Gorontalo language

Gorontaloan
Bahasa Hulontalo
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Gorontalo, Sulawesi
Native speakers	1 million (2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Gorontalo Gorontalic Gorontaloan
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2	gor
ISO 639-3	gor
Glottolog	goro1259

The Gorontaloan language (also called Hulontalo) is a language spoken in Gorontalo Province (Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia, southern coast) by the Gorontaloan people. Dialects of Gorontalo are East Gorontalo, Gorontalo Kota, Tilamuta, Suwawa, and West Gorontalo.

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.