Tukang Besi language

Tukang Besi
Native toIndonesia
RegionSulawesi, Tukang Besi Archipelago
Native speakers
(250,000 cited 1995)
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
khc – Tukang Besi North
bhq – Tukang Besi South
Glottologtuka1247
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Tukang Besi is an Austronesian language spoken in the Tukangbesi Islands in southeast Sulawesi in Indonesia by a quarter million speakers. A Tukang Besi pidgin is used in the area.

Tukang Besi Pidgin
Native speakers
None
Tukang Besi–based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottologpidg1257

Phonology

The northern dialect of Tukang Besi has 25 consonant phonemes and a basic 5-vowel system. It features stress which is usually on the second-to-last syllable. The language has two implosive consonants, which are uncommon in the world's languages. The coronal plosives and /s/ have prenasalized counterparts which act as separate phonemes.

Tukang Besi (northern dialect) consonants
Bilabial Dental/
Alveolar
Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive plain p b () k ɡ ʔ
prenasalized mp mb n̪t̪ n̪d̪ ŋk ŋɡ
Implosive ɓ ɗ̪
Fricative plain β s (z) h
prenasalized n̪s̪
Trill r
Lateral
The vowel phonemes of Tukang Besi

Notes:

  • /b/ only appears in loanwords, but it contrasts with /ɓ/
  • [d] and [z] are not phonemic and appear only as allophones of /dʒ/, which appears only in loanwords.

Orthography

Vowels

  • a – [a/ɐ]
  • e – [ɛ/e]
  • i – [i/ɪ]
  • o – [o/ɔ]
  • u – [ɯ/u]

Consonants

  • b – [ɓ/ʔɓ/ʔb/β]
  • b̠ – [b]
  • c – [t͡ʃ]
  • d – [ɗ̪]
  • d̠ – [d/d͡ʒ/z]
  • g – [g/ɠ/ʔɠ/ɣ]
  • h – [h/ɸ]
  • j – [d͡ʒ]
  • k – [k/c]
  • l – [l̪]
  • m – [m]
  • mb – [mb]
  • mp – [mp]
  • n – [n]
  • nd – [n̪d̪]
  • ns – [n̪s̪]
  • nt – [n̪t̪]
  • ng – [ŋ]
  • ngg – [ŋɡ]
  • ngk – [ŋk]
  • nj – [n̪d̪]
  • p – [p]
  • r – [r]
  • s – [s]
  • t – [t̪]
  • w – [w]
  • ' – [ʔ]

Grammar

Nouns

Tukang Besi does not have grammatical gender or number. It is an ergative–absolutive language.

Verbs

Tukang Besi has an inflectional future tense, which is indicated with a prefix, but no past tense.

Word order

Tukang Besi uses verb–object–subject word order, which is also used by Fijian. Like many Austronesian languages, it has prepositions, but places adjectives, genitives, and determiners after nouns. Yes–no questions are indicated by a particle at the end of the sentence.


This page was last updated at 2024-02-21 03:22 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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