| South Sulawesi | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Indonesia (Sulawesi,West Kalimantan) |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
| Proto-language | Proto-South Sulawesi |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | sout2923 |
 Map showing the distribution of the South Sulawesi languages inSulawesi andKalimantan | |
TheSouth Sulawesi languages are asubgroup of theAustronesian language family. They are primarily spoken in theIndonesian provinces ofSouth Sulawesi andWest Sulawesi, with a small outlying pocket inWest Kalimantan (Tamanic).
This classification follows Grimes & Grimes (1987) and theEthnologue.[1][2]
The position of theTamanic languages, spoken inWest Borneo, was unclear until the end of the last century. The Dutch linguist K.A. Adelaar showed that they are especially close toBuginese and thus can be included in the South Sulawesi subgroup.[3]
Zobel (2020) also classifies theBadaic languages withSeko as part of aSeko–Badaic group within the South Sulawesi branch.[4]
Notes:Italic writing indicates it is considered a dialect and not a separate language.
At the current state of research, the South Sulawesi languages are considered to make up a primary branch of theMalayo-Polynesian subgroup within theAustronesian language family.[5]
Adelaar (1995) suggested that the vocabulary ofMalagasy, next to its basic stratum inherited fromBarito and loanwords fromMalay, also contains many words that are of South Sulawesi origin.[6] Further evidence was presented byBlench (2018).[7]
| Proto-South Sulawesi | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | South Sulawesi languages |
| Region | Sulawesi |
Reconstructed ancestors | |
Proto-South Sulawesi (PSS) has been reconstructed by Mills (1975a, 1975b).[8][9]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i | *ɨ | *u |
| Mid | *e | *o | |
| Open | *a |
The Proto-South-Sulawesi vowel *ɨ is a reflex ofProto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) *ə. It is only preserved in Buginese, in all other languages it mostly becamea (but under certain circumstances alsoi,u,e, and rarelyo).[10]
The main sources of the mid vowels are PMP *-iq/*-ay, which became *e, and *-uq/*-aw, which became *o,[11] e.g.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | *p | *t | *c | *k |
| voiced | *b | *d | *j | *g | |
| Fricative | voiceless | *s | |||
| voiced | *z | *ɣ | |||
| Nasal | *m | *n | *ñ | *ŋ | |
| Lateral | *l | ||||
| Trill | *r | ||||
| Approximant | *w | *y | |||
The velar fricative *ɣ only appears in final position as a reflex of PMP *R,[12] while *z only is found in medial position as a reflex of PMP *j.[13]