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.
| Waimoa | |
|---|---|
| Region | Northeast East Timor |
Native speakers | 21,200 (2015 census)[1] 5,670 L2 speakers (2015 census) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wmh |
| Glottolog | waim1252 |
| ELP | |
 Distribution of Waimaha mother-tongue speakers in East Timor | |
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
editWaimoa 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.[2]
| Bilabial | Coronal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless unaspirated | t | k | ʔ | |
| Voiceless aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |
| Voiceless ejective | pʼ ~ pˀ | tʼ ~ tˀ | kʼ ~ kˀ | |
| Voiced plain | b | d | ɡ |
Similarly there are voiceless and glottalized /m n l r s w/.
There is also vowel harmony.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Waimoa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Kirsten Culhane (2021) Waimaʼa consonants: phonology and typological position in Greater Timor. 15th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics.
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