Wolio language

Wolio
Buton
بُرِ وٚلِيٚ
Native toIndonesia
RegionSoutheast Sulawesi
EthnicityWolio people [id]
Native speakers
65,000 (2004)
Buri Wolio (Arabic script)
Language codes
ISO 639-3wlo
Glottologwoli1241
Map of languages on the island of Sulawesi, Wotu-Wolio languages is colored in dark blue along with other Celebic languages.
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Wolio (Buri Wolio: بُرِ وٚلِيٚ) is an Austronesian language spoken in and around Baubau on Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. It belongs to the Wotu–Wolio branch of the Celebic subgroup. Also known as Buton, it is a trade language and the former court language of the Sultan at Baubau. Today it is an official regional language; street signs are written in the Buri Wolio alphabet, based on the Arabic script.

Wolio has lexical borrowings from Malay, Arabic, and Dutch. Local languages of eastern Indonesia, such as Bugis, Makasar, and Ternate, have also been influential. The name "Buton", which also refers generically to various ethnic and linguistic groups of the Buton area, is said to be of Ternatese origin (butu, ‘market; marketplace’).

Phonology

The five vowels are /i e a o u/. The consonant system is characterized by the presence of prenasalized stops, which are treated as a single sound in Wolio.

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless plain p t c k ʔ
prenasalized ᵐp ⁿt ᶮc ᵑk
voiced plain b d ɟ g
prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑg
implosive ɓ ɗ
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced v
Trill r
Lateral l

/b, d, f/ are found in loans, mostly from Arabic.

Stress is on the penultimate syllable, and only open syllables are allowed.

Grammar

Wolio personal pronouns have one independent form, and three bound forms.

Personal pronouns
independentactorobjectpossessive
1.sg. iakuku--aku-ngku
1.pl. incl. ingkitata--kita-ta
1.pl. excl. ingkamita--kami-mami
2.sg. ingkoou--ko-mu
2.pl. ingkomiuu--komiu-miu
3. inciaa--a/-ia-na

Number is not distinguished in third person. Optionally, plural number can be expressed by means of the plural-marker manga: manga incia 'they'.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wolio at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Donohue (2004), p. 33.
  3. ↑ Mead (2003), p. 135.
  4. ↑ Anceaux (1988), pp. 1.
  5. ↑ Anceaux, Grimes & van den Berg (1995), pp. 574.
  6. ↑ Anceaux, Grimes & van den Berg (1995), pp. 573.
  7. ↑ Visser, Leontine E. (2019), "The Historical Paths of Sahu Ceremonial Textiles", Archipel. Études interdisciplinaires sur le monde insulindien, 98: 121–150, doi:10.4000/archipel.1560, ISSN 0044-8613, OCLC 8599457798, The island was their "market" or butu in Ternate language. Thus the island became known as Buton.
  8. ↑ Visser, Leontine E. (1989), "Foreign Textiles in Sahu Culture", in Gittinger, Mattiebelle (ed.), To Speak with Cloth: Studies in Indonesian Textiles, Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, pp. 80–90, ISBN 978-0-930741-17-4, OCLC 20970370, Because of its strategic geographical position, Buton served as a major stopping place for military and merchant vessels, whence it got the name of "market" after the Ternate word butu for marketplace.
  9. ↑ Anceaux (1988), pp. 4–5.
  10. ↑ Anceaux (1988), p. 6.
  11. ↑ Anceaux (1988), p. 9.
  12. ↑ Anceaux (1988), pp. 25, 27, 34, 36, 42.
  13. ↑ Anceaux (1988), p. 36.

Bibliography

Further reading