Tarangan, West

Print

A language of Indonesia

ISO 639-3
txn
Alternate Names
Tarangan Barat, West Trangan
Population

7,910 (2011 SIL), increasing. No monolinguals.

Location

Southeastern Maluku Province, south Aru islands, Tarangan island west coast.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Aru
Dialects

North Central Tarangan, Southwestern Tarangan. 2 sharply distinct dialect groups with minor variation within them. Lexical similarity: 70% with East Tarangan [tre] and Manombai [woo].

Typology

SVO; prepositions; noun head Initial; 2 maximum prefixes, 2 maximum suffixes; clause constituent marked by word order; verb agreement; no passive; 15 lexical consonants; 7 vowel phonemes; nontonal

Language Use

Vigorous. Used as L2 on Aru Islands, especially to the south. Home, community. All ages. Positive attitudes.

Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: 10%–70%. Literacy rate in L2: 90% in Indonesian [ind]. Poetry. New media. Bible portions: 1997–2008.
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Largest language group in Aru Islands. Christian, Muslim.