The Kanowit language, also called Serau Tet Kanowit (language of the Kanowit people), is an

Austronesian language The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

spoken in

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. It is mutually intelligible with the Tanjong (alternatively spelled ''Tanjung'') language, which is spoken even further upriver near the town of Kapit. Tanjong may be a separate language from Kanowit. However, both languages currently share the denomination ''kxn'' in

ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...

. Kanowit is primarily spoken in Kampung Bedil, a village located approximately one mile up the

Rajang River The Rajang River () is a river in Sarawak, northwestern Borneo, Malaysia. The river originates in the Iran Mountains, flows through Kapit, and then towards the South China Sea. At approximately , the river is the seventh-longest in Borneo and th ...

from Kanowit Town.

Vocabulary

Some Kanowit vocabulary translated into English:

References

Languages of Malaysia Melanau–Kajang languages Endangered Austronesian languages {{Austronesian-lang-stub