| Wetarese | |
|---|---|
| Wetar | |
| Spoken in | Indonesia |
| Region | Southeast Asia |
| Language family |
Austronesian
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wet – Macrolanguage individual codes: apx – Aputai ilu – Ili'uun wet – Parai ilw – Talur tzn – Tugun |
Wetarese (Atauru, Adabe) is the language of Wetar, an island in the south Maluku, Indonesia, as well as the nearby islands Liran and Atauro, the latter belonging to East Timor.
On Atauro, there are three dialects of Wetarese spoken, Rahesuk in the north, Resuk in the southeast, and Raklungu in the southwest. A fourth dialect, Dadu'a, is spoken by the descendants of a group of Ataurans who moved to Timor, in the villages of Manatuto.
The language is closely related to Galoli, spoken on Timor on the north coast near Atauro. However, Wetarese has been more influenced by Malay.