Mintil language explained

Mintil
Nativename:	Mayah, Tanɨm
States:	Malaysia
Region:	Lipis District, Pahang
Speakers:	400
Date:	2020
Familycolor:	Austro-Asiatic
Fam2:	Aslian
Fam3:	Jahaic
Fam4:	Eastern
Iso3:	mzt
Glotto:	mint1239
Glottorefname:	Mintil

Mintil (alternatively Batek Tanum, Tanɨm, or Mayah) is an Aslian language of Malaysia. It is considered to be a variety of the Batek language.

Background

In the late 1960s, Geoffrey Benjamin had come across speakers of Mintil among patients of an Orang Asli hospital at Ulu Gombak, just outside Kuala Lumpur.^[1]

Names and villages

The people are commonly referred to as Batek. There are 400 speakers of Mintil in Lipis District, Pahang who call themselves Batɛik ‘in-group people’, Batɛik Tɔm Tanɨm ‘people of the Tanum River’, and Batɛik Mayah pronounced as /[ba'tɛik may'ãh]/. Their villages are:^[2]

• Kampung Sungai Garam (Tɔm Mayɛm) (4° 27’ 12” N, 102° 3’ 20” E; 2.5 km south of Kampung Dada Kering)
• Kampung Bencah Kelubi (Batuˀ Jalaŋ) (4° 38’ 23” N, 101° 58’ 45” E; 4 km east of Kampung Telok Gunong)
• Kampung Paya Keladi (Tɔm Hɨyaŋ) (4° 24’ 18” N, 101° 55’ 27” E; 10 km north of Kampung Chegar Perah)
• Kampung Tɔm Kəlkɔəˀ (4° 34’ 39” N, 101° 59’ 43” E; 2 km north of Kampung Kubang Rusa)

See also

• Batek language

Notes and References

1. Book: Benjamin, Geoffrey . Language Documentation and Description, Volume 11 . 2012 . Endangered Languages Project, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) . Austin . Peter K. . London . 136–230 . The Aslian languages of Malaysia and Thailand: An Assessment . McGill . Stuart.
2. Lim . Teckwyn . 2020 . Ethnolinguistic Notes on the Language Endangerment Status of Mintil, an Aslian Language . Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society . en . 13 . 1 . i–xiv . free . 10524/52461.