Tukang Besi language
Austronesian language of the Tukangbesi Islands of southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tukang Besi, or known in Indonesia by the terms Pulo or Wakatobi, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Tukangbesi Islands in southeast Sulawesi in Indonesia by a quarter million speakers. A Tukang Besi pidgin is used in the area.[2]
| Tukang Besi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Sulawesi, Tukang Besi Archipelago |
Native speakers | (250,000 cited 1995)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:khc – Tukang Besi Northbhq – Tukang Besi South |
| Glottolog | tuka1247 |
Phonology
The northern dialect of Tukang Besi has 25 consonant phonemes and a basic 5-vowel system.[3] It features stress which is usually on the second-to-last syllable. The language has two implosive consonants, which are uncommon in the world's languages. The plosives, except /ʔ/, and /s/ have prenasalized counterparts which act as separate phonemes.
Notes:
- /b/ only appears in loanwords, but it contrasts with /ɓ/
- [d] and [z] are not phonemic and appear only as allophones of /dʒ/, which appears only in loanwords.
Orthography
Vowels
- a – [a/ɐ]
- e – [ɛ/e]
- i – [i/ɪ]
- o – [o/ɔ]
- u – [ɯ/u]
Consonants
- b – [ɓ/ʔɓ/ʔb/β]
- b̠ – [b]
- c – [t͡ʃ]
- d – [ɗ̪]
- d̠ – [d/d͡ʒ/z]
- g – [g/ɠ/ʔɠ/ɣ]
- h – [h/ɸ]
- j – [d͡ʒ]
- k – [k/c]
- l – [l̪]
- m – [m]
- mb – [mb]
- mp – [mp]
- n – [n]
- nd – [n̪d̪]
- ns – [n̪s̪]
- nt – [n̪t̪]
- ng – [ŋ]
- ngg – [ŋɡ]
- ngk – [ŋk]
- nj – [n̪d̪]
- p – [p]
- r – [r]
- s – [s]
- t – [t̪]
- w – [w]
- ' – [ʔ]
Grammar
Nouns
Tukang Besi does not have grammatical gender or number. It is an ergative–absolutive language.
Verbs
Tukang Besi has an inflectional future tense, which is indicated with a prefix, but no past tense.
Word order
Tukang Besi uses verb–object–subject word order, which is also used by Fijian. Like many Austronesian languages, it has prepositions, but places adjectives, genitives, and determiners after nouns. Yes–no questions are indicated by a particle at the end of the sentence.[5]