Asia -Pacific Linguistics, 2013. Released under Creative Commons License. 1 Western Pantar 1. The language scene Western Pantar (ISO 639-3 code lev) is spoken by an estimated 10,804 people on the southwestern portion of Pantar, west of the Sirung volcanic massif. The dry region of western Pantar is separated from the northern peninsula of the island by a physical barrier consisting of a number of steep-walled canyons. No road yet connects the northern peninsula with the western part of the island. In most of the academic literature the language is referred to as Lamma, though that name more properly refers to only a single dialect of the language. This description is based on first-hand field work by the author between 2004 and 2010. 1 There are three mutually-intelligible primary dialects—Lamma, Tubbe, and Mauta—spoken respectively in the western, central, and eastern parts of the region. Phonological differences between dialects are best described as tendencies, such as: the presence of final lateral in Lamma; diphthongization in Tubbe; and retention of final rhotic in Mauta. These phonological differences are exemplified in Table 1 below. Table 1: Phonological differences across Western Pantar dialects Lamma Tubbe Mauta gloss features niba niar nissar ‘my father’ loss of –r in L nekul niaku nebu ‘my younger sibling’ -l in L; diphthong in T nau niu niau ‘my mother’ variation in diphthongs ginaka ganiaka ganeka(r) ‘see (it)’ diphthong in T; -r in M yel dia si ‘go’ -l in L; diphthong in T 1 I am especially grateful to my principal collaborator Mr. Mahalalel Lamma Koly, in whose house I resided for much of the time I was on Pantar, and who assisted with much of the data collection and analysis. This chapter is much improved thanks to feedback from the editor, two anonymous reviewers, and my colleagues in the EuroBABEL project. Funding for exploratory field work in July 2004 was provided by US National Science Foundation grant #BCS-0408448. Funding for 2006-2007 field work was provided by a Documenting Endangered Languages fellowship from the US National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for 2008 field work was supported by a field trip grant from the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Documentation Project. Funding for field work in 2009 and 2010 was provided by the US National Science Foundation grant BCS- 0936887, under the auspices of the European Science Foundation EuroBABEL programme.