| Bima | |
|---|---|
| Bimanese | |
| Nggahi Mbojo | |
.svg){kind=small} Mbojo Script (Aksara Mbojo) in Bima (Mbojo script variant) | |
| Pronunciation | [ᵑɡa.hi ᵐbo.d͡ʒo] |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Sumbawa |
| Ethnicity | Bimanese, Dompu |
Native speakers | (500,000 cited 1989)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin alphabet (Bimanese Latin alphabet) Lontara script (Mbojo variant) | |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bhp |
| Glottolog | bima1247 |
| ELP | Bima |
 Bima is spoken by the majority of the population or as their mother language
Bima is spoken by the majority of the population, but also concurrently by a large number of speakers of other languages
Bima is a minority language | |
Bima (endonym: Nggahi Mbojo [ᵑɡa.hi ᵐbo.d͡ʒo]), or Bimanese, is an Austronesian language spoken on the eastern half of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia by the Bimanese people, which it shares with speakers of the Sumbawa language. Bima territory includes the Sanggar Peninsula, where the extinct Papuan language, Tambora, was once spoken. Bima is an exonym; the autochthonous name for the territory is Mbojo and the language is referred to as Nggahi Mbojo. There are over half a million Bima speakers. Neither the Bima nor the Sumbawa people have alphabets of their own for they use the alphabets of the Bugis and the Malay language indifferently.[3]
Classification
[edit]Long thought to be closely related to the languages of Sumba Island to the southeast, this assumption has been refuted by Blust (2008), which makes Bima a primary branch within the Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian subgroup.[4]
Distribution
[edit]The Bimanese language is mostly spoken in the eastern part of the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, including Bima Regency, Dompu Regency, and Bima City. It also spoken in the islands of Banta, Sangeang Api, and Komodo.[5] In Sumbawa Regency, this language is spoken in the districts of Empang, Plampang, Lape, Lopok, and Taliwang.[6] The speakers can also be found in western part of Flores, particularly in the districts of Sambi Rampas (Pota village) and Reo.[7]
Dialects
[edit]According to Ethnologue, dialects of the language include Bima, Dompu, Donggo, Kolo, Mbojo, Sangar (Sanggar), and Toloweri.
Donggo, spoken in mountainous regions to the west of Bima Bay, such as in Soromandi and in the east, especially in Donggo, is closely related to the main dialect of Bimanese. It is spoken by about 25,000 people who were formerly primarily Christians and animists; many have converted to Islam, mostly as a result of intermarriages.[8]
Phonology
[edit]Consonants
[edit]| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| prenasal vl. | ᵐp | ⁿt | ᶮtʃ | ᵑk | ||
| prenasal vd. | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮdʒ | ᵑɡ | ||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | h | |||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
Vowels
[edit]| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Vowels /i e o u/ can have shortened allophones as [ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ].[9]
References
[edit]- ^ Bima at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Just, P. (2001). Dou Donggo Justice: Conflict and Morality in an Indonesian Society. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
- ^ Prichard, J. C. (1874). Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. Vol. 5: Containing Researches Into the History of the Oceanic and of the American Nations. London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper. ASIN B0041T3N9G.
- ^ Blust, R. (2008). "Is There a Bima-Sumba Subgroup?". Oceanic Linguistics. 47 (1): 45–113. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0006. JSTOR 20172340. S2CID 144311741.
- ^ Ethnologue
- ^ Malingi, Alan (2 January 2016). "Pako Tana Selalu Dinanti". alanmalingi.wordpress.com (in Indonesian). Romantika Bima: Bima Dalam Tiga Dimensi Waktu. Retrieved 27 November 2025.
- ^ "Bahasa Bima (Mbojo)". petabahasa.kemdikbud.go.id (in Indonesian). Ministry of Education and Culture. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
- ^ Just, P. (2001). Dou Donggo Justice: Conflict and Morality in an Indonesian Society. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
- ^ Tama, I Wayan; Sukayana, I Nengah; Partami, Ni Luh; Z.M., Hamidsyukrie (1996). Fonologi Bahasa Bima. Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Jakarta.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Further reading
[edit]- Jonker, J. C. G. (1893). Bimaneesche Texten [Bima Texts] (in Dutch). Batavia: Landsdrukkerij.
- Jonker, J. C. G. (1896a). Bimaneesch-Hollandsch Woordenboek [Bima-Dutch Dictionary] (in Dutch). Batavia: Landsdrukkerij.
- Jonker, J. C. G. (1896b). Bimaneesche Spraakkunst [A Grammar of Bima] (in Dutch). Batavia: Landsdrukkerij.
External links
[edit]
- Paradisec has a collection of open access recordings of Bima from a 2005 language documentation class, as well as some recordings from Robert Blust.
- Kaipuleohone also has an open-access collection of Robert Blust's materials including a recording of Bima.
- https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22150-biima-script.pdf
| Authority control databases: National |
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