The Tomini–Tolitoli languages are a disputed subgroup in the Austronesian language family spoken off the Gulf of Tomini and the district of Tolitoli in northern Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia, consisting of two branches, viz. "Tomini" and "Tolitoli". The unity of this group has not yet been demonstrated, and it may well be that the two branches actually are not closer to each other than to other languages of Sulawesi.^[1]

Languages

The following tentative classification of the Tomini–Tolitoli languages is from Himmelmann (2001:20).

• Tolitoli
  • Totoli
  • Boano
• Tomini
  • Northern Tomini
    • Ampibabo
    • Lauje
    • Tialo (Tomini)
    • Dondo
  • Southern Tomini
    • Balaesang
    • Pendau
    • Dampelas
    • Taje (Petapa)
    • Tajio

Totoli and Boano are closely related to each other but diverge very much from the other languages in terms of lexicon, phonology, and other areas. These two languages may have been influenced by the Gorontalic languages and also more recently by South Sulawesi languages such as Bugis and Makassar (Himmelmann 2001:20). Mead (2003) notes that certain aspects of the phonological history of Totoli and Boano even point against an inclusion of these two languages in the Celebic subgroup.^[2]

Demographics

The demographics below are from Himmelmann (2001:18).

West Coast

• Balaesang: 3,200
• Pendau (Ndau): 3,200
• Dampelas (Dampal): 10,300
• Dondo: 13,000
• Totoli (Tolitoli): 25,000

East Coast

• Taje (Petapa): 350
• Ampibabo-Lauje: 6,000
• Tajio (Kasimbar): 12,000
• Lauje (Tinombo): 38,000
• Tialo (Tomini): 30,000
• Boano (Bolano): 2,700

Total

145,000

Footnotes

References

• Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2001. Sourcebook on Tomini-Tolitoli languages: General information and word lists. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.

External links

• "Tomini-Tolitoli" at Ethnologue (23rd ed, 2020).