Gela, also known as Nggela and formerly as Florida, is an Oceanic language spoken in the Nggela Islands, in the middle of the Solomon Islands. It belongs to the Southeast Solomonic group of the Oceanic family.
Dialects
The three dialects of Gela are very similar, differing mainly on a small number of phonological points. ==Phonology==
Phonology
PhonemesConsonants Gela has the following consonant phonemes: The fricative /z/ is realized as [ð] in alternation with a retroflex sibilant [ʐ], initially before /a/. The Gela dominant voiced is "h" not "z". "Z" is found in Savosavo language speakers (and Bugotu and part of Guadalcanal) who also speak Gela - primarily due to their use of the Church of Melanesia Common Prayer Books and Hymns (written in Gela in the 1940s). Vowels Gela uses with no contrastive vowel length. Stress Stress generally occurs on each word's penultimate syllable. ==Sample vocabulary==
Sample vocabulary
Numbers • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • In general, for two-digit numbers, numbers are expressed as a*10+b, where a and b are numbers ranging from 1 to 9. ==References==