Welaun (also known as Bekais or Wekais) is an

Austronesian language The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

spoken on the border of

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

and

West Timor West Timor () 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 capital as well ...

(a part of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

). It is closely related to Tetun.

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:

References

Timor–Babar languages Languages of Timor-Leste Languages of Indonesia Maluku Islands {{au-lang-stub