Woisika | |
---|---|
Kamang | |
Native to | Indonesia |
Region | Alor Island |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2014) |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | woi |
Glottolog | kama1365 |
ELP | Kamang |
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.
Speakers may prefer the term Kamang to refer to the speech community as a whole; Woisika is a village name.
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) | |||
Semivowel | 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.
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | iː ⟨ii⟩ | u | uː ⟨uu⟩ | ||
Mid | e | eː ⟨ee⟩ | o | oː ⟨oo⟩ | ||
Open | a | aː ⟨aa⟩ |
Kamang has serial verb constructions.
Afunaa
a-funaa
3.PAT-face
yakii
ga-kii
3.PAT-turn
me
me
come
noowaai.
noo-waai.
3.AST-face
'Turn and face me.': 348 Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
Examples with avalent, monovalent, bivalent, and trivalent verbs are shown below.
Avalent
Monovalent
Bivalent
Trivalent
Markus
Markus
Markus
patei
patei
corn
me
me
TAKE
dumma
dum=a
child=SPEC
wotulen.
go-tulen
3.LOC-divide
'Markus divides corn amongst the children.': 301 Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
Woisika riddles relate to animals, the human body, human artifacts, natural phenomena, crops and other foods, among others.