Bantik is an
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
Austronesian language
The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...
, perhaps a
Philippine
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
language, of
North Sulawesi
North Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is mainly located on the Minahasa Peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia, but also includes various small archipel ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It is the traditional language of the (a subgroup of
Minahasans), who are now switching to
Manado Malay
Manado Malay, Manadonese or simply the Manado language, is a creole language spoken in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province in Indonesia, and the surrounding area. The local name of the language is , and the name Minahasa Malay is also ...
(the local variety of
Malay) as their language for everyday communication. While using Indonesia for formal and religious occasions. Though Bantik is still used as a marker of
ethnic identity
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, rel ...
.
Bantik is regarded as a men's language, used by men in private, and it is considered improper to speak to women in Bantik. Very few women under the age of 30 know how to speak it.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Grammar
Morphology
Bantik is
agglutinative
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes (word parts), each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglu ...
.
Syntax
The basic sentence orders of Bantik are
subject–verb–object and
verb–object–subject. The former is used when introducing a new object, the latter when introducing a new subject.
References
Further reading
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*
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External links
Bantik Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bantik Language
Agglutinative languages
Endangered Austronesian languages
Languages of Sulawesi
Sangiric languages