Mori Atas language explained

Mori Atas
States:	Indonesia
Region:	Sulawesi
Speakers:	28,000 with Mori Bawah
Date:	1988
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Celebic
Fam4:	Bungku–Tolaki
Fam5:	Western
Fam6:	Interior
Iso3:	mzq
Glotto:	mori1269
Glottorefname:	Mori Atas

Mori Atas, also known as Upper Mori or West Mori, is an Austronesian language of the Celebic branch. The traditional Mori Atas homeland is the upper course of the Laa River in Central Sulawesi.

Classification

Mori Atas is classified as a member of the Bungku-Tolaki group of languages, and shares its closest affinities with the Padoe language.^[1] Together, Mori Atas and Mori Bawah are sometimes referred to collectively by the cover term Mori.

Dialects

Mori Atas presents a complicated dialect situation. Following Esser, five dialects can be regarded as principal.^[2]

• Molio’a
• Ulu’uwoi
• Tambee
• Molongkuni
• Impo

Notes and References

1. Mead, David. Proto-Bungku-Tolaki: Reconstruction of its phonology and aspects of its morphosyntax. (PhD dissertation, Rice University, 1998), p. 117.
2. Esser, S. J. Phonology and Morphology of Mori, translated from the Dutch version of 1927-1933 (Dallas: SIL, 2011), pp. 2 ff.