Gorontalo Language Alphabet & Phrases

Gorontalo, called Hulontalo by its speakers, is written in the Latin alphabet with the spelling conventions of Indonesian, the national language: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, with no accented letters. Sounds that need two letters are spelled the Indonesian way, so ng and ny each stand for one consonant, and letters such as F, Q, V, X and Z turn up mainly in names and in words borrowed from Indonesian, Arabic and English.

The one character Gorontalo spelling needs beyond the letters A–Z is the apostrophe. Gorontalo has a glottal stop, the catch in the throat between the two vowels of English 'uh-oh', and it can change a word, so careful writing marks it: sara'a (Islamic law, from Arabic syariah), Kuru'ani (the Qur'an), hula-hula'a. Either the straight apostrophe ' or the typographic ’ is used; word processors turn one into the other automatically. The hyphen - is the other mark you see often, because doubled words are written with it, as in hula-hula'a.

Gorontalo language phrases: thank you, how are you and the adat motto

People looking up the Gorontalo language often want a few everyday words. Odu’olo is thank you, a phrase visitors to Gorontalo are likely to hear. Wololo habari? asks how are you, and mopiyohu (good, fine) is the usual answer. In chat these mix freely with Indonesian, so a message can switch between Odu’olo and terima kasih in the same line.

The best-known sentence in Gorontalo is the motto of its customary law: Adati hula-hula'a to Sara'a, Sara'a hula-hula'a to Kuru'ani, 'custom rests on Islamic law, Islamic law rests on the Qur'an'. It is printed on government buildings and quoted in speeches, and it is a good example of the apostrophe at work: every glottal stop in it is written. Gorontalo is a strongly Muslim region, often called Serambi Madinah, the 'Veranda of Medina', a nickname with several explanations.

How to type the Gorontalo apostrophe and quotation marks

The straight apostrophe ' is on every keyboard, next to Enter on a US layout. For the curly ’ on Windows, hold Alt and type 0146 on the number pad; on a Mac press Option+Shift+]. On iPhone and many Android keyboards the apostrophe key gives the curly form automatically, or you can hold the key to choose. In HTML write ’ or simply type '.

Gorontalo follows Indonesian punctuation, with quotation marks written “like this” and ‘like this’ inside a quote. On Windows “ is Alt+0147 and ” is Alt+0148; on a Mac, Option+[ and Option+Shift+[. Prices are in Indonesian rupiah, written Rp before the amount (Rp 25.000) with a dot for thousands; the rupiah has no Unicode sign of its own.

Where Gorontalo is spoken and what it is related to

Gorontalo is the main language of Gorontalo province on the northern arm of Sulawesi in Indonesia 🇮🇩, with roughly a million speakers by common estimates (figures vary by source) in Gorontalo city, around Lake Limboto and across the province's regencies. The province itself was split off from North Sulawesi in 2000 and has a name with several proposed origins. Most speakers also use Indonesian, and a local Malay-based creole, Gorontalo Malay, is widely used between communities.

Gorontalo gives its name to the Gorontalo–Mongondow languages, a group that includes neighbours such as Suwawa and Bolango and, further west in North Sulawesi, Mongondow. Linguists class this group with the Philippine languages, so Gorontalo is closer kin to Cebuano and Filipino than to Buginese or Makasar in the south of the same island. For the letters of the national language, see the Indonesian collection; for the country's flag, food and landmarks, see Indonesia.

Gorontalo in emoji: Tumbilotohe lamps, karawo and binte biluhuta

On the last three nights of Ramadan, Gorontalo lights Tumbilotohe, the festival of lamps: rows of small oil lamps and lights along houses, roads, mosques and rice fields, set out before Eid. Its name joins tumbilo 'to install' and tohe 'lamp', and people post it as 🪔🌙🕌. Karawo is the region's own embroidery, made by drawing threads out of the cloth to leave an open grid and then stitching patterns into it; 🧵🪡 stand for it.

The signature dish is binte biluhuta, a corn soup cooked with fish or shrimp, grated coconut, lime and chili 🌽🐟. Off the coast at Botubarani, near Gorontalo city, whale sharks come close to shore, and the gentle giants 🦈 have become the province's best-known sight for visitors.