunciation

Owa alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

Download an alphabet chart for Owa (Excel)

Sample text (The Lord's Prayer)

EMAMAMI i na wawaiaro, na Atamu ki apuna. Na arafanga iamu mai. A mwarao no obwani kai tatanui i anokaa, ki maangaa nikao i na wawaiaro. Ui wategami mai kamii ngaufa tangaa ngaekaa. Makui fagagumwagami paanigi ka ginomami, suria igami kamii fagagumwara kaniata na ginota ka inuni na fagaaera mai tangagami. Siaana kamii arao igaa ka faiofungifa aera; makui tawogami paania ki ngaia ni aera. Suria na arafanga iamu mana ramwofa mana raaraangamu, ki raorao mwa. Amen.

Source: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Melanesia/owa1.html#pray_thanks

Sample videos

Links

Information about Owa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owa_language
https://www.sil.org/resources/search/language/stn
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26408516

Southeast Solomonic languages

ꞌAreꞌare, Arosi, Gela, Ghari, Kahua, Kwaio, Kwara’ae, Lau, Lengo, Longgu, Oroha, Owa, Sa'a, Santa Cruz, Talise

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page created: 15.04.24. Last modified: 29.04.24

[top]


Green Web Hosting - Kualo

You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, and if you like what you see on this page, you can use the buttons below to share it with people you know.

 

Conversations - learn languages through stories

If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.

 

Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site.

[top]

iVisa.com