Tidore language
Tidore is a language of North Maluku, Indonesia, spoken by the Tidore people. The language is centered on the island of Tidore, but it is also spoken in some areas of the neighbouring Halmahera. A North Halmahera language, it is unlike most languages in Indonesia which belong to the Austronesian language family. Tidore and other North Halmahera languages are perhaps related to languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula, West Papua.: 20
| Tidore | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | North Maluku, islands of Tidore, Maitara, Mare, northern half of Moti, and some areas of west coast of Halmahera |
Native speakers | (26,000 cited 1981) 20,000 L2 speakers (1981) |
West Papuan?
| |
| Latin script, Arabic script (historically) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tvo |
| Glottolog | tido1248 |
| ELP | Tidore |
Tidore Location in Southeast Asia | |
| Coordinates: 0°1′N 127°44′E | |
Tidore is a regional lingua franca, used for interethnic communication in the Central Halmahera area. Since the 17th century, it had some influence as a trade language in the Moluccan-New Guinean region. It is closely related to Ternate, of which it is sometimes considered a dialect. Both Ternate and Tidore have been recorded in writing at least since the late 15th century,: 430 being the only Papuan languages with indigenous literary traditions.