Busoa
[aka Bosoa,]Classification: Austronesian
·endangered
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Endangered
60 percent certain, based on the evidence available
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800-900
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"It is not easy to give an accurate statement about the number of speakers of Busoa. In 1986 I was told there were about 2,300 speakers. This number now seems much too high, as it was probably based on the total number of households in the village of Busoa at the time (somewhere around 400), including all the non-Busoa speakers. In 2008 I discussed the question of the number of speakers with several village elders. At that time lingkungan Busoa had 169 households, and lingkungan Wuragana 115 households, a total of 284. Considering the number of newcomers, as well as the number of children no longer able to speak Busoa, we arrived at an estimated total of around 1,000 speakers. At the moment of writing (2020), this number has almost certainly diminished (see §1.5), and the best current estimate is around 800 to 900 speakers. Even that could be too high."
- TRANSMISSION
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- MORE ON VITALITY
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"It appears that Busoa is not really passed on to the next generation. Parents typically speak to their children in Indonesian... The number of children who are fluent in Busoa was said to be minimal. I overheard Busoa children mostly playing in Indonesian, and Busoa teenagers chatting in Indonesian... with Indonesian being the language of administration and government, the road towards further decline of Busoa now seems irreversible."
- SPEAKER ATTITUDE
- Indifferent
- OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
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Wolio; Indonesian; Cia-Cia; Muna;
- LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS
"The village of Busoa is multilingual. Most adults speak the following two languages fluently in addition to their native Busoa: 1) Wolio (the court language of the sultanate of Wolio and a former lingua franca on the island of Buton), 2) Indonesian, the national language. Additionally many adults have at least a passive, and sometimes an active command of an additional two languages: 3) Cia-Cia, a large language spoken throughout the southern half of the island of Buton; and 4) Muna, more specifically, one of the southern Muna subdialects... I was told that there were no monolingual speakers of Busoa... The attitude of native speakers towards their own language appears to be one of indifference. Busoa has no prestige, is limited to a single village (now two villages), offers no economic advantages and there is no reason for anyone to learn it."
- Scripts (Writing system)
- Roman
- PLACES
- Indonesia;
- LOCATION DESCRIPTION
"Busoa [bup] is spoken on the island of Buton, one of the four large islands off the coast of Southeast Sulawesi, in central Indonesia. More specifically, Busoa is spoken in just two villages: the villages of Busoa and Lakambau
(kelurahan Busoa, kelurahan Lakambau), located about 22 km south of the city of Baubau in the South Buton regency (kabupaten Buton Selatan), Batauga district (kecamatan Batauga)... The village of Busoa consists of two rows of houses on either side of the road extending for some 2-3 kilometers from north to south, a few hundred meters from the sea to the west. There are two side roads leading to the sea."