| Gorontalo | |
| Nativename: | Bahasa Hulontalo |
| Script: | Latin |
| States: | Indonesia |
| Region: | Gorontalo North Sulawesi Central Sulawesi |
| Speakers: | 1 million |
| Date: | 2000 census |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Philippine |
| Fam4: | Greater Central Philippine |
| Fam5: | Gorontalo–Mongondow |
| Fam6: | Gorontalic |
| Iso2: | gor |
| Iso3: | gor |
| Glotto: | goro1259 |
| Glottorefname: | Gorontalo |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Ethnicity: | Gorontalo people |
The Gorontalo language (also called Hulontalo) is a language spoken in Gorontalo Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia by the Gorontalo people.[1] With around one million speakers (2000 census), it is a major language of northern Sulawesi.
Considerable lexical influence comes from Malay, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch, and the North Halmahera languages. The Gorontalo region used to be controlled by the Sultanate of Ternate. Manado Malay and Indonesian are also spoken in the area.[2] Despite its relatively large number of speakers, Gorontalo is under much pressure from Malay varieties, especially in urban settings.
Sizable Gorontalo communities can be found in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, as well as Jakarta.
Musa Kasim et al. (1981) give five main dialects of Gorontalo: east Gorontalo, Limboto, Gorontolo City, west Gorontalo, and Tilamuta.
| labial | alveolar | palatal | velar | glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| sonorant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
Consonant sequences include NC (homorganic nasal - plosive), where C may be pronounced as //b d t d̠ ɟ ɡ k//. Elsewhere, pronounced as //b d// are relatively rare and only occur before high vowels. pronounced as //d̠//, written in linguistic materials, but not distinguished from elsewhere, is a laminal post-alveolar coronal stop that is indeterminate as to voicing. The phonemic status of pronounced as /[ʔ]/ is unclear; if pronounced as /[VʔV]/ is interpreted as vowel sequences pronounced as //VV//, then this contrasts with long vowels (where the two V's are the same) and vowel sequences separated by linking glides (where the two V's are different).
Gorontalo has five vowels.
| high | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| low | pronounced as /link/ |