Balantak language

Balantak is an Austronesian language spoken at the head of the eastern peninsula of Sulawesi. 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]

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

Phonology

Balantak has the following phoneme inventory:[3]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		g
Fricative			s			(h)
Affricate				(t͡ʃ)/(d͡ʒ)
Lateral			l
Trill			r
Approximant		w		j

• /ŋ/ is written ⟨ng⟩
• /j/ is written ⟨y⟩
• /ʔ/ is written ⟨'⟩
• /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ are written ⟨c⟩ and ⟨j⟩, and only occur in loanwords.
• /h/ only occurs in loanwords

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a

• /ɛ/ is written ⟨o⟩
• /ɔ/ is written ⟨e⟩

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)
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