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Melanau–Kajang languages

Subgroup of the Austronesian language family From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Melanau–Kajang languages or Central Sarawak languages are a group of languages spoken in Kalimantan, Indonesia and Sarawak, Malaysia by the Kenyah, Melanau and related peoples.

Quick Facts Geographic distribution, Linguistic classification ...
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Classification

Smith (2017)

Smith (2017)[1] uses the term Central Sarawak, and puts it as an independent branch within the Greater North Borneo subgroup. He classifies the languages as follows.

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Austroasiatic influence

Kaufman (2018) notes that many Proto-Central Sarawak words (Smith 2017) are of likely Austroasiatic origin, including the following (Note: The Austroasiatic branch reconstructions are from Paul Sidwell's reconstructions; Proto-Pearic is from Headley (1985)[2]).[3]

  • *siaw ‘chicken’ (cf. Proto-Khasic *sʔiar; Proto-Khmuic *(s)ʔiər)
  • *tilaŋ ‘tiger leech’ (cf. Proto-Katuic *ɟləəŋ)
  • *(ə)liŋ ‘saliva’

Proto-Kajang words of likely Austroasiatic origin:

  • *diə̯k ‘chicken’ (cf. Proto-Pearic *hlɛːk)
  • *(u)bəl ‘mute’ (cf. Proto-Bahnaric *kmlɔː)

Proto-Müller-Schwaner words of likely Austroasiatic origin:

  • *ənap ‘fish scale’
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References

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