Minahasan languages

Minahasan
Geographic distribution:	northern Sulawesi
Linguistic classification:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine? Sangir–Minahasan? Minahasan
Subdivisions:	—

The Minahasan languages are a group of languages spoken by the Minahasa people in northern Sulawesi.

Classification

The languages are (with individual languages marked by italics) (Sneddon 1978:9):

• Tonsawang
• North Minahasan
  • Tontemboan
  • Northeast: Tondano, Tombulu (Minahasa), Tonsea

Adelaar and Himmelmann (2005) classified Sangiric and Minahasan as branches of the Philippine languages. However, a 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database found moderate (80%) support for a Sangir–Minahasan family, which it placed among the Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages.

References

• K. Alexander Adelaar and Nikolaus Himmelmann, The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar. Routledge, 2005.
• Sneddon, James N. 1978. Proto-Minahasan: phonology, morphology, and wordlist. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, 2008.