Sumbawa | |
---|---|
Basa Semawa | |
Region | Sumbawa |
Native speakers
|
(300,000 cited 1989) |
Austronesian
|
|
Latin, Satera Jontal | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | sumb1241 |
Sumbawa (Sumbawan: Basa Semawa, Indonesian: Bahasa Sumbawa) or Sumbawarese is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the western half of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, which it shares with speakers of Bima. It is closely related to the languages of adjacent Lombok and Bali; indeed, it is the easternmost Austronesian language in the south of Indonesia that is not part of the Central Malayo-Polynesian Sprachbund. The Sumbawa write their language with their own native script commonly known in their homeland as Satera Jontal and they also use Latin.