Batuley language
# Batuley language

Batuley (Gwatle lir) 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 Gwatle island (Batuley in Indonesian), which the Batuley consider their homeland (Daigle (2015)).

## Geographical distribution

Batuley is spoken in eastern Indonesia across seven villages that Daigle (2015) lists in his thesis. Some of them are Kabalsiang on 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 2015).

* 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. Furthermore, /e/ and /i/ may both be reduced to a schwa in fast speech in certain conditions.

### Consonants

Daigle (2015)

| | | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | n | | ŋ |
| Plosive | voiceless | | t | | k |
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | ʤ | ɡ |
| Fricative | Fricative | ɸ | s | | |
| Rhotic | Rhotic | | r | | |
| Lateral | Lateral | | l | | |
| Semivowel | Semivowel | | | j | w |

## Lexicon

Daigle (2015)

* 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)
