Makassarese language

For the script used to write Makassar, see Lontara script.
Makassar
Bahasa Makassar
ᨅᨔ ᨆᨀᨔᨑ Basa Mangkasara'
Native to Indonesia
Region southern tip of South Sulawesi, Sulawesi (Celebes)
Native speakers
 2.1 million (2000 census)[1]
Lontara, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2 mak
ISO 639-3 mak
Glottolog maka1311[2]

Makassarese (sometimes spelled Makasar, Makassar, or Macassar) is a language used by the Makassarese people in South Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a member of the South Sulawesi group of the Austronesian language family, and thus closely related to, among others, Buginese.

Although Makassarese is now often written in Latin script, it is still widely written in its own distinctive script, also called Lontara, which once was used also to write important documents in Bugis and Mandar, two related languages from Sulawesi.

The Makassar symbols are written using mostly straight oblique lines and dots. In spite of its quite distinctive appearance, it is derived from the ancient Brahmi scripts of India. Like other descendants of that script, each consonant has an inherent vowel "a", which is not marked. Other vowels can be indicated by adding one of five diacritics above, below, or on either side of each consonant.

Some common words/phrases in the Makassar language, transcribed in the Latin script, are as follows ( ' = glottal stop):

Lontara script Latinized Indonesian Translation
ᨅᨒ balla' rumah house
ᨅᨚᨒᨚ bulu bulu hair/fur
ᨅᨅ bambang panas hot/warm
ᨌᨗᨄᨘᨑᨘ cipuru' lapar hungry
ᨉᨚᨕᨙ doe' uang money
ᨕᨗᨐᨚ iyo' iya yes
ᨒᨚᨄᨚ lompo besar big/large
ᨔᨒᨚ sallo lama / lambat slow
ᨈ ᨅᨙᨙ tabe' permisi excuse me
ᨈᨙᨊ tena tidak no
ᨀᨑᨕᨙ karaeng raja king
ᨕᨄ ᨀᨑᨙᨅ? apa kareba? apa kabar? how are you?
ᨒᨀᨙᨀᨚ ᨆᨕᨙ? lakeko mae? kamu mau ke mana? where are you going?
ᨅᨒ ballang belang get tanned
ᨅᨚᨈᨚ botto' bau smelly
ᨑᨈᨔ rantasa' jorok disgusting
ᨅᨈᨒ battala' gemuk fatty
ᨅᨗᨒ bella jauh far away
ᨁᨙᨒᨙ ᨁᨙᨒᨙ gele'-gele' geli tickle
ᨀᨚᨀᨚ kong-kong anjing dog
ᨍᨑ jarang kuda horse
ᨅᨙᨅᨙ bembe' kambing goat
ᨆᨚᨈᨙᨑᨙ motere' pulang ke rumah return home
ᨂᨑᨙ nganre makan eat

See also

References

  1. ↑ Makassar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Makasar". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Makassarese language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator


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