Location
The Malimpung language is spoken in Pinrang Regency in the villages of Malimpung and Urung, and by a small segment of the population of Sulili village (Druce 2009:142, see also the maps on pages 144 and 145 which locate the Malimpung-speaking area).
Classification
While Malimpung is rightly classified as a member of the Massenrempulu subgroup along with Duri, Enrekang, and Maiwa (Friberg and Laskowske 1989:5), the Malimpung language is the subgroup’s most divergent member owing to extensive borrowing from the Sawitto dialect of Bugis—so much so that at one time Malimpung was even considered a dialect of Bugis (Friberg and Friberg 1985:26–27) or subgrouped with Bugis (Valkama 1987:124, 133).
Population
A survey conducted in 1986 estimated 5,000 speakers of Malimpung (reported in Friberg and Laskowske 1989:5).
References
Druce, Stephen C. 2009. The lands west of the lakes: A history of the Ajattappareng kingdoms of South Sulawesi, 1200 to 1600 CE. (Verhandelingen van Het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 261.) Leiden: KITLV Press.
Friberg, Timothy; and Barbara Friberg. 1985. Geograpi dialek bahasa Bugis. Lontara 28:20–47.
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).]
Valkama, Kari. 1987. Kabupatens Pinrang, Enrekang, Tana Toraja, Luwu and eastern part of Poliwali Mamasa. UNHAS-SIL South Sulawesi sociolinguistic surveys, 1983–1987 (Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures, 5), edited by Timothy Friberg, 119–136. Ujung Pandang: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
