Introduction

The Malay language that is spoken in North Sulawesi is often called the Manado language or the Manado Malay language. In this dictionary, we will use the common name for the language, the Manado language.

The Manado language is technically a creole language, having undergone a creolezation process. The Manado language is not an inferior dialect of the related national language of bahasa Indonesia, rather it is a separate language that has its own separate and unique history.

The Manado language is used by the majority of people who live in the North Sulawesi province and also others who live in Central Sulawesi province and other places throughout Indonesia. The population in North Sulawesi is 2,352,900 (Statistik SULUT 2013), and the majority of these people use the Manado language as their mother tongue or as a second language.

The purpose of this interactive dictionary is to support and assist in the development the Manado language as a written language. We want to assist people in the reading and writing of their own language, and give them the confidence to know that the Manado language is worthy of being a written language.

The Publishers