Wolio language

Wolio
Region Sulawesi
Native speakers
 65,000  (2004)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 wlo
Glottolog woli1241[2]

Wolio is an Austronesian language spoken in Bau-Bau on Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Also known as Buton, it is a trade language and the former court language of the Sultan at Baubau. Today it is an official regional language; street signs are written in Wolio using the Arabic script.

Phonology

Stress is on the penultimate syllable. The five vowels are /i e a o u/.

Consonants
LabialApicalLaminalVelarGlottal
p t tʃ k ʔ
ɓ ɗ dʒ ɡ
mp nt ɲtʃ ŋk
mb nd ɲdʒ ŋɡ
m n ɲ ŋ
β s h
l, r

/b, d, f/ are found in loans, mostly from Arabic. /β/ is transcribed w, /tʃ/ c. /r/ is a trill.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wolio at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Wolio". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.