The Tomini–Tolitoli languages are a disputed subgroup in the Austronesian language family spoken off the Gulf of Tomini and the regency of Tolitoli in northern Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia, consisting of two branches, viz. "Tomini" and "Tolitoli". The unity of this group has not yet been demonstrated, and it may well be that the two branches actually are not closer to each other than to other languages of Sulawesi.K. Alexander Adelaar and Nikolaus Himmelmann (2005). The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar. Routledge.
Languages The following tentative classification of the Tomini–Tolitoli languages is from Himmelmann (2001:20).
Tolitoli Totoli Boano Tomini Northern Tomini Ampibabo Lauje Tialo (Tomini) Dondo Southern Tomini Balaesang Pendau Dampelas Taje (Petapa) Tajio
Totoli and Boano are closely related to each other but diverge very much from the other languages in terms of lexicon, phonology, and other areas. These two languages may have been influenced by the Gorontalic languages and also more recently by South Sulawesi languages such as Bugis and Makassar (Himmelmann 2001:20). Mead (2003) notes that certain aspects of the phonological history of Totoli and Boano even point against an inclusion of these two languages in the Celebic subgroup.
Demographics The demographics below are from Himmelmann (2001:18).
West Coast Balaesang: 3,200 Pendau (Ndau): 3,200 Dampelas (Dampal): 10,300 Dondo: 13,000 Totoli (Tolitoli): 25,000
East Coast Taje (Petapa): 350 Ampibabo-Lauje: 6,000 Tajio (Kasimbar): 12,000 Lauje (Tinombo): 38,000 Tialo (Tomini): 30,000 Boano (Bolano): 2,700
Total 145,000
Footnotes
References Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2001. Sourcebook on Tomini-Tolitoli languages: General information and word lists. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.
External links "Tomini-Tolitoli" at Ethnologue (23rd ed, 2020).