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About Me and My Language
| Basa Samawa (bahasa Sumbawa) is one of the local language spoken in the Sumbawa Island particularly in the central part of the island. The west part of the island speak the same language but with a considerably different dialect called basa Teliang (Taliwang). The middle-eastern part of the island speak the same language abut slightly different dialect called basa Empang whilst the eastern part of the island speak two different languages called basa Mbojo and basa Dompu. the official language used at schools and government offices is the national language, Bahasa Indonesia. Commonly, my generation still speak the language with lower degree of politeness. We learn the language from our family especially parents because during our growing age we were raised and thought to speak this local language. However, later generation are less familiar or , to some extent, even don't speak the language. |
| Contact Email | adamea at hawaii dot edu |
| Preferred name(s) of your language | Basa Samawa' |
| Alternative names | Bahasa Sumbawa |
| Language classification | smw |
| Geographical areas where spoken | Sumbawa, Indonesia |
| Approximate number of monolingual speakers | 300,000 (1989) |
| Other languages spoken in the area/country | Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Jawa,
Bahasa Bima, Bahasa Sasak, Bahasa Taliwang, Bahasa Dompu |
| Official language(s) in your country | Bahasa Indonesia |
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| Background of the Language Basa Samawa is a language spoken in Sumbawa, an island in the eastern part of Sumbawa. this language is influenced by Arabic, Javanese, Balinese, Makassarese, and Buginese language. Eventually, Basa Samawa also has its writing system which is called satera Jontal. This writing system is similar to the Lontara, a writing system used in Makassarese and some Buginese languages. Nowadays generations no longer use this writing system partly due to its impracticality in a sense that the whole parts of Indonesia are exposed to Indonesian language and writing system that makes this writing system is no longer used. LINK to mirror site: http://www.sumbawa.comlu.com/ |