Sangiric languages explained

Sangiric
Region:	northern Sulawesi, Indonesia
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Philippine
Glotto:	sang1335
Glottorefname:	Sangiric

The Sangiric languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in North Sulawesi, Indonesia and several small islands to the north which belong to the Philippines. They are classified as a branch of the Philippine subgroup.^[1]

Classification

The following classification scheme is from James Sneddon (1984:57).^[2]

• Sangiric
  • North Sangiric
    • Talaud
    • Sangirese (two variants: Sangir in Indonesia and Sangil in the Philippines)
  • South Sangiric
    • Bantik
    • Ratahan

The North Sangiric languages are spoken in the Sangir and Talaud archipelagos of Indonesia just north of Sulawesi, as well as the Sarangani Islands of the Philippines just south of Mindanao. The South Sangiric languages are spoken in scattered locations on the northern tip of Sulawesi. Bantik is spoken in the Manado region, while Ratahan is spoken just south of Lake Tondano.

Reconstruction

Proto-Sangiric
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Ancestor:	Proto-Austronesian
Ancestor2:	Proto-Malayo-Polynesian
Ancestor3:	Proto-Philippine
Target:	Sangiric languages

Proto-Sangiric (PSan) has been reconstructed by Sneddon (1984).^[2]

Phonology

Vowels!!Front!Central!Back

Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Consonants! colspan="2"

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		g
Fricative			s
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		y	R

The exact phonetic nature of *R is unclear. Its reflexes are Sangil pronounced as /[r]/, Sangir, Ratahan pronounced as /[h]/, Talaud pronounced as /[ʒ ~ k:]/, Bantik zero. Sneddon speculates that it may have been a coarticulated apical trill with velar friction, which is the usual realization of Sangil pronounced as /[r]/.

Vocabulary

The comparison table (a small selection from) illustrates the correspondences between the Sangiric languages, including inherited vocabulary as well as Sangiric innovations.

Comparison table! colspan=8

Words inherited from Proto-Austronesian (PAn)
Talaud	Sangir	Sangil	Bantik	Ratahan	PSan	PAn	Meaning
							'lip'
							'three'
							'six'
							'fowl'
							'bone'
							'palm, sole'
							'road'
Sangiric innovations
Talaud	Sangir	Sangil	Bantik	Ratahan	PSan	PAn	Meaning
							'fish'
							'bathe'
							'sharp'

See also

• Minahasan languages
• Gorontalo–Mongondow languages
• Languages of Sulawesi

External links

• Sangiric at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020).

Notes and References

1. Book: Adelaar . K. Alexander . Himmelmann . Nikolaus . 2005 . The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar . London . Routledge.
2. Sneddon . James N. . James Sneddon . 1984 . Proto-Sangiric and the Sangiric languages . Canberra . Pacific Linguistics . 10.15144/PL-B91 . free.