The South Halmahera languages are the branch of Austronesian languages found along the southeast coast of the island of

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island. H ...

in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n province of

North Maluku North Maluku ( id, Maluku Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the sout ...

Irarutu Irarutu, Irahutu, or Kasira, is an Austronesian language of most of the interior of the Bomberai Peninsula of north-western New Guinea in Teluk Bintuni Regency. The name “Irarutu” comes from the language itself, where “ira” conjoins with ...

is spoken in the east of the

Bomberai Peninsula Bomberai Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Bomberai), otherwise known as the Bird's Beak Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Paruh Burung), is located in the Western New Guinea region, opposite to and to the south of the Bird's Head Peninsula. To the west lies ...

in West Papua province. Most of the languages are only known from short word lists, but Taba and

Buli Buli may refer to: * Buli, Halmahera, a town near Maba the capital city of East Halmahera Regency, North Maluku, Indonesia **Buli Airport, the airport in Buli **Buli language (Indonesia) * Buli Rural District, in Iran *Butyllithium, sometimes abb ...

are fairly well attested. They are not related to the North Halmahera languages, which are notable for being non-Austronesian. However, Ternatan influence is considerable, a legacy of the historical dominance of the Ternate Sultanate.

Classification

The South Halmahera languages are listed below according to ''

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute fo ...

'' 4.0's classification, with alternate names and dialects listed from Kamholz (2014: 17):Kamholz, David (2014).
Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea
'. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zg8b1vd *East Makian – Gane ** Gane (Gimán; dialect: Saketa) ** Taba (East Makian, Makian Dalam; dialects: Kayoa, Southeast Makian) *Buli languages **

(dialect: Wayamli) **

Maba Maba or MABA may refer to: * ''Maba'', a plant genus now included in ''Diospyros'' * Maba, Shaoguan (马坝镇), town in Qujiang District, Shaoguan, Guangdong, China * Maba, Xuyi County (马坝镇), town in Xuyi County, Jiangsu, China * Maba, Ind ...

(Bicoli) **

Patani Patani Darussalam ( Bahasa Malayu Arabic : , also sometimes Patani Raya or Patani Besar, "Greater Patani"; th, ปาตานี) is a historical region in the Malay peninsula. It includes the southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala (Jal ...

Sawai Sawai may refer to: *Sawai (surname), a Japanese surname *Sawai (title), a title of honor used in India *Sawai language, a South Halmahera language of Austronesian stock spoken in Indonesia *Sawai, Car Nicobar, a village in the Andaman and Nicobar ...

(Weda) * Gebe (dialect: Minyaifuin)

References

{{Languages of Indonesia South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages Languages of the Maluku Islands Languages of western New Guinea Halmahera