The Selayar homeland is the island of Selayar, located off the tip of the southern penninsula of Sulawesi. Selayar is also spoken on adjacent smaller islands and in a few scattered settlements in other locations, including Nusa Tenggara Barat.
To our knowledge, no dialects of Selayar have been reported. Selayar itself has sometimes been classified as a dialect of Makasar, even though Makasar and Selayar are located at opposite ends of a dialect chain and are not inherently mutually intelligible (see discussion in Grimes and Grimes 1987:25 ff.).
Indonesia Pelangi Nusantara (2010:117) estimates 115,000 Selayarese in all locations.
Grimes, Charles E.; and Barbara D. Grimes. 1987. Languages of South Sulawesi. (Pacific Linguistics, D-78.) Canberra: Australian National University.
Indonesia Pelangi Nusantara. 2010. Profil doa suku-suku yang terabaikan. Jakarta: IPN.
We rate Selayar as 5/Safe because of reported vigorous language use throughout Selayar Island.
Laidig (1997:1)
The entire island of Selayar is vigorous in its use of the Selayar language. It is very difficult to communicate with the many people in Indonesian. ... Selayar is spoken by both adults and children in every domain we were able to observe.
Laidig and Maingak (1999:48)
Selayarese, the lingua franca which dominates the entire island [of Selayar], is still spoken vigorously by all segments of the population.
Laidig, Wyn D. 1997. Laiyolo and Barang-barang survey report. Unpublished typescript, 3 pp.
Laidig, Wyn D.; and Sahabu Dg. Maingak. 1999. Barang-barang phonology: A preliminary description. Studies in Sulawesi linguistics, part 6 (NUSA: Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia, 46), edited by Wyn D. Laidig, 46–83. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri NUSA, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya. [Reproduced online. URL: http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v46-p46-83.pdf (accessed January 14, 2014).]
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Ethnologue : Selayar: A language of Indonesia http://www.ethnologue.com/language/sly
Glottolog : Selayarhttp://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/sela1260
Open Language Archives Community : OLAC resources in and about the Selayar language http://www.language-archives.org/language/sly
Wikipedia (English) : Selayar language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selayar_language
Wikipedia (Indonesia) : Bahasa Selayar http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahasa_Selayar
World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) Online : Selayar http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_sly
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