The Punan languages or Rejang-Sajau languages are a group of

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 ...

isolect In sociolinguistics, a variety, also known as a lect or an isolect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham ...

s spoken by the

Punan Punan Bah or Punan is an ethnic group found in Sarawak, Malaysia and Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Punan Bah people are distinct and unrelated to the semi-nomadic Penan people. Their name stems from two rivers along the banks of which they have b ...

and related peoples 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 ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

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 ...

Classification

Smith (2017) classifies Punan dialects as follows: * Sru (Seru) † *Punan Tubu-Bah ** Punan Tubu,

Punan Bah Punan Bah or Punan is an ethnic group found in Sarawak, Malaysia and Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Punan Bah people are distinct and unrelated to the semi-nomadic Penan people. Their name stems from two rivers along the banks of which they have ...

, Sajau, Latti *Punan ** Beketan (Bukitan), Punan Lisum,

Punan Aput Punan Aput, or Aput, is a Punan language of East Kalimantan, Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Compr ...

, Ukit, Buket (Bukat)

Austroasiatic influence

Kaufman (2018) notes that some Proto-Punan words (Smith 2017) are of likely

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...

origin, including the following.Kaufman, Daniel. 2018. ''Between mainland and island Southeast Asia: Evidence for a Mon-Khmer presence in Borneo''. Ronald and Janette Gatty Lecture Series. Kahin Center for Advanced Research on Southeast Asia, Cornell University.
handout

slides
* *-iap ‘count’ * *hen ‘3. pronoun’ * *buhak ‘white’ * *obet ‘animal trap (general)’

References

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