Sulawesi Language Alliance

Championing Local Languages in the Heart of Indonesia

Language Group

Overview
ISO 639-3: 
mak
Alternate Names: 
Mengkasara, Mangasara, Makassarese, Macassar, Macazar, Macaçá, Goa, Tena, Taena
Dialects: 
Lakiung (Goa-Takalar); Maros-Pangkep; Turatea (Jeneponto)
Population: 
2130000 (2000)
Microgroup: 
Province: 
South Sulawesi
Overall Vitality: 
5/Safe

Population

With a population of over two million (Indonesia Pelangi Nusantara 2010:116), the Makasar are the second largest ethnic group of Sulawesi. The Makasar kingdom has a rich history, including a time when their fleets extended Makasar influence to places as far flung as Sumbawa and northern Sulawesi.

Dialects

The dialects of Makasar form a straightforward continuum from Maros and Pangkajene in the north through Makassar City and southward and eastward along coast. Three principal dialects have sometimes been recognized, respectively Maros-Pangkep, Lakiung (Goa-Takalar), and Turatea, spoken in the western part of Jeneponto Province. In the eastern part of Jeneponto and further east, e.g. Bantaeng, people align their speech variety with Coastal Konjo.

Spelling

For historical reasons, the name of the city is spelled Makassar, with a double s. When refering to the people group or language, we use a single s (Makasar), since this spelling reflects how the name is actually articulated. The spelling with single s also has some precedence; among others it was used by François Valentijn in his eighteenth-century history of eastern Indonesia (Valentijn 1724–1726).

Literary Tradition

The Makasar language has a centuries-old literary tradition in which the so-called Makasar or lontara' script was used to write the language, originally on connected strips of lontar palm leaflets (see Noorduyn 1993 inter alia).

References

Indonesia Pelangi Nusantara. 2010. Profil doa suku-suku yang terabaikan. Jakarta: IPN.

Noorduyn, J. 1993. Variation in the Bugis/Makasarese script. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 149:533–570.

Valentijn, François. 1724–1726. Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën. 8 vols. Dordrecht, Amsterdam: Joannes van Braam, Gerard Onder de Linden.

Vitality

Summary

 

Discussion

In the present day, educators and others have reported increasing use of Indonesian in the younger generation to the exclusion of the local language. How widespread this pattern of language shift is requires further investigation. We tentatively rate the Makasar language as 5/Safe—in part this rating is based on the large size of the Makasar people group—but the situation bears monitoring since the language exhibits some symptoms of vulnerability.

What Others Have Written

Majid (2009)

Pemerintah Provinsi Sulawesi Selatan memprihatinkan penggunaan bahasa Bugis dan Makassar di kalangan anak muda yang mulai minim. Jika itu terus berlangsung, dikhawatirkan kedua bahasa lokal Sulsel itu bisa terancam punah. "Kepunahan bahasa daerah di Indonesia disebabkan kurangnya kurikulum bahasa daerah pada pendidikan usia dini," kata Sekertaris Provinsi Sulsel, H Andi Muallim, di Makassar, Selasa (25/8). Menurut dia, hasil kajian kongres bahasa daerah Internasional yang digelar dua tahun lalu telah menyimpulkan bahwa kepunahan bahasa daerah akibat pendidikan taman kanak-kanak (TK) dan playgroup tidak lagi mengenalkan bahasa daerah secara optimal. Kehadiran bahasa asing di sekolah-sekolah itu, lanjutnya, dianggap sebagai faktor utama kurangnya kurikulum penggunaan bahasa daerah maupun bahasa Indonesia yang baik.

Majid (2009)

Adanya perubahan budaya anak-anak yang dulunya nenek yang bisa mempengaruhi cucu-cucunya berbahasa daerah. Sekarang sudah terbalik, justru cucu yang mendominasi sang nenek, sehingga nenek juga ikut-ikutan berbahasa Indonesia.

References

Majid, Furqon. 25 Aug 2009. Bahasa Bugis dan Makassar Bakal Punah. Kompas.com. Online. URL: http://regional.kompas.com/read/2009/08/25/1106539/bahasa.bugis.dan.makassar.bakal.punah (accessed March 18, 2011).

Documentation

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