Wolio is an Austronesian language spoken in and around Baubau on Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. It belongs to the Wotu–Wolio branch of the Celebic subgroup.[2][3] Also known as Buton, it is a trade language and the former court language of the Sultan at Baubau. Today it is an official regional language; street signs are written in the Buri Wolio alphabet, based on the Arabic script.
Wolio has lexical borrowings from Malay, Arabic, and Dutch.[4] Local languages of eastern Indonesia, such as Bugis, Makasar, and Ternate, have also been influential.[5] The name "Buton", which also refers generically to various ethnic and linguistic groups of the Buton area,[6] is said to be of Ternatese origin (butu, ‘market; marketplace’).[7][8]
Phonology
The five vowels are /ieaou/. The consonant system is characterized by the presence of prenasalized stops, which are treated as a single sound in Wolio.[9]
^Visser, Leontine E. (2019), "The Historical Paths of Sahu Ceremonial Textiles", Archipel. Études interdisciplinaires sur le monde insulindien, 98: 121–150, doi:10.4000/archipel.1560, ISSN0044-8613, OCLC8599457798, The island was their "market" or butu in Ternate language. Thus the island became known as Buton.
Anceaux, Johannes Cornelis; Grimes, Charles E.; van den Berg, René (1995). "Wolio". In Tryon, Darrell T. (ed.). Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: An Introduction to Austronesian Studies. Trends in Linguistics. Documentation. Vol. 10. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 573–584. doi:10.1515/9783110884012.1.573. ISBN978-3-11-088401-2. OCLC896406022.
Donohue, Mark (2004). "The pretenders to the Muna-Buton group". In Bowden, J.; Himmelmann, N. (eds.). Papers in Austronesian subgrouping and dialectology. Pacific Linguistics 563. Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 21–36. doi:10.15144/PL-563.21. hdl:1885/146183.
Mead, David (2003). "Evidence for a Celebic supergroup". In Lynch, John (ed.). Issues in Austronesian historical phonology. Pacific Linguistics 550. Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 115–141. doi:10.15144/PL-550.115. hdl:1885/146173.
Mead, David; Smith, Joanna. "The voice systems of Wotu, Barang-barang and Wolio: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives". In Malcolm D. Ross; I Wayan Arka (eds.). Language Change in Austronesian languages: papers from 12-ICAL, Volume 3. Asia-Pacific linguistics 018 / Studies on Austronesian languages 004. pp. 51–78. hdl:1885/13386.
van den Berg, René (2008). "Notes on the historical phonology and classification of Wolio". In Yury A. Lander; Alexander K. Ogloblin (eds.). Language and Text in the Austronesian World: Studies in honor of Ülo Sirk. München: Lincom. pp. 89–113.
