Batuley language
Batuley | |
---|---|
Native to | Indonesia |
Region | Aru Islands |
Native speakers | 3,600 (2011)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | bay |
Glottolog | batu1258 |
Batuley (Gwatale) is a language spoken on the Aru Islands of eastern Indonesia. It is close to Mariri; Hughes (1987) estimates that around 80% of lexical items are shared. The language's name comes from the Gwata-le island (Batuley in Indonesian), which the Batuley consider their homeland (Daigle (2019))
Geographical distribution
Batuley is spoken in Eastern Indonesia across several villages that Daigle (2019) lists in his thesis. Some of them are Kabalsiang in Aduar Island, Kumul in the identically-named island, and Gwaria (Waria) in the Island of Gwari.
Phonology
Vowels
Batuley has a simple five-vowel system with no vowel length distinction (Daigle 2019).
- i
- e
- u
- o
- a
[ɪ] is an allophone of /i/ and /e/ (in different environments). [e] is an allophone of /a/ when it does not receive the primary stress. Furhtermore, /e/ and /i/ may both be reduced to a schwa in fast speech in certain conditions.
Consonants
Daigle (2019)
- /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/
- /m/ /n/ /ŋ/
- /r/
- /ɸ/ /s/
- /ʤ/
- /l/
- /w/ /j/
Lexicon
Daigle (2019)
- gwayor: water, fresh water
- gwari: island
- keiran: sister; branch
- lef: big house
- kai: wood, tree
- ban: chest, breast
- fol gwayer: breast milk (fol: breast, gwayer: its water)
- kaom: scorpion
- gwarfagfag: small fresh-water turtle
- kudomsai: cloud
- ror: dance (n)
- fulan: month
- sapato, safato: shoe (borrowing)
- solar: diesel fuel (borrowing)
- nol: zero (borrowing)
- fikir: think (borrowing)
- fuis: cat (borrowing)
- guru: teacher (borrowing)
- kartas: paper (borrowing)
- kasar: crack, split (borrowing)
- kofi: hat (borrowing)
- tata: older sibling (borrowing)
- tempo: year (borrowing)
- buku: book (borrowing)
References
- ^ Batuley at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Further reading
- Daigle, Benjamin T. (2015). A grammar sketch of Batuley: An Austronesian language of Aru, eastern Indonesia (PDF) (M.A. thesis). LOT (Leiden University). hdl:1887/43444. Retrieved 11 May 2019.