An Initial Appreciation of the Dialect Situation in Saluan and Batui

136 Pages·2015·2.24 MB·English

DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2015-013
An Initial Appreciation of the
Dialect Situation in Saluan and
Batui (Eastern Sulawesi,
Indonesia)
David Mead and Edy Pasanda
An Initial Appreciation of the
Dialect Situation in Saluan and Batui
(Eastern Sulawesi, Indonesia)
David Mead and Edy Pasanda
Maps prepared by
Matt Connor and John Noya
SIL International®
2015
SIL Electronic Survey Report 2015-013, November 2015
© 2015 SIL International®
All rights reserved
Abstract
In the eastern peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, the fifteenth edition of the Ethnologue
(Gordon 2005) lists two Saluan languages: Coastal Saluan and Kahumamahon Saluan. Based on a survey
of the Saluan area conducted in July, 2006, we conclude that this division is unjustified—only one
Saluan language need be recognized, though with various dialects as we explore in this paper. Our
conclusions are based on a consideration of lexical similarity (lexicostatistics), historical sound change,
and informal sociolinguistic interviews.
During the course of this survey, we also collected information on the small Batui lect, also known
in the literature as Baha, and previously classified as a dialect of Pamona. In actuality Batui is a language
closely related to Saluan.
With the merger of Coastal and Kahumamahon Saluan as a single language and the recognition of
Batui as a separate language, the total number of recognized languages in the Saluan-Banggai
microgroup remains at six languages. An appendix presents eleven wordlists from Saluan and one from
Batui.
Contents
Abstract
Ringkasan
1 Introduction
1.1 Current administrative boundaries
1.2 Research sites
1.3 Saluan and Batui in the literature
1.3.1 Mondono (also Mandona, Mandano, Mandana, Mandono, Mondonu, Mondone,

Modone, Mendono)
1.3.2 Loinang (also La-Inang, Loindang, Lojnang, Loinan, Luinan, Loenan, Toloina)
1.3.3 Saluan
1.3.4 Madi
1.3.5 Baha and Batui
2 The evidence from lexicostatistics
3 The evidence from sound changes
3.1 Final long vowels in Saluan and Batui
3.2 Merger of final *l and *n
4 The evidence from sociolinguistic interviews
4.1 Village-by-village responses
4.2 Summary
5 Conclusions
Appendix A: Lexical similarity matrices (Swadesh 100)
Appendix B: Wordlists
References
iii
Ringkasan
Tulisan ini merupakan laporan atas survei kami pada daerah bahasa Saluan dan Batui. Saluan
merupakan salah satu bahasa daerah induk di semenanjung timur Propinsi Sulawesi Tengah. Menurut
sebagian dari atlas-atlas bahasa (Sneddon 1983, Wurm 1994), hanya ada satu bahasa Saluan. Referensi
bahasa lain, bagaimanapun juga, seperti edisi ke-15 Ethnologue (Gordon 2005) membedakan ada dua
bahasa: bahasa Saluan Pesisir dan bahasa lainnya yang disebut Saluan Kahumamahon. Tentu saja
memungkinkan untuk mengidentifikasi suku yang disebut dengan suku Kahumamahon, yang telah
diperhitungkan sebagai suku terasing yang berada di pedalaman kecamatan Nuhon, namun diragukan
apakah bahasa kelompok ini dapat dianggap sebagai bahasa yang terpisah.
Untuk tujuan penyelidikan yang lebih mendetil, pada bulan Juli 2006, dengan dukungan kantor
Badan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Daerah di Palu dan Luwuk, kami mengadakan penjajakan di daerah
Saluan. Dari kecamatan Nuhon hingga kecamatan Boalemo di pantai utara dan dari Kecamatan Luwuk
Timur hingga Kecamatan Batui di pantai selatan, kami mengunjungi dua belas lokasi, dengan tujuan
untuk mengumpulkan informasi mengenai perbendaharaan kata dan menyebarkan angket kuisioner
sosiolingustik.
Kami menyimpulkan bahwa tidak perlu membedakan diantara kedua bahasa Saluan. Hanya ada
satu bahasa Saluan, yang kami bagi dalam tiga dialek, yaitu: dialek Loinang, dialek Luwuk dan dialek
Kintom-Pangimana-Boalemo (Kipabo). Dialek Loinang ternyata mengandung tiga subdialek yaitu
Lingketeng, Baloa’ dan Kahumama'on. Dialek Loinang dipakai pada bagian pedalaman dulu, khususnya
sepanjang sungai Sensean dan Lobu, namun sepanjang abad yang lalu, orang-orang ini telah
meninggalkan desa-desa asal mereka dan telah berdikari di berbagai lokasi sepanjang pantai. Dialek
Luwuk dipakai umumnya di kecamatan Luwuk dan Luwuk Timur. Dialek Kimtom-Pagimana-Boalemo
(Kipabo) tentu dipakai di kecamatan Kintom, Pagimana dan Boalemo dan juga di bagian-bagian tertentu
di kecamatan Bunta dan Nuhon.
Hubungan diantara ketiga dialek ini adalah sebagai berikut. Luwuk dapat dianggap sebagai dialek
inti. Dialek Luwuk sangat mirip dengan dialek Kintom-Pagimana-Boalemo dalam hal perbendaharaan
kata, sebab banyak kata yang sama diantara kedua dialek ini. Bagaimanapun, dialek Luwuk juga mirip
dialek Loinang dalam hal konsonan l pada akhir kata menjadi n. Coba perhatikan kata-kata berikut ini.

Loinang Luwuk Kintom-Pagimana-Boalemo

tuli mabongon mabongon mabongol
tumpul mokujun mokujun mokujul
sukar mahan mahan mahal
celana saluan saluan salual

Meskipun perbedaan ini dan perbedaan dalam perbendaharaan kata, dilaporkan kepada kami
bahwa orang yang berbicara dalam tiga dialek tersebut dapat saling mengerti satu dengan yang lain.
Namun, tidak demikian dengan jenis bahasa yang bernama Batui, yang dipakai di kelurahan
Balantang, Tolando, Sisipan dan Batui di Kecamatan Batui. Ketika membandingkan dua ratus kata dalam
perbendaharaan kata yang mendasar, Batui berbeda dengan dialek-dialek Saluan lainnya rata-rata
seperempat kali. Cobalah perhatikan kata-kata berikut ini:

Batui Loinang Luwuk Kintom-Pagimana-Boalemo

telur ontolu nggalau' nggalau' nggalau'
kelapa potil niuː niuː niuː
dinding hinding pimpi' pimpi' pimpi'
baik kopian ma'ima' ma'ima' ma'ima'
jahat mahamu' ma'idek ma'idek ma'idek

iv
v
Disebabkan oleh perbedaan yang mencolok ini, dan juga karena pendapat yang kuat dari orang-
orang Batui sendiri, kami menganggap Batui adalah bahasa yang terpisah, meskipun sangat berhubungan
dekat dengan bahasa Saluan.1
Di sini diberikan penjelasan singkat, bagian per bagian sinopsis dari karya ilmiah ini.

Bagian 1 adalah gambaran umum pengetahuan terkini mengenai situasi bahasa di Kabupaten Banggai
dan alasan mengapa kami meneliti di daerah bahasa Saluan.

Bagian 1.1 merupakan gambaran umum mengenai kondisi pembagian geografis dan politik di Kabupaten
Banggai.

Bagian 1.2 merupakan penjelasan mengenai dua belas tempat dimana kami mengumpulkan data selama
penelitian kami.

Bagian 1.3 merupakan kilasan nama-nama lain dimana bahasa Saluan pernah disebut selama masa
penjajahan Belanda, yaitu bahasa Mendono, bahasa Loinang, bahasa Saluan dan bahasa Madi. Kami juga
menjelaskan mengapa seorang ahli bahasa Belanda Adriani salah mengklasifikasi Batui (yang mana dia
sebut dengan bahasa Baha) sebagai suatu dialek bahasa Pamona.

Bagian 2 menyajikan hasil-hasil dari perbandingan leksikal. Sepasang demi sepasang, setiap pasangan
daftar kata dibandingkan dengan tujuan untuk menghitung persentasi tertentu dari kesamaan leksikal
(jumlah kata-kata yang dianggap sama, dibagi dengan jumlah jawaban-jawaban dikalikan dengan angka
100). Kami menghitung dengan membandingkan dua ratus kata (kata seperti ‘kepala,’ ‘rambut,’ ‘mata,’
‘hidung,’ ‘mulut,’ dsb., sampai dengan dua ratus kata) berdasarkan daftar standar yang disebut dengan
daftar Swadesh 200. Secara umum, bila dua daftar kata bernilai diatas 80% sama secara leksikal, mereka
dapat dianggap termasuk dalam bahasa yang sama. Hasil-hasil ini disajikan dalam bentuk bagan dan
grafik.

Bagian 3 merupakan diskusi mengenai perubahan bunyi historis, yang menunjukkan bahasa Batui,
Babongko, Andio dan Saluan sangat erat hubungan diantaranya dari perspektif hubungan kekerabatan.

Bagian 3.1 merupakan diskusi mengenai bunyi vokal panjang akhir dalam bahasa Saluan dan Batui.
Contohnya, ketika kami mengukur cara orang Saluan mengucapkan kata siku ‘siku’ dan iku ‘ekor,’ kami
dapat melihat bahwa bunyi vokal akhir u dari iku diartikulasikan hampir dua kali lebih panjang
(sepanjang ~ 0.30 detik) dibandingkan dengan bunyi vokal akhir u dari siku (~ 0.15 detik).2 Simbol
yang digunakan para ahli bahasa untuk vokal yang panjang adalah tanda titik dua yang menggunakan
persegi tiga ( ː ), sehingga untuk Saluan ditulis ikuː ‘ekor.’ Secara umum, semua daerah Saluan konsisten
dalam hal bunyi vokal akhir mana yang diartikulasikan lebih panjang, namun beberapa kata Saluan
dengan bunyi vokal panjang akhir diartikulasikan dengan bunyi vokal pendek di daerah Batui,
contohnya Saluan pusoː ‘pusat’ (diartikulasi dengan bunyi vokal panjang pada akhir kata) dibandingkan
Batui puso (diartikulasikan dengan bunyi vokal yang biasa).

Bagian 3.2 mendiskusikan perubahan bunyi historis dalam hal mana bunyi l akhir menjadi bunyi n akhir
dalam dialek Luwuk dan Loinang di bahasa Saluan. Migrasi orang Loinang dari daerah pedalaman ke
daerah pesisir pada abad ke-20 juga didiskusikan.

1Sebagaimana dijelaskan dalam risalah oleh Charles dan Barbara Dix Grimes (1987:viii), “Orang awam seringkali
berpendapat bahwa bila hanya menjumlah kecil orang memakai suatu bahasa, maka bahasa tersebut tak dapat
disebutkan ‘bahasa,’ tetapi ‘dialek’ saja. Namun demikian, para ahli bahasa tidak membedakan antara bahasa dan
dialek berdasarkan jumlah pemakai bahasa, tetapi berdasarkan faktor-faktor lain, misalnya, persentasi kesamaan
kosa kata, kesamaan sistem bunyi, kesamaan struktur, faktor pengertian, faktor-faktor sosial, dsb.” Dari enam
bahasa yang merupakan rumpun bahasa Saluan-Banggai, ada tiga bahasa dengan ribuan penutur—Saluan, Banggai
and Balantak—namun ada juga tiga bahasa yang penuturnya hanya dua ribu atau kurang, yaitu Bobongko (di
kepulauan Togian), Andio (di Kecamtan Masama) dan Batui.
2Bunyi vokal panjang adalah akibat monoftongisasi diftong di akhir kata, misalnya kata dalam bahasa Austronesia
Purba * menjadi * , lalu menjadi di Saluan dan Batui.
ikuR ikuy ikuː
vi
Bagian 4 memuat informasi mengenai wawancara sosiolinguistik, khusunya pendapat dari orang Saluan
sendiri bagaimana mereka melihat hubungan diantara dialek-dialek yang ada.

Bagian 5 menjelaskan mengenai kesimpulan kami, yaitu bahwa hanya ada satu bahasa Saluan dengan
tiga dialek. Lagi pula, Batui bukanlah dialek dari Pamona namun merupakan bahasa daerah tersendiri,
meskipun sangat dekat hubungannya dengan bahasa Saluan.

Appendix A memberikan angka persentasi kemiripan leksikal berdasarkan perbandingan hanya seratus
kata.

Appendix B menyajikan dua belas daftar kata Saluan dan Batui yang kami kumpulkan selama penelitian
kami. Tanggapan-tanggapan diwakili oleh penggunaan Abjad Fonetik Internasional (IPA), suatu sistim
penulisan yang digunakan oleh para ahli bahasa.
1 Introduction
As recently as the fifteenth edition of the Ethnologue (Gordon 2005), two Saluan languages have been
located on the eastern arm of Sulawesi, Indonesia: Coastal Saluan and Kahumamahon Saluan. We know
of two potential justifications for this division, neither one of which, however, is necessarily linguistic in
nature. First, the Kahumamahon Saluan people have been singled out by the Indonesian government as a
suku terasing (suku ‘tribe, division,’ terasing ‘separated, isolated, secluded’), that is to say, they live in
remote areas, follow traditional customs, and lack integration into the national culture (Team Survey
1974; Sukiyah, Silvana, and Hitipeuw 1995). Second, two separate efforts have been undertaken to
translate the Bible into Saluan: one by New Tribes Missions personnel working in the interior village of
Simpang (representing the ‘Kahumamahon’ variety), and the other by the Indonesian Bible Society,
working in locations on the coast (thus representing the ‘Coastal’ variety).
Given that other linguistic atlases such as Salzner (1960), Sneddon (1983), and Wurm (1994)
recognize only one Saluan language, and that furthermore even in the Ethnologue, a geographical
boundary between the two putative languages had never been drawn, we set out to do what no linguist
had done before: canvass the entire Saluan area in order to determine language and dialect boundaries.
Building in part on the survey work of Busenitz (1991), which covered a portion of the Saluan area,
in July of 2006 we undertook a survey of the entire Saluan area. Our goals were to clarify the dialect
situation in the Saluan area and to determine if there was indeed a linguistic basis for recognizing two
distinct Saluan languages. To this end, we gathered wordlists and sociolinguistic information from
twelve primary research sites covering the breadth of the Saluan language area,3 including the supposed
Kahumamahon (emended, and hereafter in this paper: Kahumama'on) language area.
In this paper, we look at three factors to determine language relatedness: lexical similarity
(lexicostatistics), historical sound change, and the results of sociolinguistic interviews. Whilst in terms of
word stock Kahumama'on is somewhat lexically divergent, the consensus is that it should be considered a
dialect of Saluan.
During the course of our survey of the Saluan language area, we also gathered information on the
Batui speech variety, sometimes also known under the name of Baha. Based on extremely thin evidence,
the pioneering Dutch linguist Nicolaus Adriani classified Batui as a dialect of Pamona (Adriani and Kruyt
1914:14). Having at last collected solid information on Batui, we demonstrate that it is not a Pamona
dialect, but instead is closely related to Saluan. Nonetheless, we consider it distinct enough to be
considered a separate language.
The basis for drawing language and dialect boundaries is presented in the following sections. In §2
we present the results of a lexicostatistical comparison. In §3 we begin with an overview of sound
change in the Saluan-Banggai languages. This provides background to a discussion of two further sound
changes which crosscut the Saluan and Batui language area: the development and loss of contrastive
vowel length (§3.1), and the merger of *l and *n as /n/ in word final position (§3.2). In §4 we briefly
discuss the results of sociolinguistic interviews. Our conclusions, including a new map of the Saluan-
Banggai group of languages, are given in §5. An appendix presents eleven Saluan wordlists and one Batui
wordlist.
Before proceeding to the heart of this paper, we give additional background information. In §1.1 we
give current political boundaries in the surveyed area; in §1.2 we briefly discuss the locations where we
collected data; and in §1.3 we discuss references to Saluan in the extant literature and the various names
by which this language had previously been identified.

3We gratefully acknowledge the Badan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Daerah offices in Palu and in Luwuk, and their
officers and staff, particularly Drs. Nurhan Maadji, for their sponsorship and assistance in this survey.
1
2
1.1 Current administrative boundaries
The Saluan homeland lies within the boundaries of the current regency (Indonesian: kabupaten) of
Banggai.4 This regency, with its capital of Luwuk, comprises thirteen districts (Indonesian: kecamatan),
shown in map 1. The three southeastern districts of Balantak, Lamala, and Masama are the traditional
homeland of the Balantak language area (the small Andio enclave is also located in Masama). The two
most southwestern districts, Toili and Toili Barat, were traditionally a kind of no man’s land or disputed
area between the Saluan peoples and their Bungku neighbors, who claimed control of the coastline
further to the west (Goedhart 1908:489–490). The area was rich in dammar pines, and trade in dammar
resin was likely a factor which spurred settlement of this area beginning more than a century ago. Today
Toili and Toili Barat are largely populated by transmigrants from places such as Java and Bali, as well as
by Bugis, Pamona, and other peoples who have migrated locally from other parts of Sulawesi.
Map 1. The Banggai Regency

©2015 SIL International. Includes geodata from worldgeodatasets.com. Used with permission.
The remaining eight districts are the traditional homeland of the Saluan people. Below we discuss
certain Saluan peoples who formerly lived in the interior. At present, however, the vast majority of
Saluan people live on or within only a few kilometers of the coast. In fact today the entire regency is
circumscribed by an all-weather coastal road, which is also linked across the ‘neck’ through the village of
Salodik. Beyond Nuhon district in the northwest, this road links the Banggai Regency with Poso, and
from there to Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi. Only in the extreme southwest (Toili and Toili Barat
districts) does the road turn rutted and a bit tortuous. In this direction one can travel by car only as far
as Kolo Atas (in the Morowali Regency); points further west are normally reached by boat.

4This regency is so named because it used to also include the Banggai archipelago. In 1999 the Banggai islands
became their own regency, named the Banggai Archipelago Regency (Kabupaten Banggai Kepulauan).
3
1.2 Research sites
In preparing for this survey, we already had in hand four wordlists collected in 1988 by the SIL linguist
Robert Busenitz in Kintom, Lumpoknyo, Sampaka, and Bahingin villages, and a fifth wordlist kindly
provided to us by Robert Brown, representing the interior village of Simpang. Whilst we chose to revisit
these five locations to collect sociolinguistic information and sometimes to also record a small amount of
additional Saluan data, the wordlists were of sufficient quality that we were free to concentrate our
efforts on ‘rounding out’ a picture of the Saluan dialect area. In total, we collected six other wordlists,
while a companion team, sent to the Banggai archipelago, managed to also collect a short wordlist
representing a Saluan community located in Leme-leme Bungin village. In all, we can count twelve
(5 + 6 + 1) primary research sites, for which we have wordlist and sociolinguistic data. These twelve
sites are shown in map 2.
Map 2. Saluan and Batui survey primary research sites

©2015 SIL International. Includes geodata from worldgeodatasets.com. Used with permission.
A few notes about these sites are in order. First, the ‘Kondongan’ wordlist was collected outside of
the area. Our respondents for this wordlist were two men from Kondongan village who had come to shop
in the town of Pagimana, and who were returning by boat to Kondongan the next morning. Because we
worked late at night with tired respondents, some items were not filled in, while other responses on this
list are representative of the local variety of trade Malay rather than bona fide Saluan.
Second, for ‘Simpang’ we collected information only on the coast. We did not visit the asli (‘true,
original’) village of Simpang, which lay another eight hours by foot toward the interior. Our
respondents, however, were people who had grown up in Simpang Asli.
Third, we were not entirely successful in collecting wordlist data which truly represents the extreme
northwest and southwest extent of the Saluan dialect area. The residents of Pakowa Bunta acknowledge
that they represent a fairly recent migration from Pakowa village in the Pagimana subdistrict (and even
carried the name of ‘Pakowa’ to their new home). Of our two wordlists taken in the extreme southwest,
the Tolando wordlist represents the Batui lect (which we do not consider to be Saluan), while the