It is the dominant indigenous language of North Maluku, historically important as a regional lingua franca.

Borrowings from Ternate extend beyond the Maluku Islands, reaching the regions of central and northern Sulawesi.

[18] The Ternate language has been recorded with the Arabic script since the 15th century, while the Latin alphabet is used in modern writing.

[2][22] Ternate and Tidore are notable for being the only indigenous non-Austronesian languages of the region to have established literary traditions prior to first European contact.

[15][23] Other languages of the North Halmahera region, which were not written down until the arrival of Christian missionaries, have received significant lexical influence from Ternate.