Welaun language explained

Welaun
Also Known As:	Bekais, Wekais
States:	Indonesia, East Timor
Speakers:	2,000-5,575
Dateprefix:	ca.
Date:	2006/2019
Ref:	^[1]
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Central–Eastern
Fam4:	Timoric
Fam5:	Tetumic
Minority:	East Timor
Iso3:	wlh
Glotto:	wela1235
Glottorefname:	Welaun
Map:	Bekais.png
Mapcaption:	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.^[2]

Previous studies

Welaun was documented by Hull (2003)^[3] and Edwards (2019). Edwards (2019) estimates a speaker population of 5,575.^[4] A dictionary of Welaun has been written by da Silva (2012).^[5]

Phonology

! Labial! Alveolar! Velar! Glottal

Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Plosive			pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Fricative		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Approximant			pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Trill			pronounced as /ink/

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

Notes and References

1. Cunningham, Ingram, & Sumbuk, 2006. Language Diversity in the Pacific: Endangerment And Survival, p. 122
2. 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.
3. 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.)
4. Edwards, Owen (2019). Reintroducing Welaun. Oceanic Linguistics, Volume 58, Number 1, June 2019, pp. 31-58.
5. da Silva, Eng. Guilherme ‘Puru-Berliku’. 2012. Disionáriu Wekais-Tetun. Dili: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura.