Lisela ( Indonesian: bahasa Lisela), also called Li Enyorot, ^[2] is an Austronesian language; in 1989 it was spoken by about 11,900 Lisela people mostly living in the northern part of Indonesian island Buru ( Indonesian: Pulau Buru). It is also preserved among the small Lisela community on the Ambon Island. ^[3]

The language belongs to the Sula–Buru group of Central Maluku branch of Malayo-Polynesian languages. It has two dialects, major Lisela and minor Tagalisa, the latter is used by the inhabitants of the north-east coast of Buru. ^{[3] [4] [5]} The language is dying as most Lisela people switch either to the national language of Indonesia, Indonesian, or to the Ambonese variety of the Malay language ( Melayu Ambon). The latter is widely used in the Maluku Islands as a lingua franca and is a local form of Malay with additions of the local lexicon. ^{[3] [4]}

The language most closely related to Lisela is Buru, especially its dialect Masarete – their lexical similarity is 68%. ^[6] Thus many sources regard Lisela as a dialect, though the most diverging, of Buru. Lisela had also borrowed much from the Sula language, as a result of the interaction between the Lisela and Sula people living together as the northern Buru coast. ^[2] The language has no writing system. The most detailed study of Lisela language was conducted in the 1980s by Charles E. Grimes and Barbara Dix Grimes – Australian missionaries and ethnographers, active members of SIL International (they should not be confused with Joseph E. Grimes and Barbara F. Grimes, Charles' parents, also known Australian ethnographers). ^{[7] [8] [9]}

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