Waimoa language

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Waimoa
Spoken in: Northeast East Timor
Total speakers: 3,000
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian
  Central-Eastern
   Central
    Timor
     Nuclear
      Waima'a
       Waimoa
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: map
ISO 639-3: wmh

Waimoa or Waima'a is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by about 3,000 people in northeast East Timor. It is reported to be mutually intelligible with Kairui-Midiki. Waimoa is one of four languages, which are united called Kawaimina.

[edit] Phonology

Waimoa is one of only two Austronesian languages known to have a set of ejective stops, the other being Yapese:

Bilabial Coronal Velar Glottal
Voiceless unaspirated p t k ʔ
Voiceless aspirated
Voiceless ejective
Voiced plain b d ɡ

[edit] References

  • Hajek, John; Bowden, John (June 2002). "A Phonological Oddity in the Austronesian Area: Ejectives in Waimoa". Oceanic Linguistics 41 (1): 222–224. doi:10.1353/ol.2002.0021.