Ma'ya language

Ma'ya
Native to	Indonesia
Native speakers	6,000  (2001)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Nuclear MP Eastern MP ? Halmahera–Cenderawasih ? Halmahera Sea Raja Ampat Ma'ya
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: slz – Salawati kgb – Kawe lcc – Legenyem bhc – Biga wuy – Wauyai xmx – Maden

Ma'ya is an Austronesian language spoken in West Papua by 6,000 people. It is spoken in coastal villages on the islands Misool, Salawati, and Waigeo in the Raja Ampat islands. It is spoken on the boundary between Austronesian and Papuan languages. Both its tone and stress are lexically distinctive. That means both the stress and the pitch of a word may affect meaning. The stress and tone are quite independent from one another, in contrast to their occurrence Swedish and Serbo-Croatian. It has three tonemes (high, rising and falling) Out of some 1236 Austronesian languages, there are only 15 with lexical tone; this appears to be a remnant of shift from Papuan languages. There are five dialects of the language, three on the island Waigeo (Laganyan, Wauyai, and Kawe), and one each on Misool (Biga) and Salawati, the prestige dialect being the one on Salawati. The Waigeo dialects have /s/ and /ʃ/ where the varieties spoken on Salwati and Misool have /t/ and /c/ respectively.

See also

• Matbat language, a neighboring language with more extreme Papuan influence and five tones.

Further reading

• van der Leeden, Alex (1993). Ma'ya: Phonology. Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia. p. 97. ISBN 979-8258-01-0, 9789798258015 .