The Languages of Atauro Island

Abstract: The linguistic situation on the island of Atauro in Timor-Leste has so far been unclear. Key publications are hard to access, and there are conflicting reports on the number of languages. This paper clarifies the linguistic situation on the island and (re)introduces its four languages: Rasua, Hresuk, Raklungu, and Dadu'a. It includes preliminary sociolinguistic information, as well as a description of verbal agreement, possessive morphology, and word lists of 251 items for each language.