Kawaimina is a

syllabic abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

used to refer to four languages or dialects 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 ...

: : Kairui, Midiki, Waimaha, and Naueti, spoken by one or two thousand speakers each. It is a name used by linguists discussing the languages, not the speakers themselves. The first three, which may be co-dialects, are spoken in adjacent areas in the western part of Baucau District, along the north coast. Naueti is used on the south coast of eastern Viqueque District, surrounded by speakers of

Makasae Makasae (also known as Makassai, Macassai, Ma'asae, Makasai) is a Papuan language spoken by about 100,000 people in the eastern part of East Timor, in the districts of Baucau and Viqueque, just to the west of Fataluku. It is the most widely spok ...

and

Makalero Makalero or Maklere is a Papuan language spoken in the Lautém district of East Timor. It was previously considered to be a dialect of Makasae Makasae (also known as Makassai, Macassai, Ma'asae, Makasai) is a Papuan language spoken by about 100 ...

. Some Midiki speakers near Ossu refer to their language as Osomoko.

Geoffrey Hull Geoffrey Stephen Hull (born 6 September 1955) 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 relationshi ...

classifies these as dialects and groups them into a single Kawaimina language, while ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'' groups the varieties into three distinct languages. Except perhaps for Naueti, the Kawaimina languages are members of the Timor–Babar family of Austronesian languages. While structurally the languages are Malayo-Polynesian, their vocabulary, particularly that of Naueti, derives mostly from

Papuan languages The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...

. In this they are similar to

and Habun; none of these languages are easy to classify as either Austronesian or Papuan. The languages are noted for both archaisms and unusual innovations, including

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...

and aspirated and

glottalized consonant In phonetics, a glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution (movement or closure) of the glottis. Glottalic sounds may involve motion of the larynx upward or downward, as the initiator of an egressive or ingres ...

s in their sound-systems. File:Kairui.png, Kairui File:Mideki.png, Midiki File:Naueti.png, Naueti File:Waimaha.png, Waimaha

References

External links

The Waimaha language of East TimorEthnologue page for Kairui-MidikiEthnologue page for NaueteEthnologue page for Waimaha
Languages of East Timor {{austronesian-lang-stub