The Greater North Borneo languages are a proposed subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The subgroup historically covers languages that are spoken throughout much of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

(excluding the areas where the Greater Barito and Tamanic languages are spoken) and

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, as well as parts of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, and

Mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

. The Greater North Borneo hypothesis was first proposed by Robert Blust (2010) and further elaborated by Alexander Smith (2017a, 2017b). The evidence presented for this proposal are solely lexical. Despite its name, this branch has been now widespread within the

Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. The terms Island Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia are sometimes given the same meaning as ...

region, with the exception of the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

(although this depends on the classification of Molbog). The proposed subgroup covers some of the major languages in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, including Malay/ Indonesian and related

Malayic languages The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The two most prominent members of this branch are Indonesian and Malay. Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia and has evolved ...

such as Minangkabau, Banjar and Iban; as well as Sundanese and Acehnese. In Borneo itself, the largest non-Malayic GNB language in terms of the number of speakers is Central Dusun, mainly spoken in

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

. Since Greater North Borneo also includes the Malayic, Chamic, and Sundanese languages, it is incompatible with Alexander Adelaar's Malayo-Sumbawan hypothesis. However, in 2023, Alexander D. Smith reinterpreted the branch as a "zone of lexical diffusion" rather than a proper linguistic branch. Languages not included under Greater North Borneo by this paper are marked by daggers (†) on the infobox.

History

Blust connects the GNB expansion with the migration of Austronesian speakers into

. According to Blust, when Austronesian speakers came from the north through the

, they split into three groups: one that went into Borneo, one that went into

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

, and one that went into the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

. After landing in Borneo, the first group was further split into two: one that moved along the northwestern coast facing the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

, and another one that moved along the eastern coast. The language variety spoken by the northwestern group eventually developed into the Greater North Borneo languages.

Classification

Blust (2010)

Robert Blust proposed a set of lexical innovations that defined Greater North Borneo. One of these innovations is *tuzuq replacing

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austronesia ...

*pitu for 'seven'. The following subgroups are included: *Greater North Borneo **North Borneo *** Northeast Sabah *** Southwest Sabah *** North Sarawak ** Kayanic *** Kayan-Murik-Merap *** Segai- Modang ** Land Dayak *** Banyadu- Bekati ***Bidayuh-Southern Land Dayak **Malayo-Chamic *** Malayic ***

Chamic The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Acehnese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malay ...

** Sundanese ** Rejang ** Moken While Blust assumed that all languages of Borneo other than those in Greater Barito subgroup with GNB, he does not attempt to explicitly classify several languages, including those with insufficient available data. *(unclassified) **

Melanau Melanau (Malaysian language, Malay: ''Orang Melanau'', Melanau language, Melanau: ''Tenawan Melanau'') or ''A-Likou'' (meaning River people in Mukah dialect) is an ethnic group indigenous to Sarawak, Malaysia, and also present in West Kaliman ...

Kajang Kajang is a city in Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia, located southeast of Kuala Lumpur. Kajang, along with much of Hulu Langat District, is governed by the Kajang Municipal Council. Kajang town is located on the eastern banks of the L ...

Smith (2017a, 2017b)

Smith recognizes an independent Central Sarawak branch within Greater North Borneo, combining the Melanau, Kajang and Punan–Müller-Schwaner languages. Additionally, he also excludes Moklenic from GNB and places it all the way up as one of the primary branches of Malayo-Polynesian. *Greater North Borneo **North Borneo *** Northeast Sabah *** Southwest Sabah *** North Sarawak ** Central Sarawak ***

***

***Punan–Müller-Schwaner ** Kayanic *** Kayan-Murik-Merap *** Segai- Modang ** Land Dayak *** Banyadu- Bekati ***Bidayuh-Southern Land Dayak **Malayo-Chamic *** Malayic ***

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

Smith (2023)

Smith reinterprets the Greater North Borneo branch as a "zone of lexical diffusion", considering its lexical innovations are sparsely attested among the languages. He also removes 8 reconstructed words, attributed to borrowing from other languages such as Malay, leaving only 22 reconstructions (and 4 of them are weak). * Malayo-Polynesian ** Northeast Sabahan ** Northwest Sabahan ** North Sarawakan ** Kayanic ** Central Sarawak ** Malayic ** Land Dayak ** Barito–Basap linkage ''Bold denotes the inclusion within GNB lexical diffusion. According to the source, the Land Dayak languages are removed from the branch.''

Austroasiatic influence

According to

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...

(2010),

Austroasiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...

were once spoken in Borneo. Blench cites Austroasiatic-origin vocabulary words in modern-day Bornean branches such as Land Dayak (

Bidayuh Bidayuh is the collective name for several indigenous groups found in southern Sarawak, Malaysia and northern West Kalimantan, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo, which are broadly similar in language and culture (see also #Language issues, is ...

, Dayak Bakatiq, etc.), Dusunic ( Central Dusun, Bisaya, etc.), Kayan, and Kenyah, noting especially resemblances with the

Aslian languages The Aslian languages () are the southernmost branch of Austroasiatic languages spoken on the Malay Peninsula. They are the languages of many of the ''Orang Asli'', the aboriginal inhabitants of the peninsula. The total number of native speakers o ...

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'. Kaufman (2018) presents further evidence of words in various Austronesian languages of Borneo that are of likely Austroasiatic origin.Kaufman, Daniel. 2018. ''Between mainland and island Southeast Asia: Evidence for a Mon-Khmer presence in Borneo''. Ronald and Janette Gatty Lecture Series. Kahin Center for Advanced Research on Southeast Asia, Cornell University.
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References

Bibliography

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