The Gorontalo–Mongondow languages are a group of
Austronesian languages spoken in northern
Sulawesi,
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 ...
.
Languages
The Gorontalo–Mongondow languages are divided into two branches:
[
*Gorontalic: Bolango, Buol, Bintauna, ]Gorontalo
Gorontalo ( Gorontaloan: ''Hulontalo'') is a province of Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi. Located on the Minahasa Peninsula, Gorontalo was formerly part of the province of North Sulawesi until its inauguration as a separate province on 5 D ...
, Kaidipang, Lolak, Suwawa
Suwawa is a district (''kecamatan'') and capital district of Bone Bolango Regency, Gorontalo
Gorontalo ( Gorontaloan: ''Hulontalo'') is a province of Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi. Located on the Minahasa Peninsula, Gorontalo was form ...
*Mongondowic: Mongondow, Ponosakan
Ponosakan is an Austronesian language spoken in the vicinity of the town of , North Sulawesi, Indonesia. This language is almost extinct, with only four fluent speakers left as of November 2014.
Classification
The locals in North Sulawesi oft ...
Classification
Similarities between Mongondow and the languages of the Philippines were already recognized in the first half of the 20th century. Noorduyn (1982) presented phonological and morphological evidence for a close connection between Gorontalo and Mongondow, while the full extent of the subgroup including all other Gorontalic languages was established by Usup (1986).[ Blust (1991) has shown that the Gorontalo–Mongondow languages link up with many languages of the central and southern Philippines in the Greater Central Philippine subgroup. The following table exemplifies the close relationship, listing Greater Central Philippine innovations which are found in Mongondow (representing the Gorontalo–Mongondow languages) and Tagalog (the northernmost member of the Greater Central Philippine subgroup):
]
Reconstruction
The lexicon and phonology of Proto-Gorontalo-Mongondow has been reconstructed by Usup (1986).
See also
*Languages of Sulawesi
On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, 114 native languages are spoken, all of which belong to the Malayo-Polynesian languages, Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian languages, Austronesian language family. With a total number of 17,200,0 ...
*Minahasan languages
The Minahasan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken by the Minahasa people in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. They belong to the Philippine subgroup.
Considerable lexical influence comes from Spanish, Portuguese, and Tern ...
*Sangiric languages
The Sangiric languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in North Sulawesi, Indonesia and several small islands to the north which belong to the Philippines. They are classified as a branch of the Philippine subgroup.
Classifi ...
References
Languages of Sulawesi
Greater Central Philippine languages
{{GCPhilippine-lang-stub