The Sangiric languages are a subgroup of the

Austronesian languages 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 ...

spoken in

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, ...

and several small islands to the north which belong to the

Philippines 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 ...

. They are classified as a branch of the

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 ...

subgroup.

Classification

The following classification scheme is from James Sneddon (1984:57). *Sangiric **North Sangiric *** Talaud *** Sangirese (two variants: ''Sangir'' in Indonesia and ''Sangil'' in the Philippines) **South Sangiric *** Bantik *** Ratahan The North Sangiric languages are spoken in the Sangir and Talaud archipelagos of

just north of

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

, as well as the Sarangani Islands of the

just south of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

. The South Sangiric languages are spoken in scattered locations on the northern tip of

. Bantik is spoken in the

Manado Manado (, ) is the capital City status in Indonesia, city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of North Sulawesi. It is the second largest city in Sulawesi after Makassar, with the 2020 census giving a population of 451,916,Badan ...

region, while Ratahan is spoken just south of Lake Tondano.

Reconstruction

Proto-Sangiric (PSan) has been reconstructed by Sneddon (1984).

Phonology

The exact phonetic nature of *R is unclear. Its reflexes are Sangil , Sangir, Ratahan , Talaud , Bantik zero. Sneddon speculates that it may have been a coarticulated apical trill with velar friction, which is the usual realization of Sangil .

Later sound changes

Many of these sound changes are noticeably similar to those of

South Sulawesi languages The South Sulawesi languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian language family. They are primarily spoken in the Indonesian provinces of South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi, with a small outlying pocket in West Kalimantan ( Tamanic). Subgroup ...

, spoken on the opposite side of Sulawesi. * Diphthongs ''*ey'' and ''*ow'' are still retained in Bantik and Ratahan, and have been monophthongized to ''e'' and ''o'' elsewhere. * Coda simplification: ** All final stops ''*-p'', ''*-t'', ''*-k'' are still partially retained in Ratahan (but not ''*-t'' > ''-ʔ'') and Talaud, but have been simplified to simple ''-ʔ'' elsewhere. ** Final nasals ''*-m'', ''*-n'' and ''*-ŋ'' are still retained in Ratahan and Talaud, but have been simplified to ''-ŋ'' elsewhere. ** All other final consonants are subject to paragoge, see below. *

Paragoge Paragoge () is the addition of a sound to the end of a word. It is a type of epenthesis. Paragoge is most often linked with the nativization of loanwords. It is particularly common in Brazilian Portuguese, not only in loanwords but also in word ...

: ** ''-əʔ'' in Sangir and Sangil; ** ''-Vʔ'' in Bantik (V represents

echo vowel An echo vowel, also known as a synharmonic vowel, is a paragogic vowel that repeats the final vowel in a word in speech. For example, in Chumash, when a word ends with a glottal stop and comes at the end of an intonation unit, the final vowel i ...

); and ** ''-a'' in Talaud (often preceded by gemination of consonants except ''ʔ''). ** ''*uRas'' → ''urasəʔ'' : ''uhasaʔ'' : ''užasa'' (but geminated in ''*inum'' → ''inumma'') * Reflexes of ''*R'': ** ''h'' in Bantik, Ratahan, and Sangir; ** ''r'' in Sangil; and ** ''k'' when word final or following ''*ə'', and ''ž'' elsewhere in Talaud. * Reflexes of ''*l''; ** ''ḷ'' in Bantik in all positions, and in Sangil and Talaud when not word-final and following back vowels ''*a'', ''*o'', and ''*u'' (and before front vowels in Sangil); ** ''∅'' in Sangil between back vowels and back vowels; and following back vowels but word final (''*V¹l#''); and ** ''l'' elsewhere.

Vocabulary

The comparison table (a small selection from ) illustrates the correspondences between the Sangiric languages, including inherited vocabulary as well as Sangiric innovations.

References

External links

Sangiric
at ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'' (23rd ed., 2020). {{Austronesian languages Philippine languages Languages of Sulawesi