The Gorontalo–Mongondow languages are a group of

Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...

spoken in northern

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Languages

The Gorontalo–Mongondow languages are divided into two branches: *Gorontalo–Mongondow **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 De ...

*** Kaidipang *** Lolak *** Suwawa **Mongondowic *** Mongondow *** Ponosakan

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). Proto-Gorontalo-Mongondow pronouns have been reconstructed by Lobel (2011).

Sound changes

Initial sound changes from Proto-Greater Central Philippine: * ''*ə'' > ''*o'' * ''*N hom.">homorganic_consonant.html" ;"title="homorganic consonant">hom.'' > ''*N[+hom.]P'' * in reduplications ''*C¹C²'' > ''*C²'' * ''*a'' > ''*o'' in the first syllable of reduplications

References

Gorontalo–Mongondow languages, Languages of Sulawesi Greater Central Philippine languages {{GCPhilippine-lang-stub

Languages

Classification

Reconstruction

Sound changes

See also

References