Discussion
By all accounts, the Budong-Budong language is under pressure from Mamuju and Topoiyo (respectively dominant regional and local languages), as well as Indonesian in the present day.
What Others Have Written
Friberg and Laskowske (1989:10)
The language is small, spoken in only eleven households (less than 100 people). Indeed only five households remain where both husband and wife are native speakers. Factors such as intermarriage and proximity to Topoiyo make language use unstable. It appears to be giving way to Topoiyo.
Manda, Yamaguchi and Nakashima (2002:67)
Walaupun terdapat kecendrungan jumlah bertambah, keadaan bahasa Tangkou tetap atau semakin mengkhawatirkan. Penutur bahasa Tangkou bukan monolingual melainkan multilingual. Orang Tangkou biasanya dapat berbahasa Mamuju yang mempunyai kedudukan lingua franca di sepanjang pantai dari Tapalang sampai Baras dan Topoiyo yang bahasa dominan di Kecamatan Topoyo, di samping bahasa nasional, bahasa Indonesia.
Laskowske (2007:139)
In recent generations, Budong-budong has been isolated from other Seko languages. Their current location has brought them into close contact with Topoiyo and Mamuju. Their numbers are small and the influence of those languages on Budong-budong is high.
Wurm (2007:481)
No literacy in it. In 1988, seventy or fewer speakers were reported, now they are fewer. Some intermarriage and bilingualism with the large Topoiyo language and pressure from it. The language is now seriously endangered.
References
Friberg, Timothy; and Thomas V. Laskowske. 1989. South Sulawesi languages, 1989. Studies in Sulawesi linguistics, part 1 (NUSA: Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia, 31), edited by James N. Sneddon, 1–17. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya. [Reproduced online. URL: http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v31-p1-18.pdf (accessed January 13, 2014).]
Laskowske, Tom. 2007. The Seko languages of South Sulawesi: A reconstruction. 10‑ICAL historical comparative papers, edited by David Mead, special issue. Studies in Philippine Languages and Cultures 15:115–210.
Manda, Marthen L.; Masao Yamaguchi, and Hirotaka Nakashima. 2002. Kosakata dasar bahasa Panasuan serta tata bahasa ringkas bahasa Panasuan dan kosakata dasar bahasa Tangkou serta tata bahasa ringkas bahasa Tangkou. (Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim, A3-010.) Osaka: ELPR.
Wurm, Stephen A. 2007. Australasia and the Pacific. Encyclopedia of the world’s endangered languages, edited by Christopher Moseley, 425–577. New York: Routledge.
