The Badaic languages are a group of three closely related Austronesian languages spoken in the North Lore and South Lore districts in

Poso Regency Poso Regency is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency of Central Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 7,112.25 km2, and had a population of 209,228 at the 2010 Census and 244,875 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid ...

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The 2010 census recorded a population of 2,635,009 for ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, viz. Bada (Bada’), Behoa (Besoa), and Napu. The three languages are 80–91% lexically similar and to a great degree mutually intelligible, but their speakers are culturally distinct.Martens, Michael P. (1989)
"The Badaic languages of Central Sulawesi".
In James N. Sneddon (ed.), ''Studies in Sulawesi languages, part 1'', 19–53. Jakarta: Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya.

Classification

The classification of the Badaic languages is controversial. While traditionally held to be a branch of the Kaili-Pamona languages, they share many features with languages of the Seko branch of the

South Sulawesi languages The South Sulawesi languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian language family. They are primarily spoken in the Indonesian provinces of South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi, with a small outlying pocket in West Kalimantan. Subgrouping Internal ...

, and may actually prove to be South Sulawesi languages that were strongly influenced by Kaili-Pamona languages.Laskowske, Tom. (2007). "The Seko languages of South Sulawesi: a reconstruction". In David Mead (ed.), ''Studies in Philippine languages & cultures: 10-ICAL historical comparative papers'', pp. 115–210. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines and Summer Institute of Linguistics. Zobel (2020) classifies Badaic with the

Seko languages The Seko languages are a group of four closely related Austronesian languages spoken in West Sulawesi and South Sulawesi provinces, Indonesia. They make up a primary branch of the South Sulawesi subgroup. The languages of the Seko branch are: ...

as part of a ''Seko–Badaic'' group within the

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...

branch.

Classification

References

Further reading