Ternate

The Ternate grouping unites the North Halmahera languages, the principal Papuan family of the Moluccas, spoken across northern and eastern Halmahera and the surrounding islands. It includes Ternate, Tidore, Tobelo and Galela. Ternate and Tidore are so close that their separation rests mainly on sociopolitical grounds.

These were the languages of the four North Malukan sultanates, whose clove trade made the region wealthy after Islam reached the elite in the late fifteenth century. These languages were written in Jawi from at least that era and had indigenous literary traditions, and Ternate became the lingua franca of North Maluku.

The Portuguese arrived in 1512 and built a fort in 1522, but were expelled in 1575 under Sultan Baabullah. After Spain's withdrawal in 1663, a treaty of 1683 made Ternate a Dutch vassal; Tidore's Prince Nuku led anti-Dutch revolts after 1780.