Makassarese language

Makassarese language
Makassar Language
ᨅᨔ ᨆᨀᨔᨑ
Basa Mangkasara'
Bahasa Makassar
Spoken in  Indonesia
Region southern tip of South Sulawesi, Sulawesi (Celebes)
Native speakers 1,600,000  (1989)
Language family
Austronesian
Writing system Lontara, Roman alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-2 mak
ISO 639-3 mak

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

Although Makassarese is now often written with the Roman alphabet, 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 language 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 using the Roman alphabet 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
ᨉᨚ ᨙᨕ doe' uang money
ᨕᨗᨐᨚ iyo' iya yes
ᨒᨚᨄᨚ lompo besar big/large
ᨔᨒᨚ sallo lama / lambat slow
ᨈ ᨙᨙᨅ tabe' permisi excuse me
ᨙᨈᨊ tena tidak no
ᨀᨑ ᨙᨕ karaeng raja king
ᨕᨄ ᨀ ᨙᨑᨅ? apa kare'ba? apa kabar how are you?
ᨒ ᨙᨀᨀᨚ ᨆ ᨙᨕ? 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
ᨙᨁ ᨙᨒ ᨙᨁ ᨙᨒ gele-gele geli tickle
ᨀᨚᨀᨚ kong-kong anjing dog
ᨍᨑ jarang kuda horse
ᨙᨅ ᨙᨅ bembe' kambing goat
ᨆᨚ ᨙᨈ ᨙᨑ motere' pulang ke rumah return home
ᨂ ᨙᨑ nganre' makan eat

External links



Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Makassarese — /meuh kas euh reez , rees /, n., pl. Makassarese for 1. 1. a member of a Muslim people of southwestern Sulawesi, near Ujung Pandang, closely related to the Buginese. 2. the Austronesian language of the Makassarese. Also, Macassarese, Makasarese.… …   Universalium

  • Makassarese — Ma•kas•sar•ese or Macassarese or Ma•kas•ar•ese [[t]məˌkæs əˈriz, ˈris[/t]] n. pl. ese 1) peo a member of a people living on the southernmost end of SW Sulawesi in Indonesia, esp. in and around Ujung Pandang 2) peo the Austronesian language of the …   From formal English to slang

  • Buginese language — language name=Buginese nativename=ᨅᨔ ᨕᨘᨁ bu. basa ugi familycolor=Austronesian region=South Sulawesi, Certain Parts of Sumatra, Riau, Kalimantan, Sabah, Malay peninsula speakers=3.5 to 4 million fam2=Malayo Polynesian (MP) fam3=Nuclear MP… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Indonesia — More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia.[1] Most belong to the Austronesian language family, with a few Papuan languages also spoken. The official language is Indonesian (locally known as Bahasa Indonesia), a modified version of… …   Wikipedia

  • Makassar — For other uses, see Macassar (disambiguation). Makassar ᨀᨚᨈ ᨆᨀᨔᨑ Kota Makassar City of Makassar Losari Beach (top), Masjid Raya Makassar (center), Makassar skyline (bottom left), and Hasanuddin Internat …   Wikipedia

  • Lontara script — Infobox Writing system name=Lontara type = Abugida time = 17th century ndash;20th century languages = Buginese language fam1=Proto Canaanite alphabet fam2=Phoenician alphabet fam3=Aramaic alphabet fam4=Brāhmī fam5=Pallava fam6=Old Kawi… …   Wikipedia

  • Toraja — ethnic group image caption=Toraja traditional house, tongkonan . group=Toraja poptime=650,000cite web|url=http://www.toraja.go.id/sosial.php|title=Tana Toraja official website|accessdate=2006 10 04|language=Indonesian] popplace=West Sulawesi,… …   Wikipedia

  • Indonesia — /in deuh nee zheuh, sheuh, zee euh, doh /, n. 1. See East Indies (def. 1). 2. Republic of. Formerly, Netherlands East Indies, Dutch East Indies. a republic in the Malay Archipelago consisting of 13,677 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi,… …   Universalium

  • Sulawesi — Infobox Islands name = Sulawesi image caption = Provincial Division native name = native name link = locator location = South East Asia coordinates = coord|2|08|S|120|17|E|type:isle archipelago = Greater Sunda Islands area = 174,600 km² rank =… …   Wikipedia

  • Celebes — Celebesian /sel euh bee zheuhn/, adj. /sel euh beez , seuh lee beez/; Du. /se lay bes/, n. former name of Sulawesi. * * * I or Sulawesi Island (pop., 1999 est.: 4,1,768,400), Indonesia. One of the Greater Sunda Islands, it lies in the Malay… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”