Waimoa_language

Waimoa language

Waimoa language

Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in northeast East Timor

Waimoa or Waimaʼa is a language spoken by about 27,000 (2015 census)[1] people in northeast East Timor. Waimoa proper is reported to be mutually intelligible with neighboring Kairui and Midiki, which together have about 5,000 speakers.

Quick Facts Region, Native speakers ...

The classification of Waimoa is unclear. Structurally, it is Malayo-Polynesian. However, its vocabulary is largely Papuan, similar to that of Makasae. Although generally classified as Austronesian languages or dialects that have been largely relexified under the influence of a language related to Makasae, it is possible that Waimoa, Kairui, and Midiki are instead Papuan languages related to Makasae which have been influenced by Austronesian.

Phonology

Similarly to other Austronesian languages of the region,[2] Waimoa has aspirated/voiceless and glottalized/ejective consonants, which are distributed like /hC/ and /ʔC/ consonant clusters (or perhaps /Ch/ and /Cʔ/) but are often pronounced as single segments.[3]

More information Bilabial, Coronal ...

Similarly there are voiceless and glottalized /m n l r s w/.

There is also vowel harmony.

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Waimoa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. [2]
    Naueti, Midiki, Meto, Helong, etc.
  3. [3]
    Kirsten Culhane (2021) Waimaʼa consonants: phonology and typological position in Greater Timor. 15th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics.
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