Bornean languages

Last updated
Bornean
(geographic)
Geographic
distribution		 Borneo
Linguistic classification Austronesian
Subdivisions
Glottolog None
nort3253  (North Bornean) [1]
grea1283  (Barito) [2]
kaya1333  (Kayanic) [3]
land1261  (Land Dayak) [4]
Bornean languages-en.svg
The Bornean language families

The Bornean languages are a geographic group of Austronesian language families indigenous to the islands of Borneo and Madagascar, with the exclusion of Ibanic (Malayic Dayak) and other Malayic languages. There is little reason to think they form a genealogical clade.

Borneo island

Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra.

Madagascar Island nation off the coast of Southeast Africa, in the Indian Ocean

Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent around 88 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the rapidly growing human population and other environmental threats.

Malayic languages language family

The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Standard Malay, which is the national language of Brunei and Malaysia, and which also serves as basis for Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia. The Malayic branch also includes the local languages spoken by ethnic Malays, further several languages spoken by various other ethnic groups of Sumatra and Borneo. The most probable candidate for the homeland of the Malayic languages is western Borneo.

Contents

Languages

The Bornean languages form a number of distinct branches of the Austronesian family.

North Bornean

North Bornean is a 1991/2010 proposal by Robert Blust that the Northeast Sabahan, Southwest Sabahan, North Sarawakan, and Melanau–Kajang families form an exclusive unit.

Robert Blust American linguist

Robert A. Blust is a prominent linguist in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. Blust specializes in the Austronesian languages and has made major contributions to the field of Austronesian linguistics.

The Ida'an language is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Ida'an people of Sabah, Malaysia. The language has a long literary history, the first known writing in Idahan language was a manuscript dated 1408 A.D. The Jawi manuscript gives an account of an Ida'an man named Abdullah in Darvel Bay who embraced Islam and became one of the earliest known regions in Malaysia to embraced Islam.

The North Sarawakan languages are a group of Austronesian languages spoken in the northeastern part of the province of Sarawak, Borneo, and proposed in Blust.

The Apo Duat or Dayic languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by the Kelabit, Lun Bawang, and related peoples. They are:

Smith (2017) [5] classifies Central Sarawak (Melanau–Kajang) as a separate branch within Bornean.

The Melanau–Kajang languages or Central Sarawak languages are a group of languages spoken in Sarawak, Malaysia, by the Melanau, Kenyah, and related peoples.

Kayan

The Kayan languages were specifically excluded from the North Borneo family by Robert Blust (1991).

Land Dayak

Land Dayak are the majority of the Dayak languages excluding Ibanic.

The Ibanic languages are a branch of the Malayic languages indigenous to western Borneo. They are spoken by the Ibans and related groups in East Malaysia and the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan. Other Dayak languages, called Land Dayak, which are not Ibanic, are found in the northwest corner of Kalimantan, between Ibanic and non-Ibanic Malayic languages such as Kendayan and the Malay dialects of Sarawak and Pontianak.

Barito

The Barito languages have common features due to extended contact. They fall into four families:

Greater North Borneo

Smith (2017) [5] proposes a Greater North Borneo group consisting of five branches, namely North Borneo, Central Sarawak, Kayanic, Land Dayak, and Malayic. Smith considers the Greater Barito linkage as a sister to, but not part of, the Greater North Borneo group.

Greater North Borneo

Proto-Kayanic, Proto-Punan, Proto-Müller-Schwaner, Proto-Land Dayak, and Proto-Kenyah have also been reconstructed in Smith (2017).

Austroasiatic substratum

According to Roger Blench (2010), [6] Austroasiatic languages were once spoken in Borneo. Blench cites Austroasiatic-origin vocabulary words in modern-day Bornean branches such as Land Dayak (Bidayuh, Dayak Bakatiq, etc.), Dusunic (Central Dusun, Bisaya, etc.), Kayan, and Kenyah, noting especially resemblances with the Aslian languages of peninsular Malaysia. As further evidence for his proposal, Blench also cites ethnographic evidence such as musical instruments in Borneo shared in common with Austroasiatic-speaking groups in mainland Southeast Asia.

Blench (2010) claims that lexical forms shared among Bornean and Austroasiatic languages include 'rain', 'to die', 'back (of body)', 'flying lemur', 'monkey', 'barking deer', 'lizard', and 'taro'.

See also

Related Research Articles

Malayo-Polynesian languages Language family

The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian people of the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia, going well into the Malay peninsula. Cambodia and Vietnam serve as the northwest geographic outlier. On the northernmost geographical outlier does not pass beyond the north of Pattani, which is located in southern Thailand. Malagasy is spoken in the island of Madagascar located off the eastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Part of the language family shows a strong influence of Sanskrit and Arabic as the western part of the region has been a stronghold of Hinduism, Buddhism and, later, Islam.

Borneo–Philippine languages language family

The Borneo–Philippines languages are a paraphyletic group of the Austronesian languages which includes the languages of the Philippines, much of Borneo, the northern peninsula of Sulawesi, and Madagascar. They can be divided into the Bornean languages and the Philippine languages.

The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh and in parts of Cambodia, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malayo-Sumbawan languages in the Austronesian family. The ancestor of this subfamily, proto-Chamic, is associated with the Sa Huỳnh culture, its speakers arriving in what is now Vietnam from Borneo or perhaps the Malay Peninsula.

Melanau is an Austronesian language spoken in the coastal area of the Rajang delta on northwest Borneo, Sarawak, Malaysia and Brunei. There are several dialects—Mukah-Oya, Balingian, Bruit, Dalat, Igan, Sarikei, Segahan, Prehan, Segalang, and Siteng.

The East Barito languages are a group of a dozen Dayak (Austronesian) languages of Borneo, and most famously Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar. They are named after the Barito River.

The Kayan or Kayan–Murik languages are a group of Austronesian languages spoken in Borneo by the Kayan, Punan, and related peoples.

The Barito languages are around twenty Dayak (Austronesian) languages of Borneo, Southern Philippines, plus Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar. They are named after the Barito River.

The West Barito languages are a group of half a dozen Dayak (Austronesian) languages of Borneo. They are named after the Barito River.

The Mahakam or Barito-Mahakam languages are a couple of closely related Dayak (Austronesian) languages of Borneo:

The Sabahan languages are a group of Austronesian languages centered on the Bornean province of Sabah.

Tsouic languages language family

The Tsouic languages are three Formosan languages, Tsou proper and the Southern languages Kanakanabu and Saaroa. The Southern Tsouic languages of Kanakanabu and Saaroa have the smallest phonemic inventories out of all the Formosan languages, with each language having only 13 consonants and 4 vowels. These two languages are highly endangered, as many Southern Tsouic speakers are shifting to Bunun and Mandarin Chinese.

Ma'anyan or Ma'anjan or Maanyak Dayak is an Austronesian language belonging to the East Barito languages. It is spoken by about 150,000 Ma'anyan people living in the central Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is closely related to the Malagasy language spoken in Madagascar. There is high lexical similarity with other East Barito languages like Paku (77%) or Dusun Witu (75%).

Lawangan is an Austronesian language of the East Barito group. It is spoken by about 100,000 Lawangan people living in the central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Lawangan has a high degree of dialectal diversity.

Kayan is a dialect cluster spoken by the Kayan people of Borneo. It is a cluster of closely related dialects with limited mutual intelligibility, and is itself part of the Kayan-Murik group of Austronesian languages.

Daro and Matu are dialects of an Austronesian language spoken in Sarawak, Borneo. Gandamatu is the best dialects of Meranau lives in Sarawak.

Keninjal is a Malayic Dayak language of Borneo. Glottolog clasifies Keninjal as a Western Malayic Dayak language alongside Kendayan, but Smith (2017) includes it in the Ibanic branch of Malayic based on phonological evidence.

References

  1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "North Borneo Malayo-Polynesian". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Greater Barito linkage". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kayanic". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Land Dayak". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  5. 1 2 Smith, Alexander. 2017. The Languages of Borneo: A Comprehensive Classification. PhD Dissertation: University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
  6. ↑ Blench, Roger (2010). "Was there an Austroasiatic Presence in Island Southeast Asia prior to the Austronesian Expansion?". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 30. doi:10.7152/bippa.v30i0.10637.

Further reading

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