Kui is a
Timor–Alor–Pantar language spoken in several enclaves on
Alor Island,
East Nusa Tenggara
East Nusa Tenggara (; ) is the southernmost province of Indonesia. It comprises the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, facing the Indian Ocean in the south and the Flores Sea in the north, with a total land area of 47,238.07 km2. It cons ...
,
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, ...
. The language is called 'Masin lak' in Kui.
Although the exact number of speakers is unknown, Kui is an endangered language since speakers are shifting to
Alor Malay.
Kui is mainly spoken in the towns of Moru, Bouraga and Lerabarang. Kirramung and Kui have some sort of dialect relationship, being considered by some as being the same language and some others as being two different languages. This is typical of Timor-Alor-Pantar (TAP) languages. It has verb-final word order which means that the verb comes last in a sentence, unlike in English where the verb usually comes in the middle.
Phonology
Consonants
Consonant phonemes are shown in the chart below. Marginal phonemes are enclosed in parentheses.
Vowels
Monophthongs
References
Alor–Pantar languages
Languages of Indonesia
Endangered languages of Indonesia
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