Air Matoa is a recently extinct Papuan language formerly spoken in the village of around Etna Bay, Kaimana, in West Papua, Indonesia. The last speaker died in 2017, and the language is known only from vocabulary items and phonological descriptions, without having its grammar documented.
History Speakers of Air Matoa originally lived in a village of the same name prior to 1976; they relocated to Rurumo, located on the coast of , in order to "improve their mobility". Following their move, Air Matoa became displaced by Yeresiam, an Austronesian language; as a result, only a single speaker of Air Matoa was left by 2008. In 2010, the speaker was reported by Anthonius Maturbong of the Papua Language Bureau to be an elder. According to residents of Rurumo, the last speaker of Air Matoa died in 2017, rendering the language extinct. Its extinction followed that of other Indonesian languages such as Tandia, Mapia, and Mawes.
Documentation Air Matoa was only documented in its lexicon and phonology prior to its extinction. As a consequence, the data collected for it are rather limited, and a complete picture of it cannot be obtained.
Classification Only the word in Air Matoa bears any similarity with other languages, according to Glottolog, which further describes it as "resembl[ing] no other language".
Phonology
Vowels A total of five vowel phonemes are present in Air Matoa. +Air Matoa vowelsFrontCentralBackHighMiddleLow has allophones of and , has allophones of and , has allophones of and , and has allophones of and . Air Matoa also has long forms of all allophones except in . is not found word-initially.
Consonants 15 consonant phonemes are found in Air Matoa. +Air Matoa consonantsBilabialLabiodentalDental/AlveolarPalatalVelarPlosivevoicelessvoicedFricativeNasalTrillSemivowel are restricted to the word-initial position, can only be found word-medially, can occur in both word-initial and medial positions, and is found only word-initially and finally, the only consonant found in that position.
Phonotactics Air Matoa displays syllables in the shapes of V, VC, CV, CVC, and CCV (where C represents a wildcard for any consonant and V for any vowel). Open syllables are more common than closed ones.
References