The word Buginese derives from the wordBahasaBugis inMalay. In Buginese, it is calledBasa Ugi while the Bugis people are calledTo Ugi. According to a Buginese myth, the termUgi is derived from the name to the first king of Cina, an ancient Bugis kingdom,La Sattumpugi.To Ugi basically means 'the followers of La Sattumpugi'.[2]
Little is known about the early history of this language due to the lack of written records. The earliest written record of this language isSureq Galigo, the epic creation myth of the Bugis people.
Another written source of Buginese isLontara, a term which refers to the traditional script and historical record as well. The earliest historical record of Lontara dates to around the 17th century. Lontara records have been described by historians of Indonesia as "sober" and "factual" when compared to their counterparts from other regions of Maritime Southeast Asia, such as thebabad of Java. These records are usually written in a matter-of-fact tone with very few mythical elements, and the writers would usually put disclaimers before stating something that they cannot verify.[3][4][5]
Prior to the Dutch arrival in the 19th 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 masterMakassarese. The dictionaries and grammar books compiled by him, and the literature and folklore texts he published, remain basic sources of information about both languages.
Most of the native speakers (around 3 million) are concentrated inSouth Sulawesi,Indonesia but there are small groups of Buginese speakers on the island ofJava,Samarinda and eastSumatra ofIndonesia, eastSabah andMalay Peninsula,Malaysia and SouthPhilippines. ThisBugis diaspora is the result of migration since the 17th century that was mainly driven by continuous warfare situations. (Dutch direct colonization started in the early 20th century.)
^/ʔ/ only occurs finally, and is therefore not written in Lontara.
When Buginese is written in Latin script, general Indonesian spelling conventions are applied:[ɲ] is represented by⟨ny⟩,[ŋ] by⟨ng⟩,[ɟ] by⟨j⟩,[j] by⟨y⟩. The glottal stop[ʔ] is usually represented by an apostrophe (e.g.ana'[anaʔ] 'child'), but occasionally⟨q⟩ is also used./e/ and/ə/ are usually uniformly spelled as⟨e⟩, but/e/ is often written as⟨é⟩ to avoid ambiguity.
Buginese has four sets of personal pronouns, one free set, and three bound sets:[8]
independent
enclitic
prefixed
suffixed
1st person
singular
iaq
-aq/-kaq/-waq
(k)u-
-(k)kuq
plural
idiq
-iq/-kiq
ta-
-(t)taq
2nd person
polite
familiar
iko
-o/-ko
mu-
-(m)mu
3rd person
ia
-i/-wi
na-
-(n)na
1st person plural excl. (archaic)
ikəŋ
-kkəŋ
ki-
-mməŋ
The enclitic set is used with subjects of intransitive verbs, and objects of transitive verbs. The proclitic set is with subjects of transitive verbs. The suffixed set is primarily used in possessive function.
The Buginese lontara (locally known asAksara Ugi) has a slightly different pronunciation from the otherlontaras 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 consonant letters (including the zero-consonanta).
But unlike most other Brahmic scripts of India, the Buginese script traditionally does not have anyvirama sign (or alternate half-form for vowel-less consonants, or subjoined form for non-initial consonants in clusters) to suppress the inherent vowel, so it is normally impossible to write consonant clusters (a few ones were added later, derived from ligatures, to mark theprenasalization), geminated consonants or final consonants.
The Bugis still distinguish themselves according to their major precolony states (Bone,Wajo,Soppeng, andSidenreng) or groups of petty states (aroundPare-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.
The following Buginese dialects are listed in theEthnologue: 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), Luwu (Luwu, Bua Ponrang, Wara, Malangke-Ussu).[10]
Sininna rupa tau ri jajiangngi rilinoe nappunnai manengngi riasengnge alebbireng. Nappunai riasengnge akkaleng, nappunai riasengnge ati marennni na sibole bolena pada sipakatau pada massalasureng.
^T. Ambo, T. Joeharnani. "The Bugis-Makassarese: From Agrarian Farmers to Adventurous Seafarers".Aboriginal, Australia, Marege', Bugis-Makassar, Transformation. Universitas Hassanuddin: 2.
