Makassar languages

Not to be confused with Makassarese language.

The Makassar languages are a group of languages spoken in the southern part of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, and make up one of the branches of the South Sulawesi subgroup in the Austronesian language family.^[1][2] The most prominent member of this group is Makassarese, with over two million speakers in the city of Makassar and neighboring areas.

Makassar
Geographic distribution	Indonesia (Sulawesi)
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian South Sulawesi Makassar
Subdivisions	Bentong Coastal Konjo Highland Konjo Makassarese Selayar
Language codes
Glottolog	maka1310
Map showing the distribution of the South Sulawesi languages in Sulawesi and Kalimantan.   Languages within Makassar languages group, varying between number 6 to 10.
Interactive map of Makassar languages, click the map Marker for further detail and navigation.

The status of the Makassar languages other than Makassarese as distinct languages is not universally accepted. In older classifications,^[3] but also in recent studies by local linguists,^[4] they are considered to be dialects of the Makassarese language.

Languages

• Makassarese
• Bentong
• Coastal Konjo
• Highland Konjo
• Selayar

Phonology

A characteristic feature of the Makassar languages is the occurrence of echo vowels with stems ending in final /r/, /l/ or /s/. E.g. /botol/ 'bottle' is realized as bótolo in Selayar and Coastal Konjo, and as bótoloʔ in Makassarese and Highland Konjo (the latter regularly adds a glottal stop to the echo vowel). This echo vowel is dropped if a suffix is added, but retained if followed by an enclitic.^[5]

	Makassarese	Selayar
base	/rantas/ rántasaʔ 'dirty'	/lambus/ lámbusu 'straight'
with suffix	/rantas/ + /-aŋ/ rantás-aŋ 'dirtier'	/lambus/ + /-aŋ/ lambús-aŋ 'straighter'
with enclitic	/rantas/ + /=aʔ/ rántasak=aʔ 'I am dirty'	/lambus/ + /=a/ lámbusu=a 'I am straight'

For Konjo (both Coastal and Highland Konjo), Bentong, Makassarese (Labbakkang dialect) and Selayar language, the consonant y /j/ and /w/ realized as j /ɟ/ and /h/.

	Makassarese	Coastal Konjo	Selayar
pig	bawi	bahi	bahi
time	wattu	hattu	hattu
many, much	lowe,[i][ii] (jai)	lohe	lohe
rat, mouse	balawo[i]	balaho	balaho
wait	tayang	tajang	tajang
wood	kayu	kaju	kaju
look, find	boya	hoja	boja
to make	bayu,[ii] (pareʼ)	haju	(buaʼ)
it written as loe, balao in standard orthography dialect form

In Konjo languages, some initial b appears as /h/.

	Makassarese	Coastal Konjo	Selayar
to look, find	boya	hoja	boja
hot	bambang	hambang	bambang

Lexical differences

	Makassarese			Coastal Konjo	Selayar
	Gowa (Standard)	Jeneponto	Bantaeng
to make	appareʼ		aʼbayu	anghaju	aʼbuaʼ
to sit	ammempo	accidong		accidong	attolong
hungry	cipuruʼ	paʼre		paʼre	paʼre
rice field	tana	galung		galung	galung
many, much	jai	loe		lohe	lohe
why	angngapa	angngura		angngura	angngura
friend	agang	urang		urang	urang
with	siagang	surang	siurang	siurang	surang
water	jeʼneʼ		ere	ere	jeʼneʼ
egg	bayao			bajao	tannoro
dog	kongkong		asu	asu	asu
cat	miong	cammiʼ		cammiʼ, meong	meong
leaf	lekoʼ		raung	raung	taha
black	leʼleng			bolong	etang
white	keboʼ			pute	pute
eight	sagantuju			karua	karua
nine	salapang			salapang	kaʼassa
vegetable	gangang			utang	gangang
house	ballaʼ			ballaʼ, bola	sapo

See also

• Language portal
• Indonesia portal

• Languages of Sulawesi
• Languages of Indonesia

References

1. Grimes, C. E. and B. E. Grimes (1987). Languages of South Sulawesi. Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-D78. ISBN 0858833522.
2. Friberg, T. and T.V. Laskowske (1989). "South Sulawesi languages". In: J.N. Sneddon (ed.), Studies in Sulawesi linguistics part 1, pp. 1-17. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa.
3. Esser, S.J. (1938). "Talen". Atlas van Tropisch Nederland. Blad 9a. Batavia: Topografische Dienst.
4. Ramlah Mappau (2017). "Konstituen Pengungkap Negasi Dalam Bahasa Makassar Dialek Lakiung dan Turatea" [Constituent of Negation Expression in Makassarese Language Dialect of Laking and Turatea]. Sawerigading (in Indonesian). 23 (1): 127–137.
5. Basri, Hasan; Broselow, Ellen; Finer, Daniel (2012). "The end of the word in Makassar languages" (PDF). In Borowsky, Toni; Kawahara, Shigeto; Sugahara, Mariko; Shinya, Takahito (eds.). Prosody Matters: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Selkirk. Advances in Optimality Theory. Sheffield & Bristol, Conn.: Equinox.

External links

• Makassar languages at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020).