Woisika, also known as Kamang, is a

Papuan language 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 ...

Alor Island Alor ( id, Pulau Alor) is the largest island in the Alor Archipelago and is one of the 92 officially listed outlying islands of Indonesia. It is located at the eastern Lesser Sunda Islands that runs through southeastern Indonesia, which from ...

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 ...

. The three main dialects are Western Kamang, Lowland Kamang, and Upland Kamang. Dialects also include Lembur, Sibo, Kamang, Tiayai, Watang, Kamana-Kamang. They may constitute more than one language. Kamang is an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

, since children usually only have passive competence of the language, and instead are shifting to

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

. Speakers may prefer the term ''Kamang'' to refer to the speech community as a whole; ''Woisika'' is a village name.

Phonology

Consonants

/h/ and /ʔ/ are marginal. /r/ is rare in initial and final position. Word-final /s/ is only in loan words. The consonant /ŋ/ is not found word-initially, and /f/ is not found word-finally.

Vowels

Grammar

Serial verb constructions

Kamang has

serial verb construction The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause.Tallerman, M. (1998). ''Understanding Syntax''. London: A ...

Valence

Examples with avalent, monovalent, bivalent, and trivalent verbs are shown below. Avalent Monovalent Bivalent Trivalent

Riddles

Woisika riddles relate to animals, the human body, human artifacts, natural phenomena, crops and other foods, among others.

References

Alor–Pantar languages Languages of Indonesia {{TNG-lang-stub