The Oirata–Makasai, or Eastern Timor, languages are a small family of
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 geogr ...
spoken in eastern
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, also ...
and the neighboring island of
Kisar
Kisar, also known as ''Yotowawa'', is a small island in the Southwestern Moluccas in Indonesia, located to the northeast of Timor Island. Most of the island is included within the Southernmost Islands District ('' Kecamatan Pulau Pulau Terselata ...
.
Languages
Mandala ''et al.'' (2011) found that Fataluku and Oirata are closer to each other than they are to Makasai:
*
Makasai
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 (district), Baucau and Viqueque (district), Viqueque, just to the west ...
(including
Makalero dialect
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 ...
)
*Oirata–Fataluku
**
Fataluku
Fataluku (also known as Dagaga, Dagoda', Dagada) is a Papuan language spoken by approximately 37,000 people of Fataluku ethnicity in the eastern areas of East Timor, especially around Lospalos. It is a member of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language fa ...
(
Rusenu perhaps belongs here)
**
Oirata
Fataluku has high dialect diversity, and may be more than a single language, for example with
Rusenu. An additional
Makuv'a
Makuva, also known as Maku'a or Lóvaia, is an apparently extinct Austronesian language spoken at the northeast tip of East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an isl ...
(Lovaea) branch was once assumed for East Timor, but that appears to be a heavily Papuan-influenced Austronesian language.
The fourth Papuan language spoken in East Timor,
Bunak
The Bunak (also known as Bunaq, Buna', Bunake) people are an ethnic group that live in the mountainous region of central Timor, split between the political boundary between West Timor, Indonesia, particularly in Lamaknen District and East Timor. ...
, is more distantly related. It is currently unknown if they are closer to each other or to the
Alor–Pantar languages
The Alor–Pantar languages are a family of clearly related Papuan languages spoken on islands of the Alor archipelago near Timor in southern Indonesia. They may be most closely related to the Papuan languages of eastern Timor, but this is not y ...
; all are clearly related. They may be closest to the
West Bomberai languages of mainland New Guinea, but this is as yet speculative.
Classification
Ross (2005) reconstructed first- and second-person pronouns for proto–East Timor:
:
Mandala ''et al.'' (2011) reconstruct five vowels, *a, *e, *i, *o, *u, and the following consonants, based on 200 cognate sets:
:
*h and *j appear at the level of proto-Oirata–Fataluku.
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–East Timor
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oirata-Makasai languages
Timor–Alor–Pantar languages
Languages of East Timor