| Central Dusun | |
| Also Known As: | Boros Dusun |
| Nativename: | Bunduliwan |
| States: | Malaysia, Brunei |
| Region: | Sabah and Federal Territory of Labuan |
| Ethnicity: | Dusun people, Kadazan people Ethnic population: 714,000 (2024)[1] |
| Speakers: | Central Dusun |
| Date: | 2010 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | North Bornean |
| Fam4: | Southwest Sabahan |
| Fam5: | Dusunic |
| Fam6: | Dusun |
| Iso3: | dtp |
| Glotto: | cent2100 |
| Glottorefname: | Central Dusun |
| Stand1: | Kadazandusun |
| Agency: | Multiple:[2]
|
| Minority: | Malaysia (as Kadazandusun) |
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.
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.[3] 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.[4] [5] 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.
The phonemes in Central Dusun and Coastal Kadazan are as follows:
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Implosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
pronounced as /[x]/ occurs as an allophone of pronounced as //k// in word-medial position.[6]
Tangit and MBDK note that Coastal Kadazan consonants correspond to the following consonants found in other varieties:
| /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" |
Kadazandusun is usually said to have four vowels /a i u o/. According to Tingit, /o/ in Central Dusun is less rounded than in Coastal Kadazan and is sometimes represented with ⟨e⟩.
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: (sometimes pronounced pronounced as //e//)
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: .
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.
| Gloss | Nominative | Genitive | Oblique | Emphatic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg | joho | ||||
| 2sg | |||||
| 3sg | |||||
| 1in | |||||
| 1ex | |||||
| 2pl | |||||
| 3pl | |||||
| 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.[8]
A typical Dusun sentence is VSO.[9]
It is, however, possible for a grammatically correct Dusun sentence to be SVO.
| 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 .
| January | ||
| February | ||
| March | ||
| April | ||
| May | ||
| June | ||
| July | ||
| August | ||
| September | ||
| October | ||
| November | ||
| December |
| Dusun | |||
| Dusun name | Numerical | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | |||
| Tuesday | |||
| Wednesday | |||
| Thursday | |||
| Friday | |||
| Saturday | |||
| Sunday |
| what | ||
| who | ||
| where | ||
| when | ||
| why | ||
| how | ||
| how many |
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.
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