Nias (language)
Nias | ||
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Spoken in |
Nias ( Indonesia ) | |
speaker | 770,000 (Indonesia) ( SIL , 2000) | |
Linguistic classification |
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Language codes | ||
ISO 639-3 |
nia |
Nias is a language spoken by the Nias people on the island of Nias off Sumatra and on the Batu Islands . It belongs to the northwest Sumatra branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages within the Austronesian languages .
According to Ethnologue (17th edition) there are the following dialects:
- North : (especially Gunung Sitoli) Prestige dialect and "lingua franca"
- South : (especially Teluk Dalam variety) lower prestige
- Northwest : Alasa area, Sirombu and Mandrehe areas
- Central : Gomo area, Teluk Dalam and Batu Islands .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nias at Ethnologue (17th edition, 2013)