Makassar Malay population estimate

[David Mead]

Aha, my hunch was correct -- but I've also ended up partly answering 
my own question.  On a tip I went out and conferred with another 
source and discovered:

Ethnologue 15th ed. (cited source: World Christian 
Database)         "Makassar Malay"     1,876,548
Barrett Kurian & Johnson 2001 World Chirstian 
Encyclopedia          Makassarese            1,876,684

So, if the Ethnologue figure is an egregious error, are we then left 
with no estimate for the number of Makassarese Malay speakers (L1 and 
L2)?  Apart from the Ethnologue, I've not come across any other estimates.

I'm actually okay if there is none for now, as these things do 
require research.  At any rate it's good to know that no one need (or 
even should) take the 1.8 million figure for Makassar Malay as 
authoritative.

David



At 11/8/2010 10:15 PM +0100, David Gil wrote:
>I'm not familiar with other estimates, and I don't have one of my own.
>But one way to reconcile the 1.8m estimate with reality derives from 
>the plausible assumption that Makassarese Malay is also spoken in 
>other parts of Sulawesi.  There are two relatively well-known Malay 
>varieties in Sulawesi, Makassarese and Manado.  But what kind of 
>Malay/Indonesian do people speak in Bone, Torajaland, Palu, 
>Gorantalo, and all the other places in Sulawesi?  Is there a sharp 
>boundary somewhere between Makassarese and Manado Malay or does one 
>gradually shade into the other?  To the best of my knowledge nobody 
>has studied this question systematically.
>
>Last year I went to Kendari in SE Sulawesi to look into this.  My 
>impression was that the Malay/Indonesian spoken there had many 
>Makassarese Malay features but was also quite different in other 
>respects.  So whether one counts SE Sulawesi Malay/Indonesian as a 
>"dialect" or "variant" of Makassarese Malay is entirely a matter of 
>definition -- which of course will impinge on any population 
>estimate for Makassarese Malay.  Presumably similar observations 
>hold in other places in Sulawesi.
>
>David Gil
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I have my doubts about the population estimate for Makassar Malay 
>>given in the Ethnologue 16th ed, namely 1,880,000 speakers 
>>(2000).  In the 15th edition the reported figure is 1,876,548 with 
>>the source as (2000 WCD).  Prior to that, Makassar Malay was not 
>>listed in the Ethnologue.
>>
>>One reason (among others) why I doubt this figure is that the total 
>>population of /the entire city of Makassar/ on South Sulawesi, 
>>Indonesia, is only aroung 1.2 or 1.3 million people..
>>I emailed WCD (World Christian Database) some time ago asking about 
>>their source of their Makassarese Malay estimate (since they are 
>>obviously a secondary, not a primary, source), but never recieved a 
>>reply.  Does anyone out there who has studied Malayic varieties 
>>have (or know of) a different estimate -- especially in terms of L1 
>>versus L2 speakers?
>>Conversely, is anyone willing to support the reported estimate?  My 
>>own hunch about this is that somewhere along the way someone 
>>confused Makassar Malay 
>>http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mfp with the 
>>Makassar (Makasar) language 
>>http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mak (for which an 
>>estimate of 1.9 million speakers is reasonably in the ballbark).
>>David Mead
>>
>>
>>P.S.  I also came across this on the internet.  Whether others 
>>would dispute Scott's statement or not I don't know. However, if 
>>Makassar Malay had upwards of 2 million speakers I don't think he'd 
>>be making it at all.
>>  *Endangered Malay Varieties: The Malay Contact Varieties of 
>> Eastern Indonesia
>>*Scott Paauw (University of Rochester)
>>
>>The role of the Malay language historically as a trade language 
>>gave rise to a number of contact varieties of Malay in Eastern 
>>Indonesia. *These varieties include some which never gained 
>>significant numbers of native speakers (Makassar Malay*, Alor 
>>Malay), some which have only gained significant numbers of native 
>>speakers relatively recently (North Moluccan Malay, Papuan Malay), 
>>and five varieties which have been used as a native language by 
>>communities for hundreds of years (Ambon Malay, Manado Malay, Banda 
>>Malay, Kupang Malay and Larantuka Malay). For a long time, these 
>>varieties were stable, existing as the native tongues of their 
>>communities, and often as a regional lingua franca with speakers of 
>>other languages as well.
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>
>
>--
>David Gil
>
>Department of Linguistics
>Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
>Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
>
>Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119
>Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
>Webpage:  http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/

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