Mainstream Kenyah, also known as Usun Apau and Bakung, is a
Kayan dialect cluster
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...
of
North Kalimantan
North Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawak t ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, and
Sarawak
Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
. Dialects fall into four clusters:
*Lepo’ Tau, Lepo’ Bem, Uma’ Jalan, Uma’ Tukung
*Lepo’ Ke, Lepo’ Kuda
*Lepo’ Maut, Lepo’ Ndang, Badeng (Madang)
*Bakung, Lepo’ Tepu’ (Lepo Teppu’).
Phonology
Consonants
* Sounds can also occur as geminated or as unreleased in word-final .
Vowels
* can also occur as lax .
* Sounds can also be heard as long .
References
External links
*
Kaipuleohone Kaipuleohone is a digital ethnographic archive that houses audio and visual files, photographs, as well as hundreds of textual material such as notes, dictionaries, and transcriptions relating to small and endangered languages. The archive is stored ...
's archive of
Robert Blust
Robert A. Blust (; ; May 9, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American linguist who worked in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Bl ...
's work includes
notes on Kenyah language
Languages of Indonesia
Kenyah languages
Languages of Malaysia
{{au-lang-stub