Buginese language
Encyclopedia
Buginese is the language spoken by about four million people mainly in the southern part of Sulawesi
, Indonesia
.
in Malay
. In Buginese, it is called while the Bugis people are called . in Buginese means The First King which refers to the first king of the ancient Bugis kingdom, Cina
.
Little is known about the early history of this language due to the lack of written records. The earliest written record of this language is Sureq Galigo
, the epic creation myth of the Bugis people.
Another written source of Buginese is Lontara
, a term which refers to the traditional script and historical record as well. However the earliest historical record of Lontara dates to around the 17th century and cannot be accepted as a reliable source of history since it was influenced by myths.
Prior to the Dutch arrival in the 18th century, a missionary, B.F. Matthews, translated the bible into Buginese, which made him the first European to acquire knowledge of the language. He was also one of the first Europeans to master Makassarese
. The dictionaries and grammar books compiled by him and the literature and folkfore texts he published remain basic sources of information about both languages.
Upon colonization by the Dutch, a number of Bugis
fled from their home area of South Sulawesi seeking a better life. This led to the existence of small groups of Buginese speakers throughout the Malay Archipelago
.
language family, South Sulawesi
branch. It has absorbed certain words from Malay and prestigious languages of the Sunda islands, such as 'horse', which is believed to come from the Javanese
word .
Most of the native speakers (around 3 million) are concentrated in South Sulawesi
, Indonesia
but there are small groups of Buginese speakers in the island of Java, Samarinda
and east Sumatra
of Indonesia
, Sabah
and Malay Peninsula
, Malaysia and South Philippines
. This Bugis
diaspora is caused by the migration since 17th centuriy which was mainly driven by continuous warfare situations. (The Dutch
direct colonization started in early 20th century.)
s of the language:
Example of usage:
script, of the Brahmic family
, which is also used for the Makassar language
and the Mandar language
. The name lontara
derives from the Malay
word for the palmyra palm, , the leaves of which are the traditional material for manuscripts in India
, South East Asia and Indonesia
. Today, however, it is often written using the Roman alphabet.
s like the Makassarese. Like other Indic scripts, it also utilizes diacritics to distinguish the vowels [i], [u], [e], [o] and [ə] from the default inherent vowel /a/ (actually pronounced [ɔ]) implicitly represented in all base consonnant letters (including the zero-consonnant a).
But unlike most other Brahmic scripts of India, the Buginese script traditionally does not have any virama
sign (or alternate half-form for vowel-less consonnants, or subjoined form for non-initial consonnants in clusters) to suppress the inherent vowel, so it is normally impossible to write consonnant clusters (a few ones were added later, derived from ligatures, to mark the prenasalisation), geminated consonnants or final consonnants.
Older texts, however, usually did not use diacritics at all, and readers were expected to identify words from context and thus provide the correct pronunciation. As one might expect, this led to erroneous readings; for example, could be misread as by new readers.
, Wajo
, Soppeng and Sidenreng) or groups of petty states (around Pare-Pare
, Sinjai and Suppa.) The languages of these areas, with their relatively minor differences from one another, have been largely recognized by linguists as constituting dialects: recent linguistic research has identified eleven of them, most comprising two or more sub-dialects.
This is a partial list of Buginese dialects: Bone (Palakka, Dua Boccoe, Mare), Pangkep (Pangkajane), Camba, Sidrap (Sidenreng, North Pinrang, Alitta), Pasangkayu (Ugi Riawa), Sinjai (Enna, Palattae, Bulukumba), Soppeng (Kessi), Wajo, Barru (Pare-Pare, Nepo, Soppeng Riaja, Tompo, Tanete), Sawitto (Pinrang), Luwuk (Luwuk, Bua Ponrang, Wara, Malangke-Ussu).
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
History
The word Buginese derives from the word Bahasa BugisBugis
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the...
in Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
. In Buginese, it is called while the Bugis people are called . in Buginese means The First King which refers to the first king of the ancient Bugis kingdom, Cina
CINA
CINA is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts multicultural programming at AM 1650 in Mississauga, Ontario.Approved by the CRTC on April 23, 2007, the station is owned by Neeti Prakash Ray and began testing at 1650 kHz in late 2008....
.
Little is known about the early history of this language due to the lack of written records. The earliest written record of this language is Sureq Galigo
Sureq Galigo
Sureq Galigo or La Galigo is an epic creation myth of the Bugis from South Sulawesi, written between the 13th and 15th century in the Indonesian language Buginese...
, the epic creation myth of the Bugis people.
Another written source of Buginese is Lontara
Lontara
Lontara or lontaraq are Bugis palm-leaf manuscripts that record knowledge on such topics as history, science, custom, and laws. The term originates from the Javanese/Malay word lontar, which is the type of tree that provides the leaves used....
, a term which refers to the traditional script and historical record as well. However the earliest historical record of Lontara dates to around the 17th century and cannot be accepted as a reliable source of history since it was influenced by myths.
Prior to the Dutch arrival in the 18th century, a missionary, B.F. Matthews, translated the bible into Buginese, which made him the first European to acquire knowledge of the language. He was also one of the first Europeans to master Makassarese
Makassar language
Makassarese is a language used by the Makassarese people in South Sulawesi island in Indonesia...
. The dictionaries and grammar books compiled by him and the literature and folkfore texts he published remain basic sources of information about both languages.
Upon colonization by the Dutch, a number of Bugis
Bugis
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the...
fled from their home area of South Sulawesi seeking a better life. This led to the existence of small groups of Buginese speakers throughout the Malay Archipelago
Malay Archipelago
The Malay Archipelago refers to the archipelago between mainland Southeastern Asia and Australia. The name was derived from the anachronistic concept of a Malay race....
.
Classification
Buginese is an ergative–absolutive language of the AustronesianAustronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
language family, South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi languages
The South Sulawesi languages are a group of languages spoken by the Bugis and related peoples of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia.-Languages:*Bugis**Buginese: Buginese, Campalagian**? Tamanic: Mbalo, Taman...
branch. It has absorbed certain words from Malay and prestigious languages of the Sunda islands, such as 'horse', which is believed to come from the Javanese
Javanese language
Javanese language is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...
word .
Geographical Distribution
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia, located on the western southern peninsula of Sulawesi Island. The province is bordered by Central Sulawesi province to the north, South East Sulawesi province to the east and West Sulawesi province to the west...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
but there are small groups of Buginese speakers in the island of Java, Samarinda
Samarinda
Samarinda is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The city lies on the banks of the Mahakam River. It is the most populous city in East Kalimantan with a population of 726,223...
and east Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Sabah
Sabah
Sabah is one of 13 member states of Malaysia. It is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo. It is the second largest state in the country after Sarawak, which it borders on its southwest. It also shares a border with the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south...
and Malay Peninsula
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...
, Malaysia and South Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. This Bugis
Bugis
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the...
diaspora is caused by the migration since 17th centuriy which was mainly driven by continuous warfare situations. (The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
direct colonization started in early 20th century.)
Aspects
The following are grammatical aspectGrammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
s of the language:
| Durative | Perfective | Conditional | Doubt | Emphasis | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| kaq | naq | paq | gaq | si | é |
| kiq/ko | niq/no | piq/po | gig/go | sa | tu |
| kiq | niq | piq | gig | to | ro |
| i | ni | pi | gi | mi | |
| na | pa | ga | |||
Example of usage:
- ᨙᨆᨒᨚᨀ ᨌᨛᨙᨆ (méllo-kaq cemmé)
- Lit.: want-me bath
- I want to take a bath
Script
Buginese was traditionally written using the LontaraLontara
Lontara or lontaraq are Bugis palm-leaf manuscripts that record knowledge on such topics as history, science, custom, and laws. The term originates from the Javanese/Malay word lontar, which is the type of tree that provides the leaves used....
script, of the Brahmic family
Brahmic family
The Brahmic or Indic scripts are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout South Asia , Southeast Asia, and parts of Central and East Asia, and are descended from the Brāhmī script of the ancient Indian subcontinent...
, which is also used for the Makassar language
Makassar language
Makassarese is a language used by the Makassarese people in South Sulawesi island in Indonesia...
and the Mandar language
Mandar language
Mandar is an Austronesian language spoken by the group ethnic Mandar living in West Sulawesi province, Indonesia, especially in the sea side regencies like - Majene and Polewali-Mandar as well as few settlements in the islands of Pangkep District also known as Spermonde Archipelago and Ujung Lero,...
. The name lontara
Lontara
Lontara or lontaraq are Bugis palm-leaf manuscripts that record knowledge on such topics as history, science, custom, and laws. The term originates from the Javanese/Malay word lontar, which is the type of tree that provides the leaves used....
derives from the Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
word for the palmyra palm, , the leaves of which are the traditional material for manuscripts in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, South East Asia and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Today, however, it is often written using the Roman alphabet.
The Buginese Lontara
The Buginese lontara (locally known as ) has a slightly different pronunciation from the other lontaraLontara
Lontara or lontaraq are Bugis palm-leaf manuscripts that record knowledge on such topics as history, science, custom, and laws. The term originates from the Javanese/Malay word lontar, which is the type of tree that provides the leaves used....
s like the Makassarese. Like other Indic scripts, it also utilizes diacritics to distinguish the vowels [i], [u], [e], [o] and [ə] from the default inherent vowel /a/ (actually pronounced [ɔ]) implicitly represented in all base consonnant letters (including the zero-consonnant a).
But unlike most other Brahmic scripts of India, the Buginese script traditionally does not have any virama
Virama
Virama is a generic term for the diacritic in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari and East Nagari, that is used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is Sanskrit for "cessation, termination, end"...
sign (or alternate half-form for vowel-less consonnants, or subjoined form for non-initial consonnants in clusters) to suppress the inherent vowel, so it is normally impossible to write consonnant clusters (a few ones were added later, derived from ligatures, to mark the prenasalisation), geminated consonnants or final consonnants.
Older texts, however, usually did not use diacritics at all, and readers were expected to identify words from context and thus provide the correct pronunciation. As one might expect, this led to erroneous readings; for example, could be misread as by new readers.
Dialects and subdialects
The Bugis still distinguish themselves according to their major precolony states (BoneBone state
Bone was a sultanate in the south-west peninsula of Sulawesi , now part of modern-day Indonesia...
, Wajo
Wajo Kingdom
Wajo Kingdom was an old monarchy in Indonesia founded ca.1450 in the Bugis south of Sulawesi island. It is now the Wajo Regency, a regency of South Sulawesi province of Indonesia....
, Soppeng and Sidenreng) or groups of petty states (around Pare-Pare
Pare-Pare
Parepare is a city in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, located on the southwest coast of Sulawesi, about north of the provincial capital of Makassar. A port town, it is one of the major population centers of the Bugis people. The city has a population of 113,615 people, according to a 2004...
, Sinjai and Suppa.) The languages of these areas, with their relatively minor differences from one another, have been largely recognized by linguists as constituting dialects: recent linguistic research has identified eleven of them, most comprising two or more sub-dialects.
This is a partial list of Buginese dialects: Bone (Palakka, Dua Boccoe, Mare), Pangkep (Pangkajane), Camba, Sidrap (Sidenreng, North Pinrang, Alitta), Pasangkayu (Ugi Riawa), Sinjai (Enna, Palattae, Bulukumba), Soppeng (Kessi), Wajo, Barru (Pare-Pare, Nepo, Soppeng Riaja, Tompo, Tanete), Sawitto (Pinrang), Luwuk (Luwuk, Bua Ponrang, Wara, Malangke-Ussu).
Trivia
- The phrase "thank you" does not exist in Buginese language, the Malay phrase "terima kasih" was borrowed instead.