Buginese language
South Sulawesi language predominantly spoken by the Bugis ethnic group
Buginese (; Basa Ugi, Lontara script: ᨅᨔ ᨕᨘᨁᨗ, Serang script: بهاس بوڬيس/ بَاسَ أُوْࢴِيْ, pronounced [basa.uɡi]), or simply Bugis, is an Austronesian language spoken by about 4 million people, mainly in the southern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is the mother tongue of the Buginese people.
History
The word Buginese derives from the word Bahasa Bugis in Malay. In Buginese, it is called Basa Ugi while the Bugis people are called To Ugi. According to a Buginese myth, the term Ugi is derived from the name to the first king of Cina, an ancient Bugis kingdom, La Sattumpugi. To Ugi basically means 'the followers of La Sattumpugi'.
Little is known about the early history of this language due to the lack of written records. The earliest written record of this language is Sureq Galigo, the epic creation myth of the Bugis people.
Another written source of Buginese is Lontara, a term which refers to the traditional script and historical record as well. The earliest historical record of Lontara dates to around the 17th century.
“Buginese language” enters the record as south Sulawesi language predominantly spoken by the Bugis ethnic group. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Buginese, language and South can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Buginese language” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Buginese, language and South provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q33190. The Library of Congress control number is sh85017675. Authority coordinates are -4.467, 119.983. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Buginese language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.