| Tobelo | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | NorthHalmahera |
Native speakers | (30,000 cited 2000)[1] |
West Papuan?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:tlb – Tobelotuj – Tugutil |
| Glottolog | tobe1251 |
| ELP | Tobelo |
 The Tobelo–Tugutil speaking region (grey) on Halmahera | |
Tobelo (Indonesian:bahasa Tobelo) is aNorth Halmahera language spoken on the eastern Indonesian island ofHalmahera and on parts of several neighboring islands. The Tobelo-speaking heartland is in the six administrative districts (Indonesian:kecamatan) of Tobelo, located on the western shore ofKao Bay and forming the central part ofHalmahera Utara Regency. Other Tobelo speaking areas are the five districts of Wasile (the northwestern half ofEast Halmahera Regency; where they are actually speakers of theTugutil language which is very related to Tobelo) on the south and east coast of Kao Bay, and the northern half ofMorotai Island. The district capital, also known asTobelo, serves as a regional commercial and administrative center and is the largest settlement on Halmahera.
Six principal dialects are generally recognized (Voorhoeve 1988):
The last three dialects are also known asTugutil. TheTugutil varieties may include additional dialectal variants, but this has not been satisfactorily documented (Voorhoeve 1988). Intelligibility is not great (Ethnologue).
In addition, based on cognition percentages in a basic vocabulary list, Voorhoeve 1988 identifies five other North Halmaheran language varieties as dialects of the putative Northeast Halmaheran language. Together with Tobelo, these varieties areGalela,Loloda,Modole,Pagu, andTabaru. Most speakers consider these to be distinct languages from Tobelo, although they do acknowledge a certain degree of mutual intelligibility.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | (tʃ) | k | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | (f) | ɕ | h | |||
| Liquid | lateral | l | ʎ | |||
| rhotic | r | |||||
| Semivowel | w | (j) | ||||
Consonant sounds in parentheses only occur in loan words or in other Tobelo dialects.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e~ɛ | o | |
| Open | a |
Mid front vowels can range from /e/ to /ɛ/.[2]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Low-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Near-open | æ | ||
| Open | a |
Most all of the 50 languages of Maluku have some sort ofdirectional system. At the least the up/down distinction seems to be anareal feature. But this brings up the chicken and the egg phenomenon. Is this directional system of AN or NAN origin? Or is it a mixture?
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the Tobelo are the most widespread ethnic group in Maluku, with sizable emigrant population throughout the province. We can a least be sure that the Malay directionals are the "egg", because Malay as spoken in Western Indonesia does not use these directionals whereas Moluccan Malay uses direct calques of the Tobelo terms:
Tobelo directionals are described in Taylor (1984). Tobelo directional adverbs occur:
Thus, interpretation of directional adverbs is entirely context-dependent. For example,
o
NM
tau
house
t-oiki
1AGT-go
o tau t-oiki
NM house 1AGT-go
'I'm going to the house'
If I meet you landwards of the house, this means that I'm headed inland from my house. If I meet you seawards of the house, then it means I'm headed inland to the house.
| Deictic | Adverb | |
|---|---|---|
| land | dina | -iha |
| sea | dai | -oko |
| up | daku | -ilye |
| down | dau | -uku |
| over | doka | -ika |
