Overview
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Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

800-900

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Recent Resources

No resources

Community Members

    No members

Revitalization Programs

No programs

Discussion Forum

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Language Information By Source

The Busoa language of Southeast Sulawesi: Grammar sketch, texts, vocabulary
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Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

800-900

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

All

More about speakers

"It is not easy to give an accurate statement about the number of speakers of Busoa. In 1986 I was told there were about 2,300 speakers. This number now seems much too high, as it was probably based on the total number of households in the village of Busoa at the time (somewhere around 400), including all the non-Busoa speakers. In 2008 I discussed the question of the number of speakers with several village elders. At that time lingkungan Busoa had 169 households, and lingkungan Wuragana 115 households, a total of 284. Considering the number of newcomers, as well as the number of children no longer able to speak Busoa, we arrived at an estimated total of around 1,000 speakers. At the moment of writing (2020), this number has almost certainly diminished (see §1.5), and the best current estimate is around 800 to 900 speakers. Even that could be too high."

Year of info

2020

Location and Context

Countries

Indonesia;

Coordinates

-5.551441, 122.604769

Location description

"Busoa [bup] is spoken on the island of Buton, one of the four large islands off the coast of Southeast Sulawesi, in central Indonesia. More specifically, Busoa is spoken in just two villages: the villages of Busoa and Lakambau (kelurahan Busoa, kelurahan Lakambau), located about 22 km south of the city of Baubau in the South Buton regency (kabupaten Buton Selatan), Batauga district (kecamatan Batauga)... The village of Busoa consists of two rows of houses on either side of the road extending for some 2-3 kilometers from north to south, a few hundred meters from the sea to the west. There are two side roads leading to the sea."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

Indifferent

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

Roman

Other writing systems

"Busoa [bup] is spoken on the island of Buton, one of the four large islands off the coast of Southeast Sulawesi, in central Indonesia. More specifically, Busoa is spoken in just two villages: the villages of Busoa and Lakambau (kelurahan Busoa, kelurahan Lakambau), located about 22 km south of the city of Baubau in the South Buton regency (kabupaten Buton Selatan), Batauga district (kecamatan Batauga)... The village of Busoa consists of two rows of houses on either side of the road extending for some 2-3 kilometers from north to south, a few hundred meters from the sea to the west. There are two side roads leading to the sea."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Wolio; Indonesian; Cia-Cia; Muna;

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

"The village of Busoa is multilingual. Most adults speak the following two languages fluently in addition to their native Busoa: 1) Wolio (the court language of the sultanate of Wolio and a former lingua franca on the island of Buton), 2) Indonesian, the national language. Additionally many adults have at least a passive, and sometimes an active command of an additional two languages: 3) Cia-Cia, a large language spoken throughout the southern half of the island of Buton; and 4) Muna, more specifically, one of the southern Muna subdialects... I was told that there were no monolingual speakers of Busoa... The attitude of native speakers towards their own language appears to be one of indifference. Busoa has no prestige, is limited to a single village (now two villages), offers no economic advantages and there is no reason for anyone to learn it."

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

500

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2010

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

-5.5722,122.6074

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

500

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2007

Location and Context

Countries

Indonesia: Sulawesi Province

Coordinates

No data

Location description

Spoken on the extreme southwest coast of Buton Island which is southeast of the southeastern peninsula of Sulawesi near Masiri.

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

Spoken on the extreme southwest coast of Buton Island which is southeast of the southeastern peninsula of Sulawesi near Masiri.

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Cia-Cia, Wolio, Indonesia

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

2,300

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

Data for the number of native speakers comes from SIL (2000).

Year of info

2009

Location and Context

Countries

Indonesia;

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

500

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Media Resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

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  1. Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled by research teams at University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute for Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) at Eastern Michigan University
    2012. "Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled By Research Teams At University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute For Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) At Eastern Michigan University."
  2. Australia and the Pacific
    Wurm, Stephen A. 2007. Australia and the Pacific. In Christopher Moseley, Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages, 1 edn., 424-557. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 070071197X
  3. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
    Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)
    http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas
  4. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)
    Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)
    http://www.ethnologue.com/
  5. World Oral Literature Project
    "World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.
    http://www.oralliterature.org