The Murutic languages are a family of half a dozen closely related
Austronesian languages
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 ...
, spoken in the northern inland regions 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 ...
by the
Murut and
Tidung.
Languages
The Murutic languages are (Lobel 2013):
*Murut proper
Timugon Murut and
Tagol Murut
*Murut dialects
Keningau Murut, Beaufort Murut (Binta’), Tabalunan/
Serudung Murut,
Selungai Murut,
Sembakung Murut,
Okolod,
Bookan, Tanggala Murut,
Paluan, Agabag/Tinggalan Murut.
*Tidung language
Burusu,
Kalabakan,
Nonukan Tidong,
Sesayap Tidong
Tagol Murut is commonly used and understood by a large majority of the Murut peoples.
Lobel (2013:360) also lists the languages Abai Sembuak, Abai Tubu, and Bulusu (all spoken near
Malinau town in
North Kalimantan
North Kalimantan () is a Provinces of Indonesia, 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 Sarawa ...
) as Murutic languages. On the other hand,
Abai Sungai, spoken in eastern Sabah, is a Paitanic language.
Lobel (2016)
Lobel (2016) covers the following Greater Murutic languages, including Tidong:
*
Tatana
*
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 ...
*Murut Nabaay
*
Ganaʼ
*
Murut Timugon
*
Murut Paluan
*
Murut Tagol
*Kolod
*Western Tingalan
*Eastern Tingalan
*Murut Kalabakan
*
Abai Sembuak
*Abai Tubu
*
Bulusu
*Tidung Bengawong
*Tidung Sumbol
*
Tidung Kalabakan
*Tidung Mensalong
*Tidung Malinau
Innovations
Lobel (2013:367) lists the following Murutic phonological innovations. (Note: PSWSAB stands for Proto-Southwest Sabahan, while PMP stands for Proto-Malayo-Polynesian.)
*PMP/PSWSAB *R > *h / __ V (except after *ə, where it had already shifted to *g in PSWSAB). Subsequently, Proto-Greater Murutic *h > Ø occurred in all daughter languages except Papar.
*PMP/PSWSAB *R > *g / __ #
*PMP/PSWSAB *aw > *ow; *ay > *oy
*PMP/PSWSAB *iw > *uy
*PGMUR *g- > Ø after the adjectival prefix *ma-
*PMP/PSWSAB *ə > *a in non-final syllables, except in the environment *_Cə, where it is reflected as /o/
References
*Lobel, Jason William. 2013
''Philippine and North Bornean languages: issues in description, subgrouping, and reconstruction'' Ph.D. dissertation. Manoa: University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
*Lobel, Jason William. 2016. ''North Borneo Sourcebook: Vocabularies and Functors''. University of Hawaii Press.
{{au-lang-stub