Balantak language

"Balantak" redirects here. For the district, see Balantak, Sulawesi.

Balantak
Wurung Balantak
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Sulawesi
Ethnicity	Balantak people
Native speakers	30,000 (2000)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Celebic Saluan-Banggai Eastern Balantak
Language codes
ISO 639-3	blz
Glottolog	bala1315

Balantak is an Austronesian language spoken at the head of the eastern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is classified as a member of the Saluan-Banggai branch of the Celebic subgroup. The Balantak language is the primary language of the Balantak people. Although 90% of the population are also proficient in Indonesian, the vernacular is still vigorously used in everyday contexts, and most children only speak Balantak before entering school.^[2]

Phonology

Balantak has the following phoneme inventory:^[3]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ ⟨c⟩[a]	k	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ ⟨j⟩[a]	g
Fricative			s			h[a]
Lateral			l
Trill			r
Approximant		w		j ⟨y⟩

1. Only occur in loanwords

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩		ɔ ⟨o⟩
Low		a

Sequences of like vowels are phonetically realized as long vowels, e.g. toop [tɔ:p] 'cigarette', nuur [nu:r] 'coconut'.

References

1. Balantak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. van den Berg & Busenitz (2012), p. 4
3. van den Berg & Busenitz (2012)

Further reading

• Busenitz, Robert L.; Busenitz, Marilyn J. (1991). "Balantak Phonology and Morphophonemics" (PDF). In Sneddon, James N. (ed.). Studies in Sulawesi Linguistics, Part II. NUSA 33. Jakarta: Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya. pp. 29–47.
• van den Berg, René; Busenitz, Robert L. (2012). A Grammar of Balantak: A Language of Eastern Sulawesi. SIL e‑Books 40. Dallas: SIL International.

External links

• "Balantak", at World Atlas of Language Structures