Alternate Names: East Toraja, Luwu’, Luwu-Rongkong, Rongkong, Rongkong-Luwu, Tae’ Tae’, Taeq, “Toala’", Toraja Timur, Toware
Dialects: Bua, Northeast Luwu (Bone-Bone, Masamba), Rongkong, South Luwu. Dialect chain throughout Tae’ area east into Toraja-Sa’dan ,. Lexical similarity: 82% or greater among dialects, 82% with Toraja-Sa’dan ,.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 340,000 (2000 census), increasing.
Language Use: Vigorous. Written use for ancestral stories. All domains. Positive attitudes. Also use Indonesian [ind]. Used as L2 by Lemolang [ley].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 20%–30%. About 10%–20% write.
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: Indonesia
Other Comments: Different from Toraja-Sa’dan (Tae’) ,. Different from the Bugis-Luwu dialect of Bugis ,. Different from the Bugis-speaking “Toala” identified by P. and F. Sarasin (1903). “Toala’" is a pejorative Bugis exonym meaning forest people. Rongkong dialect has Seko Lemo, Rongkong Atas (Rongkong-Kanandede) and Rongkong Bawah (Sabbang) subdialects. Bua dialect has Bajo (Palili’) and Bastem (“Toala’”) subdialects. Muslim.