Quantitative Approach towards Genealogical Relationship of South Halmahera Languages Group

This paper aims to investigate genealogical relationship of South Halmahera languages quantitatively by applying lexicostatistics. The method of this study is field linguistic or fieldwork (Samarin, 1967) to eight villages represented the eight languages in this study by using Sulawesi Umbrella wordlist consists of more than 400 words as an instruments in collecting linguistic data. The data was then analyzed by applying WordSurv ver.7, where its result is useful in setting up language subgroup and family tree. The result of the study implies that the degree of relationship between languages of Sawai-Gebe-Buli-Maba-Patani and languages of Gane-East Makian are languages of family, while Irarutu is family of stock.