| Also Known As: Woleaian
Description:
Woleaian is the main language of the island of Woleai and surrounding smaller islands in the state of Yap of the Federated States of Micronesia. Woleaian is a Trukic language, and within that family its closest relative is Satawalese, with which it is largely mutually intelligible. Woleaian is divided into two dialects: Woleaian proper and Lamotrek. There are approximately 1700 speakers of Woleaian.
Woleai has a writing system of its own, a syllabary influenced in part by Latin letters.
Woleaian has geminate (long) consonants and vowels.
In the orthography of Sohn (1975), along with a few approximations in the IPA, the inventory is,
Note that both sh and r become ch when long, and that l becomes nn.
Vowels occur long and short, except for eo and oa, which are only found long.
Sohn, H.M. 1975. Woleaian Reference Grammar. University of Hawaii Press...... full article at Wikipedia |
