Lamaholot, also known as Solor or Solorese, is a Central Malayo-Polynesian dialect cluster of Flores, Indonesia. The varieties may not be all mutually intelligible; Keraf (1978) reports that there are 18 languages under the name.[2]

Lamaholot
Solorese
Native toIndonesia
RegionFlores and Solor
EthnicityLamaholot people
Native speakers
180,000 (2010)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
aol – Alor
adr – Adonara
lmr – Lamalera
slp – Lamaholot
ila – Ile Ape
lwt – Lewotobi
lvu – Levuka
lmj – West Lembata
lmf – South Lembata
lmq – Lamatuka
lwe – Lewo Eleng
Glottologlama1277  Lamaholot
puka1244  Pukaunu

The Lamaholot language shows evidence of a Papuan (non-Austronesian) substratum, with about 50 percent of the lexicon being non-Austronesian.[3]

Various Lamaholot dialects are presented as independent languages by Ethnologue. For example, Lewotobi is presented as a separate language by Ethnologue and Grimes (1997).[4] Nagaya (2011) disputes this, classifying it instead as a dialect of Lamaholot.

An additional dialect of Lamaholot not found in Ethnologue, Muhang, is spoken by the Ata Tana 'Ai people living in Sikka Regency.[5] The first children's book in Muhang, Walde Nenang Uran Wair, was published in 2022.[6]

Lamaholot is similar to Sika to the west and Kedang to the east. Lamaholot dialects are often divided into three groupings: western (Flores), central (east Flores, Adonara, and Solor) and eastern (Lembata). Alorese (parts of the coast of northern Pantar and western Alor) is partially intelligible with Lamaholot and is often considered to be a dialect of it.

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p (t͡ʃ) k ʔ
voiced b d (d͡ʒ) g
Fricative voiceless (f) s h
voiced (v)
Nasal m n (ɲ) ŋ
Trill r
Lateral l
Approximant w j

Phonemes in parentheses are used in loanwords.[7]

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i ĩ u ũ
Mid ə ə̃ o õ
Open-mid ɛ ɛ̃
Open a ã

References

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  1. ^ Alor at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Adonara at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Lamalera at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Lamaholot at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Ile Ape at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Lewotobi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    (Additional references under 'Language codes' in the information box)
  2. ^ Keraf, Gorys. 1978. Komposisi. Ph.D. dissertation, Flores.
  3. ^ Hanna Fricke. 2019. The mixed lexicon of Lamaholot. 11th International Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics Conference (APLL11), 13–15 June 2019, Leiden University.
  4. ^ Grimes, Charles (1997). A guide to the people and languages of Nusa Tenggara (PDF). Kupang: Artha Wacana Press.
  5. ^ E. Douglas Lewis, People of the Source: The Social and Ceremonial Order of Tana Wai Brama on Flores. Foris Publications, 1988. "A small enclave of speakers of the Lamaholot (Solorese) language of Larantuka and East Flores, who are called Muhang by the Sikkanese, is found along the northern coast of the Tana 'Ai region of Sikka."
  6. ^ Setelah Satu Tahun Tidak Bertemu, Inilah Saya.... Agnes Bemoe, April 2022.
  7. ^ Kroon, Yosep B. (2016). A Grammar of Solor - Lamaholot: A Language of Flores, Eastern Indonesia. The University of Adelaide, Australia.

Bibliography

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  • Kroon, Yosep Bisara (2016). A grammar of Solor – Lamaholot: a language of Flores, Eastern Indonesia (Ph.D. thesis). University of Adelaide. doi:10.4225/55/5823cd4c017f4. hdl:2440/102380.
  • Nagaya, Naonori (2011). The Lamaholot Language of Eastern Indonesia (Ph.D. thesis). Rice University. hdl:1911/70366.
  • Michels, Marc (2017). Western Lamaholot: a cross-dialectal grammar sketch (Master's thesis). Leiden University. hdl:1887/52580.
  • Fricke, Hanna L. (2019). Traces of language contact: The Flores-Lembata languages in eastern Indonesia (Ph.D. thesis). Leiden University. hdl:1887/80399.