| Waimoa | |
|---|---|
| Region | NortheastEast Timor |
Native speakers | 21,200 (2015 census)[1] 5,670 L2 speakers (2015 census) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wmh |
| Glottolog | waim1252 |
| ELP | |
 Distribution of Waimaha mother-tongue speakers in East Timor | |
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Waimoa orWaimaʼa is a language spoken by about 27,000 (2015 census)[1] people in northeastEast Timor. Waimoa proper is reported to bemutually intelligible with neighboringKairui andMidiki, which together have about 5,000 speakers.
The classification of Waimoa is unclear. Structurally, it isMalayo-Polynesian. However, its vocabulary is largely Papuan, similar to that ofMakasae. Although generally classified as Austronesian languages or dialects that have been largelyrelexified under the influence of a language related to Makasae, it is possible that Waimoa, Kairui, and Midiki are instead Papuan languages related to Makasae which have been influenced by Austronesian.
Waimoa hasaspirated/voiceless and glottalized/ejective consonants, which are distributed like/hC/ and/ʔC/ consonant clusters (or perhaps/Ch/ and/Cʔ/) but are often pronounced as single segments.[2]
| Bilabial | Coronal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicelessunaspirated | t | k | ʔ | |
| Voicelessaspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |
| Voicelessejective | pʼ ~ pˀ | tʼ ~ tˀ | kʼ ~ kˀ | |
| Voiced plain | b | d | ɡ |
Similarly there are voiceless and glottalized/mnlrsw/.
There is alsovowel harmony.
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