Ambel language

Ambel (Amber), also known as Waigeo after the island where it is primarily spoken, is a heavily Papuan-influenced Austronesian language spoken on the island of Waigeo in the Raja Ampat archipelago near the northwestern tip of West Papua, Indonesia. It is spoken by approximately 1,600 people. It is endangered, as the population is shifting to Papuan Malay and few people born after the year 2000 have any knowledge of the language.

The name Ambel is probably derived from the Biak word amber, meaning "foreigner" or "stranger". It was adapted into the language itself, where the designation is galí Ambél. The alternative name Waigeo is named after the island.

Speakers of Ambel consider themselves to be part of the Ma'ya tribe, hence the alternative designation galí Mayá, despite Ambel only being remotely related to Ma'ya via descent from Proto-Raja Ampat–South Halmahera.

Ambel is spoken by approximately 1,600 people on Waigeo, an island in the Raja Ampat archipelago near the northwestern tip of West Papua, Indonesia. There are two dialects of Ambel:

• Metsam Ambel, spoken in the two villages of Warsamdin and Kalitoko on Waigeo Island
• Metnyo Ambel, spoken in the nine villages of Warimak, Waifoi, Kabilo, Go, Kapadiri, Kabare, Bonsayor, Darumbab, and Andey on Waigeo Island

Ambel speakers live alongside Biak speakers in the three villages of Warsamdin, Kabare, and Andey.

Ambel is spoken in the following locations within Raja Ampat Regency:

• Waigeo Utara District: Kabare and Kapadiri villages.
• Teluk Manyalibit District: Kabilol, Go, Waifoy, Warimak, Kalitoko and Warsamdin villages.

The sounds of the Ambel language are as follows:

/h/ can be heard as [f] or [ɸ] in free variation.

Arnold (2018) reconstructs two tonemes for proto-Ambel, high /3/ and rising /12/, which is similar to the tonal system of Ma'ya.

Below are some monosyllabic proto-Ambel reconstructed lexical forms that have cognates with Matbat and Ma'ya. The Misool dialect is given for some Ma'ya forms; they are otherwise from the Salawati dialect.

• Arnold, Laura (2016). Lexical tone in Ambel. Paper presented at the 8th Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics Conference.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Arnold, Laura Melissa (2018). Grammar of Ambel, an Austronesian language of Raja Ampat, west New Guinea (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh. hdl:1842/31120.
• Arnold, Laura (2018b). "Lexical Tone in Metnyo Ambel". Oceanic Linguistics. 57 (1): 199–220. doi:10.1353/ol.2018.0007. S2CID 149762919.

• Deposit of Ambel-language materials at the Endangered Languages Archive