Bajaw language

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Bajaw
Bajo
Native toIndonesia, Malaysia, Philippines
Regioncoastal areas of the Sulu Sea, Sabah, Sulawesi, and the Maluku Islands
EthnicityBajau
Native speakers
260,000 (2000–2011)[1]
(may be ethnic population)
Language family
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
bdl – Sulawesi
bdr – Sabah West Coast
sjm – Mapun
Glottologborn1254

Bajaw is the language of the Bajaw, widely known as the 'sea gypsies' of Maritime Southeast Asia. Differences exist between the language's varieties in western Sabah, Mapun (previously Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi/Sulu) in southern Philippines, eastern Sabah, and across Sulawesi to Maluku.

Distribution[]

West Coast Bajau is distributed in the following locations of Sabah, Malaysia (Ethnologue).

  • scattered along the west coast from Papar district to Kudat district, mainly in Tuaran and Kota Belud towns
  • Telutu’ village, Banggi Island, Kudat district
  • Pitas district: along the west coast and Mengkubau Laut, Mengkapon, Dalima’, Mapan-Mapan, Pantai Laut, Layag-Layag, Mausar, Jambangan, Sibayan Laut, and Kanibungan villages

Indonesian Bajau is widely distributed throughout Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara. It is also located throughout Maluku Utara Province in the Bacan Islands, Obi Islands, Kayoa, and Sula Islands, which are located to the southwest of Halmahera Island (Ethnologue).

Mapun is spoken on Cagayan de Sulu (Mapun) island, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines.

Population[]

Ethnologue lists the following population statistics for Bajaw.

  • West Coast Bajau: 55,000 in Sabah, Malaysia (2000 SIL)
  • Indonesian Bajau: 150,000 in Indonesia (Mead et al. 2007)
    • 5,000 or more in North Maluku (Grimes 1982)
    • 8,000 to 10,000 in South Sulawesi (Grimes and Grimes 1987)
    • 7,000 in North Sulawesi and Gorontalo
    • 36,000 in Central Sulawesi
    • 40,000 in Southeast Sulawesi (Mead et al. 2007)
    • several thousand in Nusa Tenggara (Wurm and Hattori 1981, Verheijen 1986)
  • Mapun: 43,000 in the Philippines; 15,000 Mapun people in Sabah, Malaysia (2011 SIL)
    • 20,000 in Mapun island
    • 5,000 to 10,000 Mapun people in Palawan

Phonology[]

The following are the sounds of west coast Bajaw:

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
Fricative s
Rhotic r
Lateral l
Semivowel w j
  • Stop sounds /p t k/ when in word-final position are heard as unreleased [p̚ t̚ k̚], as is the case with the voiced stop sounds /b d ɡ/ as [b̚ d̚ ɡ̚].
  • /l/ can be heard as a retroflex lateral [ɭ] in word-final position.
  • /r/ can be heard as a flap [ɾ] when in intervocalic position.
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Mid ə
Open a

Vowel sounds /i u e/ are heard as [ɪ ʊ ɛ] within in closed syllables.[2]

Dialects[]

Ethnologue lists the following Bajaw dialects. Locations and demographics are from Palleson (1985).

  • West Coast Bajau
    • Kota Belud: Kota Belud, 60 km north of Kota Kinabalu
    • Putatan
    • Papar: Papar, 50 km south of Kota Kinabalu
    • Banggi: Banggi Island, north of Kudat in the north of Sabah
    • Sandakan
    • Pitas
    • Kawang: Kawang, 40 km south of Kota Kinabalu
  • Indonesian Bajau
    • Jampea
    • Same’
    • Matalaang
    • Sulamu: Sulamu, Kupang Bay, southern Timor. 400 speakers.
    • Kajoa: Island, 80 km south of Ternate off the west coast of Halmahera
    • Roti: Roti Island, southwest of Timor. Fewer than 200 speakers.
    • Jaya Bakti: Jaya Bakti, Banggai Regency, central Sulawesi. 3,000 speakers.
    • Poso: Polande, Poso Regency, on the southeast coast of the Gulf of Poso, central Sulawesi
    • Togian 1: Pulaw Enaw, just off the south coast of Togian Island, Gulf of Tomini, Sulawesi
    • Togian 2: Togian Islands, Gulf of Tomini, Sulawesi
    • Wallace: exact location unknown, probably central Moluccas. 117 words collected by Alfred Russel Wallace around 1860.

Together, West Coast Bajau, Indonesian Bajau, and Mapun comprise a Borneo Coast Bajaw branch in Ethnologue.

References[]

  1. ^ Sulawesi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Sabah West Coast at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Mapun at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Miller, Mark T. (2007). A Grammar of West Coast Bajau. University of Texas Arlington.
  • Mead, David; Lee, Myung-young (2007), Mapping Indonesian Bajau Communities in Sulawesi, SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2007-019, SIL International
  • Miller, Mark Turner (2007). A Grammar of West Coast Bajau (Ph.D. thesis). University of Texas at Arlington. hdl:10106/577.
  • Pallesen, A. Kemp. 1985. Culture contact and language convergence. Philippine journal of linguistics: special monograph issue, 24. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.
  • Youngman, Scott (2005), Summary of Bajau Lexicostatistics Project (through October 1989), SIL International (word lists of 16 Indonesian Bajau varieties spoken in Sulawesi)
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