Buginese Translator
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About Buginese
Spoken mainly in South Sulawesi on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, Buginese belongs to the South Sulawesi branch of the Austronesian language family. It has a few million speakers, often estimated at around five million, with additional communities elsewhere in Indonesia and in parts of maritime Southeast Asia. Buginese is written today mostly with the Latin alphabet, and it also has a traditional script called Lontara.
A distinctive feature of Buginese writing is that the Lontara script is an abugida descended from Indic models, with consonant letters that carry an inherent vowel. In linguistic structure, Buginese is also noted for a rich voice system and for patterns of pronominal marking typical of South Sulawesi languages. Culturally, it is closely associated with one of Indonesia’s major indigenous manuscript traditions: Buginese and related Makassarese communities preserved chronicles, legal texts, and episodes of the epic cycle known as La Galigo in Lontara manuscripts.
How to speak Buginese: common phrases
Frequently asked questions about Buginese
- What is Buginese?
- Spoken mainly in South Sulawesi on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, Buginese belongs to the South Sulawesi branch of the Austronesian language family. It has a few million speakers, often estimated at around five million, with additional communities elsewhere in Indonesia and in parts of maritime Southeast Asia. Buginese is written today mostly with the Latin alphabet, and it also has a traditional script called Lontara.
- What languages can I translate Buginese to?
- You can translate Buginese to Indonesian, English, and Makassar, and 230+ other languages using Polytranslator.
- How many people speak Buginese?
- Buginese has approximately 5 million speakers worldwide.
- Is the Buginese translator free?
- Yes — Polytranslator's Buginese translator is completely free and instant, with no signup required. Sign in any time for an even higher daily limit.