Makasae (also known as Makassai, Macassai, Ma'asae, Makasai) 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 ...
spoken by about 100,000 people in the eastern part 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-we ...
, in the districts of
Baucau
Baucau ( pt, Baucau, tet, Baukau) is the second-largest city in East Timor, after Dili, the capital, which lies to its west.
Baucau has about 16,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of Baucau municipality, located in the eastern part of t ...
and
Viqueque, just to the west of
Fataluku. It is the most widely spoken Papuan language west of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
.
Phonology
The data in this section are from Huber (2017).
Consonants
Native consonant phonemes are shown in the chart below for the Ossu dialect. Borrowed consonants are enclosed in parenthesis.
Vowels
Monophthongs
Makasae has five vowel phonemes.
References
Further reading
* Huber, Juliette (2008). ''First steps towards a grammar of Makasae: a language of East Timor''. LINCOM
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External links
Makasaiat The Language Archive
{{West Trans–New Guinea languages
Oirata–Makasai languages
Languages of East Timor