Gorontalo language

Gorontalo
Bahasa Hulontalo
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Gorontalo North Sulawesi Central Sulawesi
Native speakers	1 million (2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Gorontalo–Mongondow Gorontalic Gorontalo
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2	gor
ISO 639-3	gor
Glottolog	goro1259

TheGorontalo language(also calledHulontalo) is a language spoken inGorontalo Province,Sulawesi,Indonesia by theGorontalo people.

Considerable lexical influence comes fromMalay,Arabic,Portuguese,Dutch,and theNorth Halmahera languages.Manado MalayandIndonesianare also spoken in the area.

Dialects

Musa Kasim et al. (1981) give five main dialects of Gorontalo: east Gorontalo,Limboto,Gorontolo City,west Gorontalo, andTilamuta.

Phonology

Consonants

Gorontalo consonants

		labial	alveolar		palatal	velar	glottal
nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
plosive	voiceless	p	t	d̠	c	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɟ	ɡ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
sonorant	plain	w	r		j		h
	lateral		l

Consonant sequences include NC (homorganicnasal–plosive), where C may be/bdtd̠ɟɡk/.Elsewhere,/bd/are relatively rare and only occur beforehigh vowels./d̠/,written⟨ḓ⟩in the literature, is a laminal post-alveolar coronal stop that is indeterminate as to voicing. The phonemic status of[ʔ]is unclear; if[VʔV]is interpreted as vowel sequences/VV/,then this contrasts with long vowels (where the two V's are the same) and vowel sequences separated by linking glides (where the two V's are different).

Vowels

Gorontalo has five vowels.

Gorontalo vowels

	front	central	back
high	i		u
mid	e		o
low		a

References

• Steinhauer, H. (1991). "Problems of Gorontalese Phonology". In Poeze, H. A.; Schoorl, P. (eds.).Excursies in Celebes: Een Bundel Bijdragen bij het Afscheid van J. Noorduyn als Directeur-Secretaris van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkendkunde.KITLVUitgeverij. pp. 325–338.
• Little, John A. Jr. (1995). "Gorontalo". In Tryon, Darrell T. (ed.).Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies.Vol. 1. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 521–527.doi:10.1515/9783110884012.1.521.ISBN978-3-11-088401-2.OCLC868970232.
• Kasim, M. Musa; Wahidji, Habu; Pateda, Mansoer; Junus, Husain; Hasan, Kartin; Koem, A. P. (1981).Geografi Dialek Bahasa Gorontalo(in Indonesian). Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa – via repositori.kemdikbud.go.id.
• Joest, Wilhelm (1883).Das Holontalo: Glossar und grammatische Skizze(in German). Berlin: A. Asher & Company – via archive.org.
• Henley, David (1996).Nationalism and regionalism in a colonial context: Minahasa in the Dutch East Indies.Leiden: KITLV Press.doi:10.1163/9789004486928.ISBN9789067180801.OCLC35113123.