Sabahan languages explained

Sabahan
Region:	Sabah, Borneo
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	East Malaysia?
Fam4:	Greater North Bornean?
Fam5:	North Bornean
Glotto:	saba1285
Glottorefname:	Sabahan

The Sabahan languages are a group of Austronesian languages centered on the Bornean province of Sabah.

Languages

Blust (2010)

The constituents are separated into two families in Blust (2010):

Northeast Sabahan

• Bonggi
• Ida’an

Southwest Sabahan

• Dusunic (15)
• Paitanic (4)
• Murutic (7)
• Tidong (5)

Lobel (2013)

Lobel (2013b, p. 47, 361) proposes the following internal classification of Southwest Sabahan, based on phonological and morphological evidence.

• Greater Dusunic
  • Dusunic
  • Bisaya-Lotud
  • Paitanic
• Greater Murutic
  • Murutic
  • Tatana
  • Papar

Lobel (2013:367–368) lists the following Proto-Southwest Sabahan phonological innovations that were developed from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian. (Note: PSWSAB stands for Proto-Southwest Sabahan, while PMP stands for Proto-Malayo-Polynesian.)

• PMP *h > PSWSAB Ø
• PMP *a > PSWSAB *ə / _# (possibly be an areal feature in Sabah or northern Borneo, since this is also found in Idaanic)
• PMP *R > PSWSAB *h / (a,i,u)_(a,ə,u)
• PMP *R > PSWSAB *g / ə_
• PMP *-m- > ø in PSWSAB reflexes of the PMP pronoun forms *kami ‘1EXCL.NOM’, *mami ‘1EXCL.GEN’, and *kamu ‘2PL.NOM’
• Reduction of most PMP consonant clusters to either singletons or prenasalized clusters

Smith (2017)

Smith (2017)^[1] proposes a North Borneo group comprising the North Sarawak, Northeast Sabah, and Southwest Sabah branches.

• • • North Sarawak Bintulu
  • Berawan–Lower Baram
  • Dayic
  • Kenyah
• Northeast Sabah (Bonggi, Idaanic)
• Southwest Sabah
  • Greater Dusunic
    • Bisaya–Lotud–Dusunic
      • Bisaya–Lotud (Sabah and Limbang Bisaya, Brunei Dusun, Lotud)
      • Dusunic (Bundu, Liwan, Tindal, Tobilung, Rungus, Kadazan, Kujau, Minokok, Dumpas, etc)
    • Paitanic (Beluran, Lingkabau, Lobu, Kuamut, Murut Serudong)
  • Greater Murutic
    • Tatana
    • Papar
    • Murutic (Murut (Nabaay, Timugon, Paluan, Tagol, Kalabakan), Gana, Tingalan, Kolod, Abai, Bulusu, Tidung (Bengawong, Sumbol, Kalabakan, Mensalong, Malinau))

References

• Book: The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar . 2005 . Routledge . Adelaar . K. Alexander . Himmelmann . Nikolaus . Oxon, UK . en.
• Book: Languages of Sabah: A Survey Report . Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University . 2015 . King . Julie K. . King . John Wayne . Pacific Linguistics, Series C – No. 78 . Canberra . 10.15144/PL-C78 . free . en.
• Lobel . Jason William . Philippine and North Bornean Languages: Issues in Description, Subgrouping, and Reconstruction . 2013a . Ph.D. dissertation . University of Hawai'i at Manoa . en.
• Lobel . Jason William . 2013b . Southwest Sabah Revisited . Oceanic Linguistics . 52 . 1 . 36–68 . 10.1353/ol.2013.0013 . en.

Notes and References

1. Smith . Alexander . The Languages of Borneo: A Comprehensive Classification . 2017 . Ph.D. dissertation . University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa . en.