Welaun (also known as Bekais or Wekais) is an
Austronesian language spoken on the border of
East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...
and
West Timor
West Timor ( id, Timor Barat) is an area covering the western part of the island of Timor, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno (an East Timorese exclave). Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The ca ...
(a part of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
). It is closely related to
Tetun
, nativename=Tetun
, states= Indonesia East Timor
, speakers=, mostly in Indonesia
, date=2010–2011
, ref=e18
, speakers2=50,000 L2-speakers in Indonesia and East Timor
, familycolor=Austronesian
, fam2=Malayo-Polynesian
, fam3= Central–East ...
.
Previous studies
Welaun was documented by Hull (2003) and Edwards (2019). Edwards (2019) estimates a speaker population of 5,575.
[Edwards, Owen (2019). Reintroducing Welaun. ''Oceanic Linguistics'', Volume 58, Number 1, June 2019, pp. 31-58. ] A dictionary of Welaun has been written by da Silva (2012).
[da Silva, Eng. Guilherme ‘Puru-Berliku’. 2012. ''Disionáriu Wekais-Tetun''. Dili: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura.]
Phonology
It has five vowels: /i e a o u/
References
Timor–Babar languages
Languages of East Timor
Languages of Indonesia
Maluku Islands
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