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.
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