The Polahi community as a synchronic baseline for investigating language change in Gorontalo

Abstract

Tracing diachronic change in a language with predominantly oral transmission is a complex methodological task. This research explores this challenge in the Gorontalo language by examining the impact of cultural mobility and Arabic loanwords. Using an integrated qualitative approach that combines linguistic and ethnographic analysis of 8 informants in the Gorontalo region, and analysing the data through semiotics and synchronic-diachronic comparison, this study proposes using the isolated Polahi indigenous community as a “synchronic baseline.” The Polahi language, which exhibits lexical stagnation and denotative semantics, is proposed as a proxy for a more archaic form of Gorontalo. A comparison with the language of dynamic mainstream communities reveals that cultural mobility, significantly driven by Islamization, has triggered profound linguistic changes. The study identifies 416 Arabic loanwords that have undergone systematic phonological adaptation and radical semantic shifts. The transformation of meaning in key terms, such as Syaib (شَيْب), 'white hair,' into sebe, 'father,' and Ajūz (عَجُوز), 'old woman,' into ajus, 'mother,' serves as an important indicator of this process. This research concludes that cultural mobility significantly drives the restructuring of the Gorontalo linguistic landscape and offers the “synchronic baseline” model as an effective method for analysing language evolution in non-literate societies, with important practical implications for future language documentation and lexicography projects.