Tukang Besi language explained
| Tukang Besi |
| States: | Indonesia |
| Region: | Sulawesi, Tukang Besi Archipelago |
| Speakers: | 250,000 |
| Date: | 1995 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Celebic |
| Fam4: | Muna–Buton |
| Lc1: | khc |
| Ld1: | Tukang Besi North |
| Lc2: | bhq |
| Ld2: | Tukang Besi South |
| Glotto: | tuka1247 |
| Glottorefname: | Tukang Besi |
| Notice: | IPA |
Tukang Besi is an Austronesian language spoken in the Tukangbesi Islands in southeast Sulawesi in Indonesia by a quarter million speakers. A Tukang Besi pidgin is used in the area.[1]
| Tukang Besi Pidgin |
| Speakers: | none |
| Familycolor: | pidgin |
| Family: | Tukang Besi–based pidgin |
| Glotto2: | pidg1257 |
| Glottorefname2: | Pidgin Tukang Besi |
Phonology
The northern dialect of Tukang Besi has 25 consonant phonemes and a basic 5-vowel system.[2] It features stress which is usually on the second-to-last syllable. The language has two implosive consonants, which are uncommon in the world's languages. The coronal plosives and pronounced as /link/ have prenasalized counterparts which act as separate phonemes.
Tukang Besi (northern dialect) consonants | Bilabial | Dental/
Alveolar | Velar | Glottal |
|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|
| Plosive | plain | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
|---|
| prenasalized | pronounced as /mp/ | pronounced as /mb/ | pronounced as /n̪t̪/ | pronounced as /n̪d̪/ | pronounced as /ŋk/ | pronounced as /ŋɡ/ | |
|---|
| Implosive | | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | | |
|---|
| Fricative | plain | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | | pronounced as /link/ |
|---|
| prenasalized | | pronounced as /n̪s̪/ | | | |
|---|
| Trill | | pronounced as /link/ | | |
|---|
| Lateral | | pronounced as /link/ | | | |
|---|
Notes:
- pronounced as //b// only appears in loanwords, but it contrasts with pronounced as //ɓ//
- pronounced as /[d]/ and pronounced as /[z]/ are not phonemic and appear only as allophones of pronounced as //dʒ//, which appears only in loanwords.
Orthography
Vowels
- a – pronounced as /[a/ɐ]/
- e – pronounced as /[ɛ/e]/
- i – pronounced as /[i/ɪ]/
- o – pronounced as /[o/ɔ]/
- u – pronounced as /[ɯ/u]/
Consonants
- b – pronounced as /[ɓ/ʔɓ/ʔb/β]/
- b̠ – pronounced as /[b]/
- c – pronounced as /[t͡ʃ]/
- d – pronounced as /[ɗ̪]/
- d̠ – pronounced as /[d/d͡ʒ/z]/
- g – pronounced as /[g/ɠ/ʔɠ/ɣ]/
- h – pronounced as /[h/ɸ]/
- j – pronounced as /[d͡ʒ]/
- k – pronounced as /[k/c]/
- l – pronounced as /[l̪]/
- m – pronounced as /[m]/
- mb – pronounced as /[mb]/
- mp – pronounced as /[mp]/
- n – pronounced as /[n]/
- nd – pronounced as /[n̪d̪]/
- ns – pronounced as /[n̪s̪]/
- nt – pronounced as /[n̪t̪]/
- ng – pronounced as /[ŋ]/
- ngg – pronounced as /[ŋɡ]/
- ngk – pronounced as /[ŋk]/
- nj – pronounced as /[n̪d̪]/
- p – pronounced as /[p]/
- r – pronounced as /[r]/
- s – pronounced as /[s]/
- t – pronounced as /[t̪]/
- w – pronounced as /[w]/
- ' – pronounced as /[ʔ]/
[3]
Grammar
Nouns
Tukang Besi does not have grammatical gender or number. It is an ergative–absolutive language.
Verbs
Tukang Besi has an inflectional future tense, which is indicated with a prefix, but no past tense.
Word order
Tukang Besi uses verb–object–subject word order, which is also used by Fijian. Like many Austronesian languages, it has prepositions, but places adjectives, genitives, and determiners after nouns. Yes–no questions are indicated by a particle at the end of the sentence.[4]
Further reading
- Donohue . Mark . The Tukang Besi Language of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia . 1995 . Ph.D. . The Australian National University . 10.25911/5D70F30ACBE63 . free . 1885/136142 . free.
- Book: Donohue, Mark . A Grammar of Tukang Besi . 1999 . Walter de Gruyter . Berlin . 9783110805543.
- Book: Donohue, Mark . Tukang Besi dialectology . 55–72 . Spices from the East: Papers in languages of Eastern Indonesia . 2000 . Pacific Linguistics . Grimes . C.E. . Pacific Linguistics No. 503 . Canberra . 10.15144/PL-503.55 . free . 1885/146101 . free.
Notes and References
- Book: Donohue, Mark . 1996 . Some trade languages of insular South-East Asia and Irian Jaya . Stephen A. . Wurm . Peter . Mühlhäusler . Darrell T. . Tryon . Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas . 713–716 . Berlin . Mouton de Gruyter.
- Book: Donohue, Mark . Tukang Besi . 151–53 . Handbook of the International Phonetic Association . Cambridge University Press . 1999 . 0-521-65236-7.
- Web site: Tukang Besi language . Omniglot . 30 November 2021.
- Web site: Dryer, Matthew S. . Haspelmath, Martin . Language Tukang Besi . The World Atlas of Linguistic Structures Online . Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology . 27 February 2021 . 2013.
