Tukang Besi language

Tukang Besi, or known in Indonesia by the terms Pulo or Wakatobi, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Tukangbesi Islands in southeast Sulawesi in Indonesia by a quarter million speakers. A Tukang Besi pidgin is used in the area.^[2]

Tukang Besi Pidgin
Native speakers	None
Language family	Tukang Besi–based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	pidg1257

Tukang Besi
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Sulawesi, Tukang Besi Archipelago
Native speakers	(250,000 cited 1995)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Celebic Muna–Buton Tukang Besi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: khc – Tukang Besi North bhq – Tukang Besi South
Glottolog	tuka1247
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Phonology

The northern dialect of Tukang Besi has 25 consonant phonemes and a basic 5-vowel system.^[3] It features stress which is usually on the second-to-last syllable. The language has two implosive consonants, which are uncommon in the world's languages. The coronal plosives and /s/ have prenasalized counterparts which act as separate phonemes.

Tukang Besi (northern dialect) consonants^[3]

		Bilabial		Dental/ Alveolar		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m		n		ŋ
Plosive	plain	p	b	t̪	(d̪)	k	ɡ	ʔ
	prenasalized	mp	mb	n̪t̪	n̪d̪	ŋk	ŋɡ
Implosive			ɓ		ɗ̪
Fricative	plain		β	s	(z)			h
	prenasalized			n̪s̪
Trill				r
Lateral				l̪

The vowel phonemes of Tukang Besi

Notes:

• /b/ only appears in loanwords, but it contrasts with /ɓ/
• [d] and [z] are not phonemic and appear only as allophones of /dʒ/, which appears only in loanwords.

Orthography

Vowels

• a – [a/ɐ]
• e – [ɛ/e]
• i – [i/ɪ]
• o – [o/ɔ]
• u – [ɯ/u]

Consonants

• b – [ɓ/ʔɓ/ʔb/β]
• b̠ – [b]
• c – [t͡ʃ]
• d – [ɗ̪]
• d̠ – [d/d͡ʒ/z]
• g – [g/ɠ/ʔɠ/ɣ]
• h – [h/ɸ]
• j – [d͡ʒ]
• k – [k/c]
• l – [l̪]
• m – [m]
• mb – [mb]
• mp – [mp]
• n – [n]
• nd – [n̪d̪]
• ns – [n̪s̪]
• nt – [n̪t̪]
• ng – [ŋ]
• ngg – [ŋɡ]
• ngk – [ŋk]
• nj – [n̪d̪]
• p – [p]
• r – [r]
• s – [s]
• t – [t̪]
• w – [w]
• ' – [ʔ]

^[4]

Grammar

Nouns

Tukang Besi does not have grammatical gender or number. It is an ergative–absolutive language.

Verbs

Tukang Besi has an inflectional future tense, which is indicated with a prefix, but no past tense.

Word order

Tukang Besi uses verb–object–subject word order, which is also used by Fijian. Like many Austronesian languages, it has prepositions, but places adjectives, genitives, and determiners after nouns. Yes–no questions are indicated by a particle at the end of the sentence.^[5]