Kawaimina languages
Kawaimina (a syllabic abbreviation of the names) is a cluster of four languages and dialects of East Timor:
| Timoric | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | East Timor |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian ? |
| Glottolog | kawa1289 |
spoken by one or two thousand speakers each. It is a name used by linguists discussing the languages, not the speakers themselves. The first three, which may be co-dialects, are spoken in adjacent areas in the western part of Baucau District, along the north coast. Naueti is used on the south coast of eastern Viqueque District, surrounded by speakers of Makasae and Makalero. Some Midiki speakers near Ossu refer to their language as Osomoko.
Geoffrey Hull classifies these as dialects and groups them into a single Kawaimina language, while Ethnologue groups the varieties into three distinct languages.
Except perhaps for Naueti, the Kawaimina languages are members of the Timor–Babar family of Austronesian languages. While structurally the languages are Malayo-Polynesian, their vocabulary, particularly that of Naueti, derives mostly from Papuan languages. In this they are similar to Makasae and Habun; none of these languages are easy to classify as either Austronesian or Papuan. The languages are noted for both archaisms and unusual innovations, including vowel harmony and aspirated and glottalized consonants in their sound-systems.