Woisika language

Woisika, also known as Kamang, is a Papuan language of Alor Island of Indonesia. The three main dialects are Western Kamang, Lowland Kamang, and Upland Kamang. Dialects also include Lembur, Sibo, Kamang, Tiayai, Watang, Kamana-Kamang. They may constitute more than one language. Kamang is an endangered language, since children usually only have passive competence of the language, and instead are shifting to Malay.[3]

Woisika
Kamang
Native toIndonesia
RegionAlor Island
Native speakers
6,000 (2014)[1]
Trans–New Guinea ?
Language codes
ISO 639-3woi
Glottologkama1365[2]

Speakers may prefer the term Kamang to refer to the speech community as a whole; Woisika is a village name.[4]

Phonology

Consonants
Woisika consonant phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ <ng>
Plosive voiceless p t k (ʔ) <'>
voiced b d ɡ
Fricative ɸ <f> s (h)
Approximant w j <y>
Lateral l

/h/ and /ʔ/ are marginal. /r/ is rare in initial and final position. Word-final /s/ is only in loan words.

The consonant /ŋ/ is not found word-initially, and /f/ is not found word-finally.[5]

Vowels
Woisika vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
Close i iː <ii> u uː <uu>
Mid e eː <ee> o oː <oo>
Open a aː <aa>

Grammar

Serial verb constructions

Kamang has serial verb constructions.

Mooibongnokkoksilangdii[3]:345
bananatreeonefall.downdescendlie
'A banana tree came falling down.'


Afunaayakiimenoowaai.[3]:348
a-funaaga-kiimenoo-waai.
3.PAT-face3.PAT-turncome3.AST-face
'Turn and face me.'

Valence

Examples with avalent, monovalent, bivalent, and trivalent verbs are shown below.[3]

Avalent

Itunma[3]:300
itun-ma
late.afternoon-PFV
'It's late afternoon.'

Monovalent

Markusgamanteima[3]:301
Markusga-mantei-ma
Markus3.PAT-thirst-PFV
'Markus is thirsty already.'

Bivalent

NaMarkusgatakma.[3]:301
naMarkusga-tak-ma
1SG.AGTMarkus3.PAT-see-PFV
'I have seen Markus'

Trivalent

Markuspateimedummawotulen.[3]:301
Markuspateimedum=ago-tulen
MarkuscornTAKEchild=SPEC3.LOC-divide
'Markus divides corn amongst the children.'

Riddles

Woisika riddles relate to animals, the human body, human artifacts, natural phenomena, crops and other foods, among others.[6]

gollark: Okay wow.
gollark: What's yours?
gollark: umwn: you should run for president of Keansia
gollark: Plus the drivers are fully FOSS.
gollark: They manage pretty good performance given the fact that they're crammed into low power budget CPUs.

References
  1. "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kamang". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Schapper, Antoinette (2014). "Kamang". In Schapper, Antoinette (ed.). The Papuan Languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar: Volume 1: Sketch Grammars. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 287–349.
  4. Grimes, Charles (1997). A guide to the people and languages of Nusa Tenggara (PDF). Kupang: Artha Wacana Press.
  5. Stokhof, W.A.L. (1979). Woisika II Phonemics (PDF). Australian National University.
  6. Stokhof, W.A.L. (1982). Woisika Riddles (PDF). Australian National University.
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