Selayar language

Selayar (Basa Silajara) or Selayarese is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by approximately 130,000 people of the Selayar people on the Selayar Islands in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia.^[2]: 210 This language is egalitarian in its use, there are no levels of language, either rough or weak.

Selayar
Basa Silajara
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Selayar Islands, South Sulawesi
Ethnicity	Selayar people
Native speakers	130,000 (2024)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian South Sulawesi Makassaric Selayar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sly
Glottolog	sela1260
Distribution of the Selayar language (number 9) is circled in red in the South Sulawesi languages.
Distribution of the Selayar language   Selayar language   Other Makassaric languages
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a

Vowels are lengthened when stressed and in an open syllable.

Nasalization

Nasalization extends from nasal consonants to the following vowels, continuing until blocked by an intonation break or a consonant other than a glottal stop:

[lamẽãĩʔĩ ãːsu] "A dog urinated on him."

[sassaʔ lamẽãĩʔĩ | ʔaːsu lataiːʔiʔi] "A lizard urinated on him, and a dog defecated on him."^{[2]: 225–226}

Consonants

		Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ
	voiceless	p	t̪		k	ʔ
Fricative			s			h
Lateral			l
Rhotic			ɹ

Of the coronals, the voiceless stop is dental, while the others are alveolar.

Morphology

Selayarese intransitive verbs index pronominal arguments via an absolutive enclitic.^{[3][4]: 162}

a'lumpa'=a

jump=1S

a'lumpa'=a

jump=1S

'I jump'

mangang=a

tired=1S

mangang=a

tired=1S

'I am tired'

In transitive verbs the less agent-like argument is indexed by the absolutive enclitic.^[4]: 163

ku=isse'=i

1S=know=3S

ku=isse'=i

1S=know=3S

'I know him'