Rejang (, ) is an

Austronesian language 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 b ...

predominantly spoken by the

Rejang people Rejang people (Rejang language, Rejang: ''Tun Hejang'' or ''Tun Jang'') are an Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, native to the some parts of Bengkulu, Bengkulu Province and South Sumatra, South Sumatera Province in the southwestern part of Suma ...

in southwestern parts of Sumatra (

Bengkulu Bengkulu (), historically known as Bencoolen, is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the area of the historic Bencoolen Residency from the province of ...

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, ...

. There are five dialects, spread from mountainous region to the coastal region of

, including the Musi (Musai) dialect, the Lebong dialect, the Kebanagung dialect, the Rawas (Awes) dialect, and the Pesisir dialect.

Classification

Rejang is not obviously close to other

Malayo-Polynesian languages The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeas ...

in Sumatra. McGinn (2009) classified it among the Bidayuh languages of Borneo, closest to Bukar–Sadong. According to the source, these languages shared raising of ''*a'' to ''*ə'' word-finally, or in final syllables except those ending in velar consonants ''*k'', ''*ŋ''. It may be that it is related to the newly described language

Nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery * ...

, but that is speculative at this point. Robert Blust and Alexander Smith classified Rejang as part of Greater North Borneo languages (2017a, 2017b).

Dialects

Rejang has five different dialects. Speakers of each dialects are able to communicate with one another, in spite of lexical and phonological differences. The four dialects of Rejangs are Curup, Lebong, Kepahiang, and Utara. Among all dialects, Awes dialect is the hardest for the speakers of other dialects.

Writing system

Rejang was written with the Rejang script for a long time. The script is thought to predate the introduction of Islam to the area in the 12th century CE, although the earliest attested document has been dated to the mid-18th century. It is traditionally written on bamboo, buffalo horn, bark or copper plates. It was only recently that the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

was introduced as a way of writing the language.

Phonology

Consonants

A trill is also present, but only in loanwords.

Vowels

Vocabulary

Astronomical terms

Gender

Colour

Pronouns

Numbers

Days of the week

Prepositions

Place

Basic elements

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Rejang, of Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...

(by the United Nations): : Gloss (word-to-word): :Article 1 – All human was born independent, has an equal rights. They are endowed a way to think and heart; then they need to each other in the taste of brotherhood. Translation (grammatical): :Article 1 – All human beings are born free and equal in rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* Richard McGinn, ''Archive of Materials for the Study of the Rejang of Sumatra''. {{Languages of Indonesia Greater North Borneo languages Languages of Indonesia