Lexical and Phonological Relationship between Bulukumba Buginese and Toraja: A HistoricalComparative Study

Abstract

This study examines the lexical and phonological relationship between Bulukumba Buginese (BB) and Toraja (TL), with attention to local variety, cognate criteria, and recurrent sound correspondences. The dataset comprises 200 Swadesh basic-vocabulary meanings collected in 2026 from six native speakers, three per variety, through interviews, note-taking, and audio recording. The analysis combines lexicostatistics, glottochronology, phonemic-correspondence identification, and comparison with Proto-Austronesian (PAN) forms retained in the dataset. Eighty-seven related pairs were identified: 36 identical pairs, 20 pairs differing by one phoneme, 20 pairs supported by phonemic correspondence, and 11 pairs based on phonetic similarity. The resulting cognacy rate is 43.5%; excluding the 11 phonetic-similarity pairs reduces it to 38.0%, which remains within the same “family” band of the legacy lexicostatistical classification used in the study. With a retention constant of 0.805, the initial glottochronological estimate is approximately 1,919 years before 2026. Recalculation of the stated standard-error formula gives 0.0351 and a model-dependent range of approximately 2,097–1,740 years before 2026 (roughly 71 BCE–286 CE). Six correspondence sets are identified: /ŋ~n/, /w~b/, /ə~a/, /r~d/, /ø~k/, and /o~e/, with unequal evidential strength. PAN-oriented comparisons also show lenition, fortition, aphaeresis, apocope, syncope, and prothesis. The findings support BB–TL historical relatedness while showing that neither cognacy percentages nor glottochronological dates alone establish genealogical subgrouping.