Historical Relationship of the Sahu, Gamkonora, and Waioli Languages in West Halmahera, North Maluku

Abstract

The indigenous languages of North Maluku Province generally exhibit distinct characteristics. While some belong to the Austronesian language family, others are classified as non-Austronesian. Despite shared origins, several of these languages display significant differences in grammatical structure. The focus of this research is on three isolects in West Halmahera: Sahu, Gamkonora, and Waioli, whose speech areas are geographically separated. There exists a classification ambiguity where language authorities categorize the three as dialects of the Sahu language, whereas native speakers claim independent linguistic identities. By employing comparative historical linguistic methods and lexicostatistical techniques applied to the 200 Swadesh basic word list, this study aims to reconstruct the genetic relationships and phonological change patterns among them. The analysis reveals regular phonemic correspondences, such as $[k] \approx [g]$ and $[r] \approx [l]$, as well as a unique innovation in the Waioli language involving the process of final vowel paragoge. Lexicostatistical results show cognate percentages ranging from 64% to 71%, which places these three isolects in the "Language Family" category rather than merely being dialects. These findings provide an empirical basis for the necessity of reviewing language mapping and revitalization efforts in North Maluku.