Tidore is a language of

North Maluku North Maluku (; ) 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 south. It shares marit ...

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, ...

, spoken by the Tidore people. The language is centered on the island of Tidore, but it is also spoken on the neighbouring islands of

Mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equidae, equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more th ...

and Moti to the south, and Maitara to the northwest of Tidore, as well as in some areas of the neighbouring

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

. Historically, it was the primary language of the Sultanate of Tidore, a major Moluccan Muslim state. A North Halmahera language, it is unlike most languages in Indonesia which belong to the

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 ...

family. Tidore and other North Halmahera languages are perhaps related to languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula, West Papua. Tidore is a regional lingua franca, used for interethnic communication in the Central Halmahera area. Since the 17th century, it had some influence as a trade language in the Moluccan-New Guinean region. It is closely related to

Ternate Ternate (), also known as the City of Ternate (; ), is the List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. It was the ''de facto'' provi ...

, of which it is sometimes considered a dialect. Both Ternate and Tidore have been recorded in writing at least since the late 15th century, being the only non-Austronesian (or "Papuan") languages of the region with indigenous (pre-European) literary traditions. All Tidore speakers are also conversant in North Moluccan Malay, the language of wider communication, and the contact between Malay and Tidore has left a great mark on the local language. There are many North Moluccan Malay and Indonesian loans in Tidore, and the language exhibits strong Austronesian influence in general.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

References