Background
The four identified principal varieties of Wetarese on Wetar – Aputai, Iliʼuun, Parai and Tugun – are distinct enough that some may consider them to be different languages. Half of Wetarese speakers live on the island of Atauro in East Timor, where three closely related dialects (presumably of Iliuun) are spoken: 'Rahesuk' (''Rasua'') in the center, 'Resuk' (''Hresuk'') in the southeast, and 'Adabe' (''Raklungu'') in the southwest. ''Dadua'' in the extreme north is a subdialect of Rahesuk, and has been reported to be intelligible with the Iliuun of Liran Island. About half the Dadua population has moved to Timor, on the coast of"language"
The Raklungu dialect of Atauro, or ''Kluun Hahan Adabe'', was mistaken for a Papuan language by Antonio de Almeida (1966) and reported as "Adabe" in Wurm & Hattori (1981). Many subsequent sources propagated this error, showing a Papuan language on Atauro Island.''Ethnologue'' (2013), for example, shows "Adabe" being spoken on central Atauro, in the area of Raklungu, and lists the population of all three dialects of Atauro Wetarese as being Papuan Adabe. Geoffrey Hull, director of research for the ''Instituto Nacional de LinguÃstica'' in East Timor, describes only Wetarese being spoken on Ataúro Island, and was unable to find any evidence of a non-Austronesian language there.Phonology
The following represents the Tugun dialect:Consonants
* /v/ may also be heard as in free variation. * /r/ is mainly heard as in word-final position or in slower speech, it is heard as ¾elsewhere. * /Ê”/ only occurs in word-medial positions.Vowels
* Sounds /e u/ are also heard as › ÊŠCitations
References
*External links