// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Lio language say to its friend? "Lio-ve you.

Lio
Li'o
Sara Li'o
Pronunciation	[lio]
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Central Flores
Ethnicity	Lio
Native speakers	220,000 (2009 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern MP Sumba–Flores Ende–Manggarai Central Flores Lio
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ljl
Glottolog	lioo1240

Lio (also erroneously spelled Li'o) is an Austronesian language spoken in the central part of Flores, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. It belongs to the Central Flores subgroup.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial/ labiodental	Dental/ alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪		k	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	prenasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩		ᵑɡ ⟨ngg⟩
	implosive	ɓ ⟨bh⟩	ɗ ⟨dh⟩
Affricate				d͡ʒ ⟨j⟩
Fricative		f	s		(ɣ)	(h)
Trill			r
Lateral			l
Approximant		ʋ ⟨w⟩			ɰ ⟨gh⟩

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Further reading

• Ni Made Suryati; Aron Meko Mbete; Multamia Lauder; Ni Made Dhanawaty (2012). "Phonological and lexical varieties of Lio language in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara: A study of geographical dialect". e-Journal of Linguistics. 6 (1).