Tomini–Tolitoli languages

The Tomini–Tolitoli languages are a proposed group of languages spoken off the Gulf of Tomini and the district of Tolitoli in northern Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia. It has not yet been demonstrated that the two branches are closer to each other than to other languages of Sulawesi, but this is widely expected to be the case.

Languages

The following tentative classification of the Tomini–Tolitoli languages is from Himmelmann (2001:20).

• Tolitoli
  • Totoli
  • Boano
• Tomini
  • Northern Tomini
    • Ampibabo-Lauje
    • Lauje
    • Tialo (Tomini)
    • Dondo
  • Southern Tomini
    • Balaesang
    • Pendau
    • Dampelas
    • Taje
    • Tajio

Totoli and Boano are closely related to each other but diverge very much from the other languages in terms of lexicon, phonology, and other areas. These two languages may have been influenced by the Gorontalic languages and also more recently by South Sulawesi languages such as Bugis and Makassar (Himmelmann 2001:20).

Demographics

The demographics below are from Himmelmann (2001:18).

West Coast

• Balaesang: 3,200
• Pendau (Ndau): 3,200
• Dampelas (Dampal): 10,300
• Dondo: 13,000
• Totoli (Tolitoli): 25,000

East Coast

• Taje (Petapa): 350
• Ampibabo-Lauje: 6,000
• Tajio (Kasimbar): 12,000
• Lauje (Tinombo): 38,000
• Tialo (Tomini): 30,000
• Boano (Bolano): 2,700

Total

145,000

References

• Nikolaus Himmelmann (2001), Sourcebook on Tomini–Tolitoli languages. Celebes.