Ternate language

Ternate is a language of northern Maluku, eastern Indonesia. It is spoken by the Ternate people, who inhabit the island of Ternate, as well as many other areas of the archipelago. It is the dominant indigenous language of North Maluku, historically important as a regional lingua franca. A North Halmahera language, it is unlike most languages of Indonesia which belong to the Austronesian language family.

Due to the historical role of the Ternate Sultanate, Ternate influence is present in many languages of eastern Indonesia. Borrowings from Ternate extend beyond the Maluku Islands, reaching the regions of central and northern Sulawesi. Languages such as Taba and West Makian have borrowed much of their polite lexicons from Ternate, while the languages of northern Sulawesi have incorporated many Ternate vocabulary items related to kingship and administration. The language has been a source of lexical and grammatical borrowing for North Moluccan Malay, the local variant of Malay, which has given rise to other eastern Indonesian offshoots of Malay, such as Manado Malay.