| 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 | |
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WaimoaorWaimaʼa 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.
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.
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]
| 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.
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