Buginese

Buginese, called Basa Ugi by its speakers, is the language of the Bugis people of south-western Sulawesi. It belongs to the South Sulawesi subgroup of Malayo-Polynesian, alongside Makassarese, Mandarese and the Toraja languages, traditionally written in the Lontara script on palm-leaf manuscripts. The creation epic La Galigo preserves the oldest layer of the language.

Iron from the Bugis-led trading polity of Luwu fed an agricultural transformation after 1200. Bone arose among rival kingdoms and in 1582 joined its neighbours in the alliance of the Three Summits against the Makassarese sultanate of Gowa. The Bugis accepted Islam in 1605, and Bone was brought to the faith when Gowa conquered it in 1611.

In the Makassar War of 1666 to 1669 the Bone prince Arung Palakka allied with the Dutch East India Company to overthrow Gowa, and the Treaty of Bungaya left Bone the leading power of South Sulawesi.