Glottolog weta1245 | ||
Native speakers (11,000 cited 1990–2010) Language family AustronesianMalayo-Polynesian (MP)Nuclear MP(Central–Eastern)Timor–BabarWetar–GaloliWetarese ISO 639-3 Variously:apx – Aputaiilu – Ili'uunwet – Paraitzn – Tugunadb – Adabe (mistakenly identified as Papuan) | ||
Wetarese is a language of Wetar, an island in the south Maluku, Indonesia, and of the nearby islands Liran and Atauro, the latter in East Timor north of Dili. The four principal varieties of Wetarese on Wetar are distinct enough they may be considered different languages.
Half of Wetarese speakers live on the island of Atauro in East Timor, where four very similar dialects of Wetarese (presumably of Ili'uun) are spoken: Rahesuk in the center, Resuk in the southeast, Raklungu in the southwest, and Dadu'a in the north. About half the Dadu'a population has moved to Timor, on the coast of Manatuto district, where it has undergone influence from Galoli.
Wetarese is closely related to Galoli, spoken on the north coast of East Timor and by an immigrant community on the south coast of Wetar.
Adabe "language"
The Raklungu dialect of Atauro, or Klu'un Hahan Adabe, was mistaken for a Papuan language by Antonio de Almeida (1966) and reported as "Adabe" in Wurm & Hattori (1981). Many subsequent sources propagated this error, showing a Papuan language on Atauro Island. Geoffrey Hull, director of research for the Instituto Nacional de Linguística in East Timor, describes only Wetarese being spoken on Ataúro Island.