Gorontalo language

Gorontalo
Bahasa Hulonthalo
Spoken in	Indonesia
Region	Gorontalo, Sulawesi
Native speakers	900.000  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Gorontalo–Mongondow Gorontalic Gorontalo
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2	gor
ISO 639-3	gor

The Gorontalo language (also called Hulontalo) is a Philippine language spoken in Gorontalo Province (Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia, southern coast) by the Gorontalo people. There is no ISO 639-1 code for Gorontalo. Dialects of Gorontalo are East Gorontalo, Gorontalo Kota, Tilamuta, Suwawa, and West Gorontalo. There were 900.000 speakers of Gorontalo in 1989.

Phonology

	lab	alv.		pal.	vel.	glot.
nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
plosive	p b	t d	d̠	c ɟ	k ɡ	ʔ
implosive	ɓ	ɗ
sonorant	w	l r		j		h

Consonant sequences include NC (homorganic nasal–plosive), where C may be /b d t d̠ ɟ ɡ k/. Elsewhere, /b d/ are relatively rare and only occur before high vowels. /d̠/, written ⟨ḓ⟩ in the literature, is a laminal post-alveoral coronal stop that is indeterminate as to voicing. The phonemic status of [ʔ] is unclear; if [VʔV] is interpreted as vowel sequences /VV/, then this contrasts with long vowels (where the two V's are the same) and vowel sequences separated by linking glides (where the two V's are different).

Sources

• Steinhauer, H. (1991). "Problems of Gorontalese phonology." In H. A. Poeze and P. Schoorl (Ed.), Excursies in Celebes: een bundel bijdragen bij het afscheid van J. Noorduyn als directeur-secretaris van het Konninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkendkunde, 325-338. KITLV Uitgeverij.
• Ethnologue.com
• LinguistList.org