# Makassar languages

The Makassar languages are a group of languages spoken in the southern part of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, and make up one of the branches of the South Sulawesi subgroup in the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member of this group is Makassarese, with over two million speakers in the city of Makassar and neighboring areas.
The status of the Makassar languages other than Makassarese as distinct languages is not universally accepted. In older classifications, but also in recent studies by local linguists, they are considered to be dialects of the Makassarese language.

## Languages

* Makassarese
* Bentong
* Coastal Konjo
* Highland Konjo
* Selayar

## Phonology

A characteristic feature of the Makassar languages is the occurrence of echo vowels with stems ending in final /r/, /l/ or /s/. E.g. /botol/ 'bottle' is realized as bótolo in Selayar and Coastal Konjo, and as bótoloʔ in Makassarese and Highland Konjo (the latter regularly adds a glottal stop to the echo vowel). This echo vowel is dropped if a suffix is added, but retained if followed by an enclitic.
| | Makassarese | Selayar |
| base | /rantas/ rántasaʔ 'dirty' | /lambus/ lámbusu 'straight' |
| with suffix | /rantas/ + /-aŋ/ rantás-aŋ 'dirtier' | /lambus/ + /-aŋ/ lambús-aŋ 'straighter' |
| with enclitic | /rantas/ + /=aʔ/ rántasak=aʔ 'I am dirty' | /lambus/ + /=a/ lámbusu=a 'I am straight' |
Konjo (both Coastal and Highland Konjo), Bentong, Selayar and the Labbakkang dialect of Makassarese have j /ɟ/ and /h/ where Makassarese (Maros, Goa, Takalar, Jeneponto, Bantaeng) has y /j/ and /w/. In some words, Coastal/Highland Konjo and Selayar have h corresponding to zero in Makassarese, e.g. Konjo/Selayar bahine ('female'), uhuʔ ('hair') vs. Makassarese baine, uʔ.
| | Makassarese | Konjo | Selayar |
| pig | bawi | bahi | bahi |
| time | wattu | hattu | hattu |
| many, much | lowe, (jai) | lohe | lohe |
| rat, mouse | balawo | balaho | balaho |
| wait | tayang | tajang | tajang |
| wood | kayu | kaju | kaju |
| look, find | boya | hoja | boja |
| to make | bayu, (pareʼ) | haju | (buaʼ) |
| 1 2 it written as loe, balao in standard orthography 1 2 dialect form ||||
In Konjo languages, some initial b appears as /h/.
| | Makassarese | Konjo | Selayar |
| to look, find | boya | hoja | boja |
| hot | bambang | hambang | bambang |

## Lexical differences

| | Makassarese | Makassarese | Makassarese | Coastal Konjo | Highland Konjo | Selayar |
| | Gowa (Standard) | Jeneponto | Bantaeng | Coastal Konjo | Highland Konjo | Selayar |
| to make | appareʼ | appareʼ | aʼbayu | aʼbaju | aʼbaju | aʼbuaʼ |
| to sit | ammempo | accidong | accidong | accidong | ammorong | attolong |
| hungry | cipuruʼ | paʼre | paʼre | paʼre | paʼre | paʼre |
| rice field | tana | galung | galung | galung | galung | galung |
| many, much | jai | loe | loe | lohe | lohe | lohe |
| why | angngapa | angngura | angngura | angngura | anngura | angngura |
| friend | agang | urang | urang | urang | urang | urang |
| water | jeʼneʼ | jeʼneʼ | ere | ere | ere | jeʼneʼ |
| egg | bayao | bayao | bayao | bajao | tannoroʼ | tannoro |
| dog | kongkong | kongkong | asu | asu | asu | asu |
| cat | miong | cammiʼ | cammiʼ | cammiʼ, meong | meong | meong |
| leaf | lekoʼ | lekoʼ | raung | raung | raung | taha |
| black | leʼleng | leʼleng | leʼleng | bolong | lotong | etang |
| white | keboʼ | keboʼ | keboʼ | pute | pute | pute |
| eight | sagantuju | sagantuju | sagantuju | karua | karua | karua |
| nine | salapang | salapang | salapang | salapang | salapang | kaʼassa |
| vegetable | gangang | gangang | gangang | utang | gangang | gangang |
| house | ballaʼ | ballaʼ | ballaʼ | ballaʼ, bola | bola | sapo |
| chicken | jangang | jangang | jangang | jangang | manuʼ | jangang |