Due to the historical role of theTernate Sultanate, Ternate influence is present in many languages of eastern Indonesia. Borrowings from Ternate extend beyond the Maluku Islands, reaching the regions of central and northernSulawesi.[6] Languages such asTaba andWest Makian have borrowed much of their polite lexicons from Ternate,[7][8] while the languages of northern Sulawesi have incorporated many Ternate vocabulary items related to kingship and administration.[9] The language has been a source of lexical and grammatical borrowing forNorth Moluccan Malay, the local variant of Malay, which has given rise to other eastern Indonesian offshoots of Malay, such asManado Malay.[10][11]
Ternate has loanwords from Malay, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Javanese.[12]
It is geographically widespread. It is spoken on the island of Ternate as well as elsewhere in the North Maluku province, with Ternate communities inhabiting the western coast ofHalmahera,Hiri,Obi,Kayoa, and theBacan Islands.[13][14] Historically, Ternate served as the primary language of theSultanate of Ternate,[15] famous for its role in thespice trade. It has established itself as alingua franca of the North Maluku region.[16][17]
This language should be distinguished fromTernate Malay (North Moluccan Malay), a localMalay-based creole which it has heavily influenced. Ternate serves as the first language of ethnic Ternateans, mainly in the rural areas, while Ternate Malay is nowadays used as a means of interethnic and trade communication, particularly in the urban part of the island.[18][19] More recently, there has been alanguage shift from Ternate towards Malay.[20][21] It can be assumed that the role of Ternate as a lingua franca has greatly waned.[13] While the Ternate people are scattered all over eastern Indonesia,[16] it is not known how many expatriate Ternateans still speak the language.[13]
In Indonesian, it is generally known asbahasa Ternate; however, the termbahasa Ternate asli is sometimes used to distinguish it from Ternate Malay.[18]
The Ternate language has been recorded with theArabic script since the 15th century, while theLatin alphabet is used in modern writing.[2][22] Ternate andTidore are notable for being the only indigenousnon-Austronesian languages of the region to have established literary traditions prior to first European contact.[15][23] Other languages of the North Halmahera region, which were not written down until the arrival of Christian missionaries, have received significant lexical influence from Ternate.[24]
Ternate is a member of theNorth Halmahera language family,[5] which is classified by some as part of a largerWest Papuan family, a proposed linking of the North Halmahera languages with the Papuan languages of theBird's Head Peninsula.[25] It is most closely related to theTidore language, which is native to the southern neighboring island. The distinction between Ternate and Tidore appears more rooted in sociopolitical rather than linguistic differences.[26][27] While many authors have described these varieties as separate languages,[27] some classifications identify them as dialects of a single language, collectively termed as either "Ternate" or "Ternate-Tidore".[28][29][30]
^van Fraassen, Ch.F. (1993)."Ternatan/Tidorese". In Levinson, David (ed.).Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Vol. 5. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Co.ISBN0-8168-8840-X. Retrieved2024-07-10 – via encyclopedia.com.
^Taylor, Paul Michael (1999)."Introduction"(PDF).F.S.A. de Clercq'sTernate: The Residency and its Sultanate (Smithsonian Institution Libraries digital ed.). Smithsonian Institution Libraries. pp. i–xviii. ; see p. vii (for Ternate grammatical influence on NMM).
^Allen, Robert B.; Hayami-Allen, Rika (2002)."Orientation in the Spice Islands"(PDF). In Macken, Marlys (ed.).Papers from the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 2000. Tempe: Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 21–38.ISBN1-881044-29-7.OCLC50506465. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2022-12-25. ; see p. 21.
^abcVoorhoeve, C.L. (1988), "The languages of the North Halmaheran stock",Papers in New Guinea linguistics. No. 26, Pacific Linguistics A-76, Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, pp. 181–209,doi:10.15144/PL-A76.181,ISBN0-85883-370-0,OCLC220535054
^Masinambow, E.K.M. (1972), "Ternatans", in Appell, George N. (ed.),Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia, vol. 1: Indonesia, Andaman Islands, and Madagascar, New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press, p. 120,ISBN978-0-87536-403-2,OCLC650009
^abWarnk, Holger (2010). "The coming of Islam and Moluccan-Malay culture to New Guinea c.1500–1920".Indonesia and the Malay World.38 (110):109–134.doi:10.1080/13639811003665454.S2CID162188648. ; see p. 112, fn. 2.
^ab"ТЕРНАТАНЦЫ".Большая российская энциклопедия (in Russian). Archived fromthe original on 2022-08-14. Retrieved2022-11-13.
^Taylor, Paul Michael (1988). "From mantra to mataráa: Opacity and transparency in the language of Tobelo magic and medicine (Halmahera Island, Indonesia)".Social Science & Medicine.27 (5):425–436.doi:10.1016/0277-9536(88)90365-6.PMID3067356. ; see p. 430.
