Version 2.2 (First draft version 12 Jul 2015, last revision 24 Mar 2018) – Please cite by date and version 1 Evidence for a Kaili-Wolio branch of the Celebic languages Erik Zobel 1. Introduction In this paper, I want to present evidence for a subbranch of the Celebic macrogroup of Austronesian languages that combines languages which were assigned to two different subgroups in previous classifications, viz. Kaili-Pamona and Wotu-Wolio (Barr et al. 1979, Mead 2003). The Celebic macrogroup comprises most languages of the provinces of Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi, and also a number of languages in the provinces of West Sulawesi and South Sulawesi. The most prominent members are Kaili, Pamona, Tolaki and Wolio. Celebic was convincingly established as a macrogroup by David Mead (2003), but had been proposed in earlier papers by René van den Berg. Mead has proposed the following internal classification of Celebic: 1. Tomini-Tolitoli 2. Kaili-Pamona 3. Wotu-Wolio 4. Eastern Celebic a. Saluan-Banggai b. Southeastern Celebic i. Bungku-Tolaki ii. Muna-Buton The special position of Ledo among the Kaili lects and a probable relation to Wotu and Wolio was first recognized by S.J. Esser (1934). Similar observations are repeated by Mead (2003) and Donohue (2004) for Wotu-Wolio and Kaili-Pamona as a whole, and most specificly by van den Berg (2008), who arrived at the conclusion that Wolio has to be included within Kaili-Pamona. By assigning the languages of Wotu-Wolio and Kaili-Pamona to a single branch of Celebic, we arrive at a slightly simplified classification: 1. Tominic 2. Kaili-Wolio 3. Eastern Celebic a. Saluan-Banggai b. Southeastern Celebic i. Bungku-Tolaki ii. Muna-Buton