Languages of Sulawesi

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vijayjohn
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Languages of Sulawesi

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-06-29, 23:15

All of the languages spoken on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are Austronesian. Most of them are Celebic languages, a subgroup of Austronesian languages unique to Sulawesi and smaller neighboring islands. Some of the languages spoken in the southwestern part of Sulawesi are instead part of the South Sulawesi subgroup; a few other languages from this subgroup are spoken further west in Indonesia, particularly the Tamanic languages spoken in Kalimantan. Another language called Indonesian Bajau is spoken in a few small, coastal parts of Sulawesi. Sulawesi is also directly south of the Philippines, and there are many Philippine languages spoken in northern Sulawesi as well.

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Re: Languages of Sulawesi

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-10-02, 15:47

The South Sulawesi languages include Buginese and Toraja Sa'dan. Toraja is spoken only in Sulawesi whereas Buginese is much more geographically widespread.

About the Celebic languages, Wikipedia says the following:
David Mead (2003a:125) classifies the Celebic languages as follows.

Tomini–Tolitoli
Kaili–Pamona
Wotu–Wolio
Eastern
Saluan–Banggai
Southeastern
Bungku–Tolaki
Muna–Buton
More recently, Zobel (2020) proposed that Kaili–Pamona and Wotu–Wolio form a Kaili–Wolio group, which Zobel places as a primary subgroup of Celebic. Furthermore, in Zobel's (2020) classification, Kaili–Wolio is placed as a sister to group to Tominic–Eastern Celebic, which contains Mead's (2003) Tomini–Tolitoli and Eastern Celebic groups.

At the current state of research, the Celebic languages are considered to make up a primary branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup within the Austronesian language family.

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Re: Languages of Sulawesi

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-10-28, 1:19

Buginese is spoken pretty much the entire length and breadth of Indonesia.

The other South Sulawesi languages besides Buginese and the Tamanic languages are all spoken in Sulawesi. They include the Northern South Sulawesi languages, which in turn includes Toraja-Sa'dan. They also include Buginese's close relative, Campalagian, the Makassaric languages, the Seko languages, and the Lemolang language spoken in just two villages.

The Philippine languages of Sulawesi are the Gorontalo-Mogondow languages, Sangiric languages, and Minahasan languages. There are 18 of them in all. Of these, the Gorontalo-Mogondow languages are apparently part of the Greater Central Philippine group, as are Tagalog and Cebuano, which is part of Central Philippine proper (but not Ilokano!).


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