Central Dusun, also known as Bunduliwan (Dusun: ), is one of the more widespread languages spoken by the

Dusun Dusun is the collective name of a tribe or ethnic and linguistic group in the Malaysian state of Sabah of North Borneo. Collectively, they form the largest ethnic group in Sabah. Dusun has been recognised as among the indigenous community of ...

(including

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

) peoples of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

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 ...

Kadazandusun language standardisation

What is termed as ''Central Dusun'' (or simply ''Dusun'') and ''Coastal Kadazan'' (or simply ''Kadazan'') are deemed to be highly

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

to one other; many consider these to be part of a single language. Under the efforts of the

Kadazandusun Cultural Association Sabah Kadazan-Dusun (also written as Kadazandusun or Mamasok Kadazan-Dusun) also less-known as "Mamasok Sabah" are two indigenous peoples of Sabah, Malaysia—the ethnic groups Kadazan and Dusun. The Kadazandusun is the largest native group of Bumip ...

, in 1995, the central Bundu-Liwan dialect was selected to serve as the basis for a standardised "Kadazandusun" language. This dialect, spoken in the Bundu and Liwan valleys of the

Crocker Range Crocker Range ( ms, Banjaran Crocker) is a mountain range in West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia that separates the west and east coast of Sabah. At an average height of , it is the highest mountain range in the state with the range is named ...

(now parts of the present-day districts of

Ranau 'Ranau'' ( ms, Pekan Ranau) is the capital of the Ranau District in the West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 8,970 in 2010. Climate Ranau has a tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest cl ...

Tambunan Tambunan ( ms, Pekan Tambunan) is the capital of the Tambunan District in the Interior Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 35,667 in 2010. It is located 80 kilometres east of the state capital, Kota Kinabalu (t ...

and

Keningau Keningau ( ms, Pekan Keningau) is the capital of the Keningau District in the Interior Division of Sabah, Malaysia. It is the fifth-largest town in Sabah, as well one of the oldest. Keningau is between Tambunan and Tenom. The town had an es ...

), was selected as it was deemed to be the most mutually intelligible when conversing with other "Dusun" or "Kadazan" dialects.

Alphabet and pronunciation

Dusun is written using the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

using 22 characters (the letters C, E, F, Q, and X are used in loanwords): A B D G H I K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z These characters together are called ''Pimato''.

Consonants

Semivowels and rhotic only occur in most of the other dialects of the Dusun/Kadazan languages. Forschner (1978) and Antonissen (1958) list two fricatives for the Rungus and Penampang Kadazan dialects. is also listed as an allophone of in word-medial position.

Vowels

The vowels are divided into: Simple vowels: Diphthongs: (sometimes pronounced ) Some combinations of vowels do not form diphthongs and each vowel retains its separate sound: . In some words is not a diphthong, and this is indicated by an apostrophe between the two vowels: .

Grammar

Personal pronouns

Tindal Dusun has a Philippine-type focus system of syntax that makes one particular noun phrase in a sentence the most prominent. This prominent, focused noun phrase does not need to be the subject or the agent of the clause. In clauses with pronouns, the verbal morphology and the pronoun both indicate focus. If the verb carries actor focus morphology, the actor of the clause will therefore be a nominative pronoun (or, rarely, an emphatic pronoun). Any other noun phrase in the clause will necessarily take pronouns from a different set, as only one noun phrase can be in focus in any given clause.

Sentence structure

A typical Dusun sentence is VSO. It is, however, possible for a grammatically-correct Dusun sentence to be SVO.

Vocabulary

To form numbers such as fifty or sixty, a multiplier is combined with a positional unit (tens, hundreds, thousands etc), using . Separate units are combined with . The Dusun name of the months derive from the traditional cycle of paddy harvesting. The names for the days of the week are mostly based on a simple numerical sequence, which is commonly used for media and newspapers. The names of Dusun days as part of the seven-day week derive from the life cycle of a butterfly.

Examples

1 ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵

Austronesian languages comparison table

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

References

External links

Kadazandusun Language Foundation

Kadazandusun Online Vocabulary Sharing

Numbers in Dusun (Dynamic)

Colletion of Central Dusun sentences at tatoeba.org

Colletion of Central Dusun sentences with audio at tatoeba.org
{{Austronesian languages Dusunic languages

Verb–subject–object languages