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The Hawu also known as Havu language, historically Sawu and known to outsiders as Savu or Sabu (thus Havunese, Savunese, Sawunese), is the language of Savu Island in Indonesia and of Raijua Island off the western tip of Savu. Traditionally classified as a Sumba language in the Austronesian family, it may be a non-Austronesian (Papuan) language. (See Savu languages for details.) Dhao, once considered a dialect, is not mutually intelligible with Hawu.

The following description is based on Walker (1982) and Grimes (2006).^[3][4]

Dialects

Seba dialect is dominant, covering most of Savu Island and the main city of Seba. Timu is spoken on the eastern, Mesara on the western, and Liae on the southern tip of the island. Raijua is spoken on the island of the same name (Rai Jua 'Jua Island') just off-shore to the west.

Phonology

Hawu shares implosive (or perhaps pre-glottalized) consonants with the Bima–Sumba languages and languages of Flores and Sulawesi, such Wolio.

Hawu *s, attested during the Portuguese colonial era, has shifted to /h/, a change that has not happened in Dhao. The Hawu consonant inventory is smaller than Dhao:

Consonants of the /n/ column are apical, those of the /ɲ/ column laminal. The implosives are written ⟨b', d', j', g'⟩. ⟨w⟩ is pronounced [v] or [β]. A wye sound /j/ (written ⟨y⟩) is found at the beginning of some words in Seba dialect where Dimu and Raijua dialects have /ʄ/.

Vowels are /i u e ə o a/, with /ə/ written ⟨è⟩. Phonetic long vowels and diphthongs are vowel sequences. The penultimate syllable/vowel is stressed. (Every vowel constitutes a syllable.) A stressed schwa lengthens the following consonant:

/ŋa/ [ŋa] 'with', /niŋaa/ [niˈŋaː] 'what?', /ŋaʔa/ [ˈŋaʔa] 'eat, food', /ŋali/ [ˈŋali] 'senile', /ŋəlu/ [ˈŋəlːu] 'wind'.

Syllables are consonant-vowel or vowel-only.

Grammar

Hawu appears to be an ergative–absolutive language with ergative preposition ri (Seba dialect), ro (Dimu), or li (Raijua). Clauses are verb-initial, with intransitive VS and transitive VOA. Within noun phrases, modifiers usually follow the noun, though there are some possibly lexicalized exceptions, such as ae dəu 'many people' (compare Dhao ɖʐəu ae 'people many').

Many transitive verbs have a special form to indicate singular number of the object, by replacing the final vowel of the verb with "-e" (e.g. ɓudʒu 'touch them', ɓudʒe 'touch it') or "-o" (bəlu, bəlo 'to forget').

Apart from this, and unlike in Dhao, all pronominal reference uses independent pronouns. These are:

The demonstratives are complex and poorly understood. There may be number (see Walker 1982), but it is not confirmed by Grimes.

These can be made locative (here, now, there, then, yonder) by preceding the n forms with na; the neutral form na əne optionally contracting to nəne. 'Like this/that' is marked with mi or mi na, with the n becoming h and the neutral əne form appearing irregularly as mi (na) həre.

Sample clauses (Grimes 2006). (Compare the Dhao equivalents at Dhao language#Grammar.)

ta	nəru	ke	Simo	oro	ŋidi	dahi.
NPST?	walk	?	(name)	along	edge	sea

'Simo was walking along the edge of the sea.'

ta	nəru	ke	roo	teruu	la	Həɓa.
NPST?	walk	(?)	they	cont.	to	Seba

'They kept walking to Seba.'

ta	la	əte	ke	ri	roo	ne	kətu	noo.
NPST?	go	cut.off	(?)	ERG	they	the	head	he/his

'They went and cut off his head.'

tapulara	pe-made	noo	ri	roo.
but	CAUS-die	he	ERG	they

'But they killed him.'

ki	made	ama	noo,
if/when	die	father	he/his

'When his father dies,'

ɗai	təra	noo	ne	rui.
very	much	he	the	strong

'He was incredibly strong.'

Notes

References

• 
  Capell, Arthur. 'The "West Papuan Phylum": General, and Timor and Areas Further West', §2.10.1 in Wurm 1977 [1975], New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study, volume 1: Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene. Canberra.