Gorontalo language explained

Gorontalo
Nativename:	Bahasa Hulontalo
Script:	Latin
States:	Indonesia
Region:	Gorontalo North Sulawesi Central Sulawesi
Speakers:	1 million
Date:	2000 census
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Philippine
Fam4:	Greater Central Philippine
Fam5:	Gorontalo–Mongondow
Fam6:	Gorontalic
Iso2:	gor
Iso3:	gor
Glotto:	goro1259
Glottorefname:	Gorontalo
Notice:	IPA

The Gorontalo language (also called Hulontalo) is a language spoken in Gorontalo Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia by the Gorontalo people.^[1]

Considerable lexical influence comes from Malay, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch, and the North Halmahera languages. Manado Malay and Indonesian are also spoken in the area.^[2]

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		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
plosive		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
sonorant		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
			pronounced as /ink/

Consonant sequences include NC (homorganic nasal - plosive), where C may be pronounced as //b d t d̠ ɟ ɡ k//. Elsewhere, pronounced as //b d// are relatively rare and only occur before high vowels. pronounced as //d̠//, written in the literature, is a laminal post-alveolar coronal stop that is indeterminate as to voicing. The phonemic status of pronounced as /[ʔ]/ is unclear; if pronounced as /[VʔV]/ is interpreted as vowel sequences pronounced as //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	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
mid	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
low		pronounced as /ink/

References

• Book: Steinhauer, H. . 1991 . Problems of Gorontalese Phonology . H. A. . Poeze . P. . Schoorl . Excursies in Celebes: Een Bundel Bijdragen bij het Afscheid van J. Noorduyn als Directeur-Secretaris van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkendkunde . 325–338 . KITLV Uitgeverij . en.
• Book: Little, John A. Jr. . 1995 . Gorontalo . Darrell T. . Tryon . Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies . 1 . 521–527 . Berlin . Mouton de Gruyter . 10.1515/9783110884012.1.521 . 868970232 . 978-3-11-088401-2 . en.
• Book: Kasim . M. Musa . Geografi Dialek Bahasa Gorontalo . Wahidji . Habu . Pateda . Mansoer . Junus . Husain . Hasan . Kartin . Koem . A. P. . 1981 . Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa . Jakarta . id . repositori.kemdikbud.go.id.
• Book: Joest, Wilhelm . Das Holontalo: Glossar und grammatische Skizze . 1883 . A. Asher & Company . Berlin . de . archive.org.
• Book: Henley, David . Nationalism and regionalism in a colonial context: Minahasa in the Dutch East Indies . 1996 . 9789067180801 . 10.1163/9789004486928 . Leiden . KITLV Press . 35113123 . en .

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Gorontalo Language . https://web.archive.org/web/20070930224601/http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/LLDescription.cfm?code=gor . dead . September 30, 2007 . The linguist list . 3 September 2010.
2. Ulfa . Zakariya . Ninuk . Lustyantie . Emzir . The Gorontalo Language in Professional Communication: its Maintenance and Native Speakers' Attitudes . Professional Discourse & Communication . 2021 . 2687-0126 . 3 . 3 . 39–51 . 10.24833/2687-0126-2021-3-3-39-51 . en. free .