Kenyah languages
The Kenyah languages are a group of half a dozen or so closely related languages spoken by the Kenyah peoples of Borneo. They are:
- Kenyah proper (a dialect cluster, incl. Madang), Sebob, Bakung, Tutoh (Long Wat), Wahau Kenyah, Uma’ Lung / Uma’ Lasan.
Kenyah | |
---|---|
Geographic distribution | Borneo |
Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
Glottolog | kaya1332 (partial match)[1] |
Ethnologue says that the Punan–Nibong languages are related to Uma’ Lasan, Glottolog that they are outside the Kenyah languages.
Classification
Soriente (2008) proposes a Kayan-Kenyah grouping.[2]
- Proto–Kayan-Kenyah
However, Smith (2015) rejects Soriente's grouping, and argues that Kenyah and Kayan are separate groups. Smith (2015) proposes the following classification.[3]
- Proto-Kenyah
- Highland
- Highland A dialects: Lepo’ Gah, Lepo’ Sawa, Lepo’ Laang, Lepo’, Ma’ut, Lepo’ Ké, Bakung, Lepo’ Ndang
- Highland B dialects: Lepo’ Tau, Badeng, Uma’ Lasan, Uma’ Alim, Òma Lóngh
- Lowland
- Western Lowland dialects: Lebo’ Vo’
- Eastern Lowland dialects: Uma’ Pawe, Uma’ Kulit, Uma’ Ujok, Lepo’ Timai
- Penan-Sebop
- Penan
- Sebop
- Highland
This classification of Kenyah languages was updated in a second publication, "Penan, Sebop, and Kenyah internal classification". There, it was shown that Penan and Sebop subgroup specifically with the Western-Lowland branch of Lowland Kenyah. This subgrouping was repeated in the dissertation, "The languages of Borneo: a comprehensive classification".
- Proto-Kenyah
- Highland
- Highland A dialects: Lepo’ Gah, Lepo’ Sawa, Lepo’ Laang, Lepo’, Ma’ut, Lepo’ Ké, Bakung, Lepo’ Ndang
- Highland B dialects: Lepo’ Tau, Badeng, Uma’ Lasan, Uma’ Alim, Òma Lóngh
- Lowland
- Western Lowland dialects: Lebo’ Vo’, Eastern Penan, Western Penan, Sebop
- Eastern Lowland dialects: Uma’ Pawe, Uma’ Kulit, Uma’ Ujok, Lepo’ Timai
- Highland
References
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kayan–Kenyah". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Soriente, Antonia. 1997. The classification of Kenyah languages: A preliminary assessment. In SEALS XIV(2): Papers from the 14th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2004), ed. by Wilaiwan Khanittana and Paul Sidwell, 49–62. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
- Smith, Alexander D. "On the Classification of Kenyah and Kayanic Languages." In Oceanic Linguistics, Volume 54, Number 2, December 2015, pp. 333-357.