Ternate language

Quality 0.50 · 3 views · Updated 2 months ago

Language in North Maluku

title: "Ternate language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-indonesia", "north-halmahera-languages"] description: "Language in North Maluku" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternate_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Language in North Maluku ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Ternate
altname
nativename	ترناتي
ethnicity	Ternate
states	Indonesia
region	North Maluku
pushpin_map	Southeast Asia
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Southeast Asia
coordinates
speakers	42,000
date	1981
ref	e25
speakers2	20,000 L2 speakers (1981)
familycolor	Papuan
fam1	West Papuan?
fam2	North Halmahera
fam3	Ternate–Tidore
iso3	tft
glotto	tern1247
glottorefname	Ternate
script	Latin script (Rumi)
Historically Arabic script (Jawi)
::

Due to the historical role of the Ternate Sultanate, Ternate influence is present in many languages of eastern Indonesia. Borrowings from Ternate extend beyond the Maluku Islands, reaching the regions of central and northern Sulawesi. Languages such as Taba and West Makian have borrowed much of their polite lexicons from Ternate, while the languages of northern Sulawesi have incorporated many Ternate vocabulary items related to kingship and administration. The language has been a source of lexical and grammatical borrowing for North Moluccan Malay, the local variant of Malay, which has given rise to other eastern Indonesian offshoots of Malay, such as Manado Malay.

Ternate has loanwords from Malay, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Javanese.

Location and use

It is geographically widespread. It is spoken on the island of Ternate as well as elsewhere in the North Maluku province, with Ternate communities inhabiting the western coast of Halmahera, Hiri, Obi, Kayoa, and the Bacan Islands. Historically, Ternate served as the primary language of the Sultanate of Ternate,

This language should be distinguished from Ternate Malay (North Moluccan Malay), a local Malay-based creole which it has heavily influenced. Ternate serves as the first language of ethnic Ternateans, mainly in the rural areas, while Ternate Malay is nowadays used as a means of interethnic and trade communication, particularly in the urban part of the island. More recently, there has been a language shift from Ternate towards Malay. It can be assumed that the role of Ternate as a lingua franca has greatly waned. While the Ternate people are scattered all over eastern Indonesia,{{Cite web |title=ТЕРНАТАНЦЫ |url=https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/4189519 |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=Большая российская энциклопедия |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://archive.today/20220814041910/https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/4189519 |archive-date = 2022-08-14 |language=ru }} it is not known how many expatriate Ternateans still speak the language.

In Indonesian, it is generally known as bahasa Ternate; however, the term bahasa Ternate asli is sometimes used to distinguish it from Ternate Malay.

Written records

The Ternate language has been recorded with the Arabic script since the 15th century, while the Latin alphabet is used in modern writing. Other languages of the North Halmahera region, which were not written down until the arrival of Christian missionaries, have received significant lexical influence from Ternate.

Classification

Ternate is a member of the North Halmahera language family, which is classified by some as part of a larger West Papuan family, a proposed linking of the North Halmahera languages with the Papuan languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula. It is most closely related to the Tidore language, which is native to the southern neighboring island. The distinction between Ternate and Tidore appears more rooted in sociopolitical rather than linguistic differences. some classifications identify them as dialects of a single language, collectively termed as either "Ternate" or "Ternate-Tidore".

Phonology

Ternate, like other North Halmahera languages, is not a tonal language.

Consonants

::data[format=table title="Ternate consonant phonemes{{sfn|Hayami-Allen|2001|p=23}}"]

Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal	Nasal	Plosive/Affricate	voiceless	voiced	Fricative	voiceless	Approximant	median	lateral	Flap







::

Vowels

::data[format=table title="Ternate vowel phonemes{{sfn|Hayami-Allen|2001|p=27}}"]

Front	Central	Back	High	Mid	Low



::

References

Bibliography

References

Frederik Sigismund Alexander de Clercq. (1890). "Bijdragen tot de kennis der residentie Ternate". E.J. Brill.
van Fraassen, Ch.F.. (1993). "Ternatan/Tidorese". G.K. Hall & Co..
Fathurahman, Oman. (2015). "Filologi Indonesia Teori dan Metode". Prenada Media.
Watuseke, F.S.. (1991). "Papers in Papuan Linguistics No. 1". Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.
Voorhoeve, C.L.. (1982). "The Makian languages and their neighbours". Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.
Bowden, John. (2005). "The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar". Routledge.
Sneddon, J.N.. (1989). "Studies in Sulawesi Linguistics I". Badan Penyelenggara Seri NUSA.
Taylor, Paul Michael. (1999). "F.S.A. de Clercq's ''Ternate: The Residency and its Sultanate''". Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
(2002). "Papers from the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 2000.". Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies.
Voorhoeve, C.L.. (1988). "Papers in New Guinea linguistics. No. 26". Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.
Masinambow, E.K.M.. (1972). "Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia". Human Relations Area Files Press.
(2009). "The Territories of Indonesia". Routledge.
Litamahuputty, Betty. (March 10, 2007). "Description of Ternate Malay". [[Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]], [[Jakarta]] station.
(13 August 2016). "Pemertahanan bahasa Ternate pada masyarakat multilingual". Prasasti: Conference Series.
(2017). "Vitalitas bahasa Ternate di Pulau Ternate". Jurnal Etnohistori: Jurnal Ilmiah Kebudayaan Dan Kesejarahan.
Litamahuputty, Betty. (2012). "A description of Ternate Malay". Wacana.
Warnk, Holger. (2010). "The coming of Islam and Moluccan-Malay culture to New Guinea c.1500–1920". Indonesia and the Malay World.
Taylor, Paul Michael. (1988). "From mantra to mataráa: Opacity and transparency in the language of Tobelo magic and medicine (Halmahera Island, Indonesia)". Social Science & Medicine.
Dalby, Andrew. (2015). "Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More than 400 Languages". A & C Black.
Lewis, M. Paul. (2009). "Ternate - A language of Indonesia (Maluku)". SIL International.
Gil, David. (2015). "Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The State of the Art". Walter de Gruyter.
Bowden, John. "Workshop on the Languages of Papua 3, 20–24 January 2014, Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia".
Bowden, John. (2005). "Language Contact and Metatypic Restructuring in the Directional System of North Maluku Malay". Concentric: Studies in Linguistics.
"Ternate". Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa.
(2018). "The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide". Walter de Gruyter.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::