Welaun language

Welaun
Bekais, Wekais
Native to	Indonesia, East Timor
Native speakers	2,000-5,575 (ca. 2006/2019)[1][2]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern Timoric Tetumic Welaun
Official status
Recognised minority language in	East Timor
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wlh
Glottolog	wela1235
Distribution of Welaun (Bekais) in East Timor (West Timor not shown)

Welaun (also known as Bekais or Wekais) is an Austronesian language spoken on the border of East Timor and West Timor (a part of Indonesia). It is closely related to Tetun.^[3]

Previous studies

Welaun was documented by Hull (2003)^[4] and Edwards (2019). Edwards (2019) estimates a speaker population of 5,575.^[2] A dictionary of Welaun has been written by da Silva (2012).^[5]

Phonology

13 consonants^[2]

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless		t	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d
Fricative		f	s		h
Approximant			l		w
Trill			r

It has five vowels: /i e a o u/

References

1. Cunningham, Ingram, & Sumbuk, 2006. Language Diversity in the Pacific: Endangerment And Survival, p. 122
2. Edwards, Owen (2019). Reintroducing Welaun. Oceanic Linguistics, Volume 58, Number 1, June 2019, pp. 31-58. doi:10.1353/ol.2019.0002 hdl:1887/79038
3. Hull, Geoffrey. 1998. "The basic lexical affinities of Timor's Austronesian languages: a preliminary investigation." Studies in Languages and Cultures of East Timor 1:97-202.
4. Hull, Geoffrey. 2003. Lia-Bekais nia Fatin iha Dalen-Lubun Tim´or. Studies in Languages and Cultures of East Timor 5:55–78. (In Tetun Dili.)
5. da Silva, Eng. Guilherme ‘Puru-Berliku’. 2012. Disionáriu Wekais-Tetun. Dili: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura.