Balantak language

Balantak
Balantak
Wurung Balantak
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Sulawesi
Ethnicity	Balantak people
Native speakers	30,000 (2000)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Celebic Saluan-Banggai Eastern Balantak; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	blz
Glottolog	bala1315

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]

Phonology

Balantak has the following phoneme inventory:^[2]

**Consonants**
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
Plosive	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

^ Balantak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b René, van den Berg; 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

This article about Celebic languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[e18-1] Balantak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[BergBusenitz-2] René, van den Berg; Busenitz, Robert L. (2012). A grammar of Balantak: A language of eastern Sulawesi. SIL e‑Books, 40. Dallas: SIL International.

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[2]