Woleaian language

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Woleaian
Native to Federated States of Micronesia
Region Woleai
Native speakers
 unknown (1,600 cited 1987 census)[1]
Austronesian
Latin, formerly Woleaian syllabary
Official status
Official language in
  Federated States of Micronesia
Language codes
ISO 639-3 woe

Woleaian is the main language of the island of Woleai and surrounding smaller islands in the state of Yap of the Federated States of Micronesia. Woleaian is a Trukic language, and within that family its closest relative is Satawalese, with which it is largely mutually intelligible. Woleaian is divided into two dialects: Woleaian proper and Lamotrek. There are approximately 1700 speakers of Woleaian.[2]

Woleai has a writing system of its own, a syllabary influenced in part by Latin letters.

Phonology

Woleaian has geminate (long) consonants and vowels.

In the orthography of Sohn (1975), along with a few approximations in the IPA, the inventory is,

Consonants
short oral consonant b [ɸʷ] p f t s l sh [ʃ] r g [x]
equivalent geminate bb [pːʷ] pp ff tt ss nn [nː] ch [tʃ] k [kː]
nasal consonant mw [mʷ] m n ng [ŋ]
semivowel w y [j]

Note that both sh and r become ch when long, and that l becomes nn.

Vowels occur long and short, except for eo and oa, which are only found long.

Vowels
i iu [y] u
e eo [øː] o
a oa [ɑː]

References

  1. ↑ Woleaian reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ↑ http://globalrecordings.net/en/language/18321

Further reading

Sohn, H.M. 1975. Woleaian Reference Grammar. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-0356-6

External links


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