Oirata–Makasae
Eastern Timor
Geographic
distribution		East Timor, Kisar
Linguistic classificationTrans–New Guinea ?
Subdivisions
  • Oirata–Fataluku
  • Makasae
Glottologeast2520

The Oirata–Makasae, or Eastern Timor, languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in eastern Timor and the neighboring island of Kisar.

Languages

Mandala et al. (2011)[2] found that Fataluku and Oirata are closer to each other than they are to Makasai:

Fataluku has high dialect diversity, and may be more than a single language, for example with Rusenu. An additional Makuv'a (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, is more distantly related. It is currently unknown if they are closer to each other or to the Alor–Pantar languages; all are clearly related. They may be closest to the West Bomberai languages of mainland New Guinea, but this is as yet speculative.[3]

Classification

Ross (2005) reconstructed first- and second-person pronouns for proto–East Timor:[4]

proto-ETOirata (object)FatalukuMakasai
1sg *anian-te (ani)aniani
2sg *aiaa-te/ee-te[5] (ee)eai
1ex *iniin-te (in)iniini
1in *apiap-te (ap)afifi
2pl *iii-te (ii)ii

Mandala et al. (2011) reconstruct five vowels, *a, *e, *i, *o, *u, and the following consonants, based on 200 cognate sets:

Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal *m *n
Occlusive *p *t *k *ʔ
Fricative *s
Sonorant *w *l, *r

*h and *j appear at the level of proto-Oirata–Fataluku.

References

  1. ↑ New Guinea World, West Bomberai
  2. ↑ Mandala, Halus; Aron Meko Mbete, Ni Made Dhanawaty and Inyo Yis Fernandez. 2011: “Phonological Evolution of Oirata and its Genetic Relationship with Non-Austronesian Languages in Timor-Leste”, Denpasar: Ejournal Universitas Udayana.
  3. ↑ Huber, Juliette; Schapper, Antoinette. "The historical relations of the Papuan languages of Timor and Kisar".
  4. ↑
    • Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
  5. ↑ ee-te is a polite form
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