Kemak language

Kemak
Region	East Timor
Ethnicity	Kemak people
Native speakers	72,000 (2010 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern Timoric Ramelaic West Kemak
Official status
Recognised minority language in	East Timor
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kem
Glottolog	kema1243
ELP	Kemak
Distribution of Kemak mother-tongue speakers in East Timor

Kemak is a

. The number of speakers has fallen in recent years.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n̪
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless		s		h
	voiced		(z)
Rhotic			ɾ
Lateral			l

• Sounds /b, ɡ/ can be heard as [β, ɣ] when in intervocalic position.
• /t/ can have an allophone of [tsʰ] freely in initial position, and [tʃʰ] when before /i/.
• /s/ can be heard as [z] when in voicing assimilation, and as [tʃʰ] when preceded by /n̪/.
• /t, k/ have aspirated allophones of [kʰ, tʰ].
• /ɡ, h/ are heard as [ɡʷ, ɸ] when before /u/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

• /e, a/ can be heard as [ɪ, ɤ] when preceding or following /u/ within a syllable.
• /o, u/ can be heard as [ɔ, ɯ] when after labial consonants.^[2]

References

External links

• Kaipuleohone's collection of Robert Blust's materials include notes on Kemak