Geographic
distribution East Timor, Kisar | Glottolog east2520 | |
Linguistic classification Trans–New Guinea ?
West TNG linkage?
West Bomberai – Timor–Alor–Pantar?
Oirata–Makasai Subdivisions Oirata–Fataluku
Makasae | ||
The Oirata–Makasai, or East Timor, languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in eastern Timor and the neighboring island of Kisar.
Contents
Languages
Mandala et al. (2011) 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.
Classification
Ross (2005) reconstructed first- and second-person pronouns for proto–East Timor:
Mandala et al. (2011) reconstruct five vowels, *a, *e, *i, *o, *u, and the following consonants, based on 200 cognate sets:
*h and *j appear at the level of proto-Oirata–Fataluku.