Gorontalo language

The Gorontalo language (also called Hulontalo) is a language spoken in Gorontalo Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia by the Gorontalo people.^[2] With around one million speakers (2000 census), it is a major language of northern Sulawesi.^[3]

Gorontalo
Bahasa Hulontalo
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Gorontalo North Sulawesi Central Sulawesi
Native speakers	1 million (2000 census)[1]
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
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Considerable lexical influence comes from Malay, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch,^[4] and the North Halmahera languages.^[4][5] The Gorontalo region used to be controlled by the Sultanate of Ternate.^[4] Manado Malay and Indonesian are also spoken in the area.^[4][6] Despite its relatively large number of speakers, Gorontalo is under much pressure from Malay varieties, especially in urban settings.^[3]

Sizable Gorontalo communities can be found in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, as well as Jakarta.^[4]

Dialects

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

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 (homorganic nasal–plosive), where C may be /b d t d̠ ɟ ɡ k/. Elsewhere, /b d/ are relatively rare and only occur before high 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.^[7]

Gorontalo vowels

	front	central	back
high	i		u
mid	e		o
low		a

Notes

1. Gorontalo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "The Gorontalo Language". The linguist list. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
3. Mead, David, "Gorontalo", Sulawesi Language Alliance, retrieved 2024-09-19
4. Little (1995), p. 521
5. Henley (1996), p. 28
6. Zakariya, Ulfa; Lustyantie, Ninuk; Emzir (2021). "The Gorontalo Language in Professional Communication: its Maintenance and Native Speakers' Attitudes". Professional Discourse & Communication. 3 (3): 39–51. doi:10.24833/2687-0126-2021-3-3-39-51. ISSN 2687-0126.
7. Little (1995), p. 523

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. KITLV Uitgeverij. 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. ISBN 978-3-11-088401-2. OCLC 868970232.
• 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. ISBN 9789067180801. OCLC 35113123.