Kemak language

Kemak is a language spoken in East Timor and in the border region of Indonesian West Timor. An alternate name is Ema. It is most closely related to Tocodede and Mambai. It has the status of one of the national languages in the East Timor constitution, besides the official languages of Portuguese and Tetum. The number of speakers has fallen in recent years.

Kemak
Region	East Timor
Ethnicity	Kemak
Native speakers	72,000 (2010 census)
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

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.

External links

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