Coastal Kadazan, also known as , is a dialect of the

Central Dusun Central Dusun, also known as Bunduliwan (Dusun: ), is an Austronesian language and one of the more widespread languages spoken by the Dusun (including Kadazan) peoples of Sabah, Malaysia. History What is termed as ''Central Dusun'' (or simp ...

as well as a minority language primarily 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 ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It is the primary dialect spoken by the

Kadazan The Kadazan are an ethnic group indigenous to the state of Sabah in Malaysia. They are found mainly in Penampang and Papar on the west coast of Sabah, the surrounding areas, and various locations in the interior. As a result of integration i ...

people in the west coast of Sabah especially in the districts of

Penampang Penampang () is the capital of the Penampang District in the West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 93,616 in 2010, with ethnic Kadazan as the majority. It contains, or is synonymous with, Donggongon ...

Papar The ''Papar'' (; from Latin , via Old Irish, meaning "father" or "pope") were Irish monks who took eremitic residence in parts of Iceland before that island's habitation by the Norsemen of Scandinavia. Their existence is attested by the early ...

and Membakut (sub-district of Beaufort).

Characteristics

The use of Coastal Kadazan has been declining due to the use of Malay by the

Malaysian federal government The Government of Malaysia, officially the Federal Government of Malaysia (; Jawi: ), is based in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, with the exception of the legislative branch, which is located in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is a federation comp ...

and by the use of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

, which was done through the method of

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...

enforced by the work of both the colonial and federal governments. The state of Sabah has introduced policies to prevent this decline, which is also happening to other native Sabahan languages. This included the policy of using Kadazan and other indigenous languages in public schools. Efforts have also been done to allow the language to become official in the state. Coastal Kadazan has adopted many loanwords, particularly from other northern Borneo indigenous languages and also Malay. Kadazan extensively employs the voiced alveolar sibilant fricative in their native lexicons, a feature found in only a few Austronesian languages. The Tsou and Paiwan languages also have these particular elements, spoken by the

Taiwanese aborigines Taiwanese may refer to: * of or related to Taiwan **Culture of Taiwan **Geography of Taiwan ** Taiwanese cuisine *Languages of Taiwan ** Formosan languages ** Taiwanese Hokkien, also known as the Taiwanese language * Taiwanese people, residents of ...

. Another language is Malagasy spoken in the island of

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

thousands of miles away off the coast of Africa. Coastal Kadazan is highly

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

with

and is considered by many to be the same language.

History

The language was suppressed with many other Sabahan vernacular languages under

Mustapha Harun Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun, or Tun Mustapha for short (31 July 1918 – 2 January 1995), was a Malaysian people, Malaysian politician who served as the 3rd Chief Minister of Sabah from May 1967 to November 1975 and the 1st Yang di-Pertua Nege ...

's ministership in favour of an

assimilationist Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or fully adopts the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group. The melting pot model is based on this concept. A relat ...

policy enforcing

Bahasa Malaysia Malaysian Malay () or Malaysian ()endonymically known as Standard Malay () or simply Malay (, abbreviated to BM)is a standardized form of the Malay language used in Malaysia and also used in Singapore and Brunei (as opposed to the variety us ...

across the state. Under the efforts of the Kadazandusun Cultural Association Sabah, in 1995, the central Bundu-Liwan dialect (Central Dusun) was selected to serve as the basis for a standardised "Kadazandusun" language. This dialect was selected as it was deemed to be the most mutually intelligible when conversing with other "Dusun" or "Kadazan" dialects.

Phonology

Miller (1993) lists the following phonemes: ranges from weakly rounded to unrounded. Four borrowed consonants from Malay and English include .

Sample prayers

Our Father

:Translation: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary

:Translation: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Austronesian languages comparison table

Below is a table of Kadazan and other Austronesian languages comparing thirteen words.

References

External links

* {{Bornean languages Sabahan languages Languages of Malaysia Languages of Sabah Verb–subject–object languages