Woleaian is the main language of the island of Woleai and surrounding islands in the state of Yap of the Federated States of Micronesia. Woleaian is officially classified as a Trukic language, and within this family its closest relative is Satawalese, with which it is largely mutually intelligible. Woleaian is divided into two dialects: Woleaian 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.
Phonology
Woleaian has geminate (long) consonants and vowels.
In the orthography of Sohn (1975), along with a few approximations in the IPA, the inventory is,
Consonants
short oral consonant
b [ɸʷ]
p
f
t
s
l
sh [ʃ]
r
g [x]
equivalent geminate
bb [pːʷ]
pp
ff
tt
ss
nn [nː]
ch [tʃ]
k [kː]
nasal consonant
mw [mʷ]
m
n
ng [ŋ]
semivowel
w
y [j]
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.
Vowels
i
iu [y]
u
e
eo [øː]
o
a
oa [ɑː]
Further reading
Sohn, H.M. 1975. Woleaian Reference Grammar. University of Hawaii Press.
