Tonsawang language explained

Tonsawang
Region:	Northern Sulawesi
States:	Indonesia
Speakers:	20,000
Date:	1981
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Philippine
Fam4:	Minahasan
Script:	Latin
Iso3:	tnw
Glotto:	tons1239
Glottorefname:	Tonsawang

Tonsawang, also known as Tombatu,^[1] is an Austronesian language of the northern tip of Sulawesi, Indonesia. It belongs to the Minahasan branch of the Philippine languages.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Location

According to linguist James Sneddon, the language is "one of the most isolated languages", spoken in southeast Minahasa,^[5] while linguist Robert Blust situated it, along with the others of the Minahasan group, near Lake Tondano, "in the northern peninsula of Sulawesi".^[6]

Orthography

Alphabet

• a – pronounced as /[ä]/
• b – pronounced as /[b]/
• e – pronounced as /[ə]/
• è – pronounced as /[ɛ]/
• g – pronounced as /[g]/
• i – pronounced as /[i]/
• j – pronounced as /[d͡ʒ]/
• k – pronounced as /[k]/
• l – pronounced as /[l]/
• m – pronounced as /[m]/
• n – pronounced as /[n]/
• ng – pronounced as /[ŋ]/
• o – pronounced as /[o̞]/
• p – pronounced as /[p]/
• r – pronounced as /[ɾ]/
• s – pronounced as /[s]/
• t – pronounced as /[t]/
• u – pronounced as /[u]/
• w – pronounced as /[w]/
• ' – pronounced as /[ʔ]/^{[7] [8]}

Further reading

• Brickell, Timothy C. (2018). "Tonsawang (Toundanow), North Sulawesi, Indonesia — Language Contexts". In: Peter K. Austin (ed.). Language Documentation and Description, vol 16. London: EL Publishing. pp. 55-85. .
• Brickell, Timothy C. (2020). "Language contact in North Sulawesi: Preliminary observations". In: Thomas J. Conners and Atsuko Utsumi, eds. Aspects of regional varieties of Malay. NUSA 68: 159–190. Permanent URL: http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/handle/94893; doi: https://doi.org/10.15026/94893
• Matu, Tania. "Bentuk Permintaan Sopan dalam Bahasa Inggris dan Bahasa Tonsawang: Suatu Analisis Kontrastif". In: Jurnal Elektronik Fakultas Sastra Universitas Sam Ratulangi Vol 1, No 3 (2018). (Abstract in English).
• Rorong, Ferdy Dj; Lensun, Sherly; Sompotan, Amelia Gladys; Pandi, Helena; Sambeka; Fince Leny; Aror, Susanti. "Tonsawang Language Speech Acts in Traditional Medicine". In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Sciences (ICSS 2018). Atlantis Press, 2018. pp. 903-907. . DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/icss-18.2018.187.
• Utsumi, Atsuko (2018). The Tonsawang language’s basic morphology and syntactic features. Paper presented at The Fourteenth International Conference of Austronesian Linguistics (14-ICAL). July 17-20. Antananarivo: Universitè di Antananarivo.

External links

• ELAR collection: Tonsawang: a collaborative multimedia project documenting an endangered language of North Sulawesi deposited by Timothy Brickell

Notes and References

1. The Languages of Minahasa, North Celebes . 10.2307/3622930 . 3622930 . Sneddon . J. N. . Oceanic Linguistics . 1970 . 9 . 1 . 11–36 .
2. Book: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503621336-015 . 10.1515/9781503621336-015 . 8 Genetic Classification of the World's Languages . A Guide to the World's Languages . 1987 . 275–380 . 9781503621336 . 244724303 .
3. The Drift Towards Final Open Syllables in Sulawesi Languages . 10.2307/3623095 . 3623095 . Sneddon . J. N. . Oceanic Linguistics . 1993 . 32 . 1 . 1–44 .
4. Adelaar, K. Alexander & Himmelmann, Nikolaus (2005). The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar. London: Routledge.
5. The Languages of Minahasa, North Celebes . 10.2307/3622930 . 3622930 . Sneddon . J. N. . Oceanic Linguistics . 1970 . 9 . 1 . 11–36 .
6. The Greater Central Philippines Hypothesis . 10.2307/3623084 . 3623084 . Blust . Robert . Oceanic Linguistics . 1991 . 30 . 2 . 73–129 .
7. Web site: Tonsawang language, alphabet, and pronunciation . Omniglot . 20 September 2021.
8. Sneddon, James N. Proto-Minahasan: phonology, morphology, and wordlist. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1978. pp. 5, 54-57.