Dusun language

Central Dusun, also known as Bunduliwan (Dusun: ), is an Austronesian language and one of the more widespread languages spoken by the Dusun (including Kadazan) peoples of Sabah, Malaysia.

History

What is termed as Central Dusun (or simply Dusun) and Coastal Kadazan (or simply Kadazan) are deemed to be highly mutually intelligible to one other; many consider these to be part of a single language.

The language was among many other Sabahan vernacular languages suppressed under Mustapha Harun's assimilationist enforcement of Bahasa Malaysia across the state. Under the efforts of the Kadazandusun Cultural Association Sabah, 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-Trusmadi ranges (now parts of the present-day districts of Ranau, Tambunan and Keningau), was selected as it was deemed to be the most mutually intelligible when conversing with other "Dusun" or "Kadazan" dialects.

Phonology

The phonemes in Central Dusun and Coastal Kadazan are as follows:

Consonants

Central Dusun consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Rhotic			Template:IPA link
Approximant		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

Robinson specifies that /r/ in Tindal Dusun is a flap Template:IPAblink.

Coastal Kadazan consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Implosive		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Approximant			Template:IPA link

occurs as an allophone of in word-medial position.

Tangit and MBDK note that Coastal Kadazan consonants correspond to the following consonants found in other varieties:

Central Dusun consonant	Coastal Kadazan cognate	Example
/r/	/l/	CD ralan, CK lahan "road"
/r/	/∅/	CD boros, CK boos "word"
/l/	/h/	CD loyou, CK hozou "song"
/w/	/v/	CD awasi, CK avasi "good"
/j/	/z/	CD agayo, CK agazo "big"

Vowels

Kadazandusun is usually said to have four vowels /a i u o/. According to Tingit, /o/ in Central Dusun is less rounded [o̜, ɤ] than in Coastal Kadazan and is sometimes represented with ⟨e⟩.

Orthography

Dusun is written using the Latin alphabet using 21 characters (the letters C, E, F, Q, and X are used in loanwords):

A B D G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z

These characters together are called Pimato.

Diphthongs: Template:Grapheme Template:Grapheme (sometimes pronounced ) Template:Grapheme Template:Grapheme Template:Grapheme

Some combinations of vowels do not form diphthongs and each vowel retains its separate sound: Template:Grapheme Template:Grapheme Template:Grapheme Template:Grapheme Template:Grapheme. In some words Template:Grapheme 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.

Tindal pronouns

Gloss	Nominative	Genitive	Oblique	Emphatic
1sg				joho
2sg
3sg
1in
1ex
2pl
3pl

Kadazandusun pronouns

Gloss	Emphatic	Nominative	Genitive	Oblique
1sg
1du
1pl
2sg
2pl
3sg.m
3sg.f
3pl

"The "emphatic" pronouns are used alone or preposedly, either as answers or to stress the pronoun.

Sentence structure

A typical Dusun sentence is VSO.

It is, however, possible for a grammatically correct Dusun sentence to be SVO.

Vocabulary

Numerals

English	Dusun
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
hundred
thousand

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 .

Months

English	Dusun
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

The Dusun name of the months derive from the traditional cycle of paddy harvesting.

Days of the week

English	Dusun
	Dusun name	Numerical
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

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.

Interrogatives

English	Dusun
what
who
where
when
why
how
how many

Dialects

Central Dusun language survived by three main dialect groups.

Liwanic : Liwan, Inobong Dusun

Bunduic : Tindal, Bundu, Sinulihan, Tagahas-Tibabar, Gobukon-Luba

Ulu Sugut Dusun : Tinagas, Talantang, Tuhawon

All Central Dusun dialects are 100% mutually intelligible when conversing.

Examples

1 ^{1 2 3 4 5}

External links

• Kadazandusun Language Foundation
• Kadazandusun Online Vocabulary Sharing
• Numbers in Dusun (Dynamic)
• Collection of Central Dusun sentences at tatoeba.org
• Collection of Central Dusun sentences with audio at tatoeba.org