Kelabit language's theme is one that has captured people's attention for a long time. With its impact on different aspects of life, Kelabit language has been the subject of study, debate and discussion in various contexts. Throughout history, Kelabit language has played a crucial role in society, culture, and human development. As we continue to explore and better understand Kelabit language, the importance of addressing this topic in a comprehensive and thoughtful manner becomes evident. In this article, we will explore different perspectives and approaches on Kelabit language, with the aim of deepening our understanding of this topic and its relevance in today's world.
Kelabit | |
---|---|
Region | Borneo |
Native speakers | 5,000 (2000–2011) |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kzi |
Glottolog | kela1258 |
Kelabit is one of the most remote languages of Borneo, on the Sarawak–North Kalimantan border. It is spoken by one of the smallest ethnicities in Borneo, the Kelabit people.
Kelabit vowels are /ə, a, e, i, o, u/. All consonants but the aspirated voiced stops are lengthened after stressed /ə/. Stress generally occurs on the penultimate syllable.
Kelabit is notable for having "a typologically rare series of true voiced aspirates" (that is, not breathy voice/murmured consonants; for some speakers they are prevoiced) along with modally voiced and tenuis consonants but without an accompanying series of voiceless aspirates. It is the only language known to have voiced aspirates or murmured consonants without also having voiceless aspirated consonants, a situation that has been reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European.
Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar /Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
Stop | tenuis | p | t̪ | k | ʔ | ||
modally voiced | b | d͇ | (dʒ) | ɡ | |||
aspirated voiced /prevoiced |
b͡pʰ ~ b͡p | d͇͡t͇ʃʰ ~ d͇͡t͇ | ɡ͡kʰ ~ ɡ͡k | ||||
Fricative | s | h | |||||
Sonorant | l, ɾ͇ | j | w |
At the end of a word, /t/ is pronounced . For some speakers, /d͇͡t͇ʰ/ is affricated; in neighboring Lun Dayeh, the reflex of this consonant is an unaspirated affricate . /dʒ/ is rare, and is not attested from all dialects.
The flap is alveolar. It's not clear if /n/ and the other coronal sonorants are alveolar like /d/ or dental like /t/.
The aspirated voiced series only occurs intervocalically, and may have arisen from geminate consonants. They are at least impressionistically twice as long as other stops. They vary with /b d͇ ɡ/ under suffixation, with /b͡pʰ d͇͡t͇ʰ ɡ͡kʰ/ occurring where other consonants would be allophonically geminated:
There are several arguments for analyzing the aspirated voiced consonants as segments rather than as consonant clusters:
The aspirated voiced series does not appear in all dialects of Kelabit or Lun Dayeh: