| Welaun | |
|---|---|
| Bekais, Wekais | |
| Native to | Indonesia, East Timor |
Native speakers | 2,000-5,575 (ca. 2006/2019) [1] [2] |
Austronesian
| |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wlh |
| Glottolog | wela1235 |
 Distribution of Welaun (Bekais) in East Timor (West Timor not shown) | |
Welaun (also known as Bekais or Wekais) is an Austronesian language spoken on the border of East Timor and West Timor (a part of Indonesia). It is closely related to Tetun. [3]
Welaun was documented by Hull (2003) [4] and Edwards (2019). Edwards (2019) estimates a speaker population of 5,575. [2] A dictionary of Welaun has been written by da Silva (2012). [5]
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | t | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | |||
| Fricative | f | s | h | ||
| Approximant | l | w | |||
| Trill | r | ||||
It has five vowels: /i e a o u/
Tetum is an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Timor. It is one of the official languages of Timor-Leste and it is also spoken in Belu Regency and in Indonesian West Timor.
The languages of East Timor include both Austronesian and Papuan languages. The lingua franca and national language of East Timor is Tetum, an Austronesian language influenced by Portuguese, with which it has equal status as an official language. The language of the Ocussi exclave is Uab Meto (Dawan). Fataluku is a Papuan language widely used in the eastern part of the country. Both Portuguese and Tetum have official recognition under the Constitution of East Timor, as do other indigenous languages, including: Bekais, Bunak, Galoli, Habun, Idalaka, Kawaimina, Kemak, Lovaia, Makalero, Makasae, Mambai, Tokodede and Wetarese.
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The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages. They also include indigenous ethnic minorities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Hainan, the Comoros, and the Torres Strait Islands. The nations and territories predominantly populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are sometimes known collectively as Austronesia.
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The Timoric languages are a group of Austronesian languages spoken on the islands of Timor, neighboring Wetar, and Southwest Maluku to the east.
Geoffrey Stephen Hull is an Australian linguist, ethnologist and historian who has made contributions to the study of Romance, Celtic, Slavonic, Semitic, Austronesian and Papuan languages, in particular to the relationship between language and culture.
Oecusse, also known as Oecusse-Ambeno and formerly just Ambeno, officially the Special Administrative Region Oecusse-Ambeno, is an exclave, municipality and the only Special Administrative Region (SAR) of East Timor.
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