Maʼya language
language in Papua
Maʼya is an Austronesian language of the Raja Ampat islands in Southwest Papua, Indonesia. It is part of the South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) subgroup and is spoken by about 6,000 people in coastal villages on the islands of Batanta, Misool, Salawati, and Waigeo, on the boundary between Austronesian and Papuan languages.
Dialects
Maʼya has five dialects: three on the island of Waigeo (Legenyem, Wauyai, and Kawe), one on Salawati and part of Batanta, and one on Misool. The prestige dialect is the one on Salawati. The varieties spoken on Salawati and Misool are characterized by the occurrence of /s/ and /ʃ/ in some words, where the Waigeo dialects (and other related SHWNG languages) have /t/ and /c/ respectively.
On Waigeo Island, the three dialects are
The Kawe dialect in Selpele and Salyo villages in the northwest part of the island.
The Laganyan (Legenyem) dialect is spoken in Araway, Beo, and Lopintol villages on the Mayalibit Bay coast.
The Wauyai (Wawiyai) dialect is spoken in Wawiyai village on the Kabui Bay coast.
In Glottolog 5.2 (2025), which is based on Laura Arnold's most recent classification, the Ma'ya dialects are classified as follows:
Misool-Salawati Ma'ya
Banlol
Batanta Ma'ya
Nuclear Ma'ya
Waigeo Maya
Biga
Kawe
Legenyem
Wauyai
Phonology
Consonants
Twelve consonants may also be heard as palatalized /pʲ, bʲ, tʲ, dʲ, kʲ, ɡʲ/; /fʲ, sʲ/; /mʲ, nʲ, lʲ, wʲ/.
When in word-final position, six plosives can occur as unreleased [p̚, b̚, t̚, d̚, k̚, ɡ̚], as well as nasals [m̚, n̚, ŋ̚].
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