Selayar or Selayarese is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by about 100,000 people on the island of Selayar in South Sulawesi province, Indonesia.[2]: 210
Selayar | |
---|---|
Basa Silajara | |
Native to | Indonesia |
Region | Selayar Islands, South Sulawesi |
Native speakers | 130,000 (2000 census)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | sly |
Glottolog | sela1260 |
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
High | i | u |
Mid | e | o |
Low | a |
Vowels are lengthened when stressed and in an open syllable.
Nasalization extends from nasal consonants to the following vowels, continuing until blocked by an intonation break or a consonant other than a glottal stop:
Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Plosive | prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | |
voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
voiceless | p | t̪ | k | ʔ | ||
Fricative | s | h | ||||
Lateral | l | |||||
Rhotic | ɹ |
Of the coronals, the voiceless stop is dental, while the others are alveolar.
Selayarese intransitive verbs index pronominal arguments via an absolutive enclitic.[3][4]: 162
a'lumpa'=a
jump=1S
'I jump'
mangang=a
tired=1S
'I am tired'
In transitive verbs the less agent-like argument is indexed by the absolutive enclitic.[4]: 163
ku=isse'=i
1S=know=3S
'I know him'