I am Joao da Silva Sarmento, a native speaker of Makasae from Osoroa in Osu of Vikeke in Timor-Leste.  This is my first semester to join Language Documentation project at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.  As I am pursuing my undergraduate degree in Linguistics, my participation in this project is worth my while. 

Makasae is considered to be closely related to languages spoken in South Bird's Head, New Guinea, and it is not an Austronesian language. (Ethnologue, 2004).  There are about 3,000 people speaking the language in Osoroa.  This language, however, is also spoken by some neighboring villages such as Wagia, Wabubu, Loihunu and Osudesima.  The population in these villages distinctively maintains [p] sound.  Another dialect of Makasae is also spoken mostly in Vikeke, except Watulari and Watukarbau, and also in certain villages in Venilale sub-district of Baukau.

People in Nahareka and Waibobo villages of Osu normally do not produce voiceless bilabial stop [p] sound, instead they produce voiceless labiodental fricative [f] which is very common among other Makasae speakers populating other parts of Vikeke and Baukau. 

The language map of Makasae is a bit hard to determine, partly because the map is not the territory.  The other reason is wide spreading multilingualism in East Timor.  Some people in Osu can speak Makasae as well as Kairui, the language spoken solely by the people in Liaruka and Builale villages.  Under Indonesian occupation, widespread relocation of population, forced or unwillingly but voluntary (e.g., refuge), mess up the distribution of the language and it is now hard to locate the speakers geographically. 


Contrary to the common belief that Makasae people do not have voiceless glottal fricative [h], Makasae speakers in Ossu have [h] sound in words like aha [aha] “mango”, gehe [gehe] “to drink”, naha [naha] “burden”, and so forth.  In everyday conversation, however, many people just get rid of [h] sound by saying a [a:] “mango”, ge [ge:] “to drink” and so on.  Though these forms, with or without [h], are interchangeably produced, they can still be understood under many circumstances among the native speakers.