Uruangnirin – Language Snapshot

Uruangnirin is an Austronesian language of eastern Indonesia spoken by around 400 people on the two easternmost Karas Islands. The language is part of the Tanimbar-Bomberai subgroup, which includes 13 languages on and around Bomberai Peninsula and Tanimbar Island. The language is endangered, as people born after around 2000 are not acquiring the language. Nevertheless, speakers of Uruangnirin seem to have a positive or at least neutral attitude to their language. Documentation and description of Uruangnirin is in progress, and a 30-hour corpus of audiovisual material can be accessed on line already.