The Tomini–Tolitoli languages are a disputed subgroup in the Austronesian language family spoken off the
Gulf of Tomini and the district of
Tolitoli in northern
Central Sulawesi province,
Indonesia, consisting of two branches, viz. "Tomini" and "Tolitoli". The unity of this group has not yet been demonstrated, and it may well be that the two branches actually are not closer to each other than to other languages of Sulawesi.[1]
Languages
The following tentative classification of the Tomini–Tolitoli languages is from Himmelmann (2001:20).
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). Mead (2003) notes that certain aspects of the phonological history of Totoli and Boano even point against an inclusion of these two languages in the Celebic subgroup.[2]
Demographics
The demographics below are from Himmelmann (2001:18).
^K. Alexander Adelaar and Nikolaus Himmelmann (2005). The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar. Routledge.
^Mead, David (2003a).
"Evidence for a Celebic supergroup"(PDF). In Lynch, John (ed.). Issues in Austronesian historical phonology. Pacific Linguistics 550. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 115–141.
References
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2001. Sourcebook on Tomini-Tolitoli languages: General information and word lists. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.