Alorese language

Alorese (bahasa Alor) is an Austronesian language spoken on Alor and the neighboring islands of the Alor archipelago in eastern Indonesia. It is not to be confused with non-Austronesian (Papuan) languages of the Alor–Pantar family which are also spoken in this region. It is also distinct from Alor Malay, a Malay variety which is currently supplanting Alorese as the language of wider communication in the region. Alorese is the native language of several immigrant communities located along the coast of the Alor archipelago, especially at Alor Kecil on Alor and at Baranusa and Marica on Pantar. It has also been used extensively as a trade language in the region.

Alorese
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Alor Archipelago
Native speakers	(25,000 cited 1997)^[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern Flores–Lembata Lamaholot Alorese–Lamalera Alorese
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aol
Glottolog	alor1247

Alorese is closely related to Lamaholot and is often classified as a dialect thereof.^[2][3] Researchers like Klamer (2011), who found that Alorese shares only half its basic vocabulary with Lamaholot, consider Alorese to be distinct enough to be considered its own language.

References

Notes

1. Alorese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Klamer (2011)
3. Klamer, Marian (2012). "Papuan-Austronesian Language Contact: Alorese from an Areal Perspective". In Evans, Nicholas; Klamer, Marian (eds.). Melanesian Languages on the Edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st Century. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 5. University of Hawai'i Press. pp. 72–108. hdl:10125/4561.

Sources

• Klamer, Margaretha Anna Flora (2011). (PDF). Muenchen: Lincom Europa. ISBN 978-3-86288-172-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-19.
• Yunus Sulistyono (2022). A History of Alorese (Austronesian): Combining Linguistic and Oral History (Doctoral thesis). Universiteit Leiden. doi:10.48273/lot0614. hdl:1887/3275052. ISBN 978-94-6093-399-8.