Makassarese language

For the script used to write Makassar, see Lontara script.

Makassarese (sometimes spelled Makasar, Makassar, or Macassar) is a language used by the Makassarese people in South Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a member of the South Sulawesi group of the Austronesian language family, and thus closely related to, among others, Buginese.

Although Makassarese is now often written in Latin script, it is still widely written in its own distinctive script, also called Lontara, which once was used also to write important documents in Bugis and Mandar, two related languages from Sulawesi.

The Makassar symbols are written using mostly straight oblique lines and dots. In spite of its quite distinctive appearance, it is derived from the ancient Brahmi scripts of India. Like other descendants of that script, each consonant has an inherent vowel "a", which is not marked. Other vowels can be indicated by adding one of five diacritics above, below, or on either side of each consonant.

Some common words/phrases in the Makassar language, transcribed in the Latin script, are as follows ( ' = glottal stop):

Lontara script	Latinized	Indonesian	Translation
ᨅᨒ	balla'	rumah	house
ᨅᨚᨒᨚ	bulu	bulu	hair/fur
ᨅᨅ	bambang	panas	hot/warm
ᨌᨗᨄᨘᨑᨘ	cipuru'	lapar	hungry
ᨉᨚᨕᨙ	doe'	uang	money
ᨕᨗᨐᨚ	iyo'	iya	yes
ᨒᨚᨄᨚ	lompo	besar	big/large
ᨔᨒᨚ	sallo	lama / lambat	slow
ᨈ ᨅᨙᨙ	tabe'	permisi	excuse me
ᨈᨙᨊ	tena	tidak	no
ᨀᨑᨕᨙ	karaeng	raja	king
ᨕᨄ ᨀᨑᨙᨅ?	apa kareba?	apa kabar?	how are you?
ᨒᨀᨙᨀᨚ ᨆᨕᨙ?	lakeko mae?	kamu mau ke mana?	where are you going?
ᨅᨒ	ballang	belang	get tanned
ᨅᨚᨈᨚ	botto'	bau	smelly
ᨑᨈᨔ	rantasa'	jorok	disgusting
ᨅᨈᨒ	battala'	gemuk	fatty
ᨅᨗᨒ	bella	jauh	far away
ᨁᨙᨒᨙ ᨁᨙᨒᨙ	gele'-gele'	geli	tickle
ᨀᨚᨀᨚ	kong-kong	anjing	dog
ᨍᨑ	jarang	kuda	horse
ᨅᨙᨅᨙ	bembe'	kambing	goat
ᨆᨚᨈᨙᨑᨙ	motere'	pulang ke rumah	return home
ᨂᨑᨙ	nganre	makan	eat

See also

• Makassan contact with Australia

External links

• Makassar pronunciation and alphabet at Omniglot
• Lontara and Makassar scripts
• Lontara Alphabet in Unicode
• http://unicode-table.com/en/sections/buginese/