Discussion

When speaking to the issue of Dondo language vitality, Himmelmann (2010:69) outlines in broad strokes two populations of Dondo: (a) a coastal population where the use of the Dondo language has declined owing to large influxes of outsiders; and (b) a hill-country population where Dondo still predominates in everyday interactions. Himmelmann further suggests that interaction between these populations may actually help invigorate the use of Dondo among the coastal population. We follow UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (Moseley 2010) and rate Dondo as 4/Vulnerable.

What Others Have Written

Andersen (1991:159–160)

[Di Desa Oyom] bahasa Dondo masih sangat dominan. Dalam lingkungan keluarga, kebanyakan anak dilaporkan hanya pakai bahasa Dondo, tetapi ada sebagian yang memakai dua bahasa. Hal memakai dia bahasa menjadi umum dlam hubungan dengan teman. Anak yang hanya memakai bahasa Indonesia sangat sedikit ... Di Desa Lais, pola pemakaian bahasa jauh lebih rumit. ... Bahasa Dondo masih dominan dalam lingkungan keluarga, tetapi di luar rumah (dengan teman dan tetangga) bahasa Indonesia yang lebih dominan. Kesimpulan lain adalah bahwa Desa Lais merupakan tempat di mana tiga bahasa dipakai dalam kehidupan sehari-hari oleh kalangan anak.

Himmelmann (2010:69)

Most of the middle hill Dondo interact with a coastal population which is also Dondo. This set-up may lead to a reinforcement of their use of the Dondo language in a broad variety of domains.

Wurm (2007:486)

Most of the middle hill Dondo interact socially with the Dondo coastal population which reinforces the use of Dondo in a variety of functions. Only their children, who receive their primary school instruction in Indonesian, constitute a possible threat to the language, which may therefore be potentially endangered.

References

Andersen, T. David. 1991. Survei sociolinguistik bahasa Dondo. UNHAS-SIL: More sociolinguistic surveys, 1987–1991 (Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures, 11), edited by Timothy Friberg, 143–166. Ujung Pandang: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2010. Language endangerment scenarios: A case study from northern Central Sulawesi. Endangered Languages of Austronesia, edited by Margaret Florey, 45–72. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moseley, Christopher (ed.) 2010. Atlas of the world’s languages in danger, 3rd ed., entirely revised, enlarged and updated. (Memory of Peoples Series.) Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

Wurm, Stephen A. 2007. Australasia and the Pacific. Encyclopedia of the world’s endangered languages, edited by Christopher Moseley, 425–577. New York: Routledge.