Wolio is an Austronesian language spoken in and around Baubau on

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. It belongs to the Wotu–Wolio branch of the Celebic subgroup. Also known as Buton, it is a trade language and the former court language of the Sultan at Baubau. Today it is an official regional language; street signs are written in the Buri Wolio alphabet, based on the Arabic script.

Phonology

The five vowels are . The consonant system is characterized by the presence of prenasalized stops, which are treated as a single sound in Wolio. are found in loans, mostly from

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

. Stress is on the penultimate syllable, and only

open syllables A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...

are allowed.

Grammar

Wolio personal pronouns have one independent form, and three bound forms. Number is not distinguished in third person. Optionally, plural number can be expressed by means of the plural-marker : "they".

References

Bibliography

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Phonology

Grammar

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading