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-west ...

and West Timor (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 {{au-lang-stub