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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton December 7, 2017

Jedek: A newly discovered Aslian variety of Malaysia

  • Joanne Yager EMAIL logo and Niclas Burenhult
From the journal Linguistic Typology

Abstract

Jedek is a previously unrecognized variety of the Northern Aslian subgroup of the Aslian branch of the Austroasiatic language family. It is spoken by about 280 individuals in the resettlement area of Sungai Rual, near Jeli in Kelantan state, Peninsular Malaysia. The community originally consisted of several bands of foragers along the middle reaches of the Pergau river. Jedek’s distinct status first became known during a linguistic survey carried out in the DOBES project Tongues of the Semang (2005–2011). This article describes the process leading up to its discovery and provides an overview of its typological characteristics.

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our gratitude first and foremost to the community at Sungai Rual. We also wish to acknowledge the Economic Planning Unit, Putrajaya; the Department of Orang Asli Development, Kuala Lumpur; Prof. Dr. Kamila Ghazali, University of Malaya; and Prof. Dr. Rogayah A. Razak, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. We are grateful to Geoffrey Benjamin, Marianne Gullberg, Nicole Kruspe, Asifa Majid, Ewelina Wnuk, and an anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this article, and to Jens Larsson for preparing the images. Joanne Yager’s research was supported by the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology at Lund University, and her field-based data collection was carried out with support from the Lars Hierta Memorial Foundation, The Birgit Rausing Language Programme, Fil. Dr. Uno Otterstedt Foundation, and The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Niclas Burenhult’s research was supported by a Volkswagen Foundation DOBES grant and a Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation Jubilee Initiative Grant NHS14-1665:1.

Abbreviations

1/2/3=1st/2nd/3rd person

beck

beckoning particle

caus

causative

clf

classifier

coll

collective plural

curse

cursing word

DEI

deictic

DET

determiner

distr

distributive

du

dual

emph

emphatic particle

excl

exclusive

contr

contrast-marking preposition

goal

goal-marking preposition

imp

imperative

incl

inclusive

instr

instrument-marking

inv

invitational particle

ipfv

imperfective

irr

irrealis

iter

iterative

loc

location-marking preposition

N

noun

neg

negator

nmz

nominalizer

NOM MOD

nominal modifier

obj

object-marking preposition

pl

plural

PRO

pronominal

prog

progressive

prop

property

pstdist

distant past

pstprox

recent past

q

question proclitic

QNT

quantifier

rel

relative

rt

relational tense

sg

singular

source

source-marking preposition

sub

subject-marking preposition

unit

unitization

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Received: 2016-11-22
Revised: 2017-10-10
Published Online: 2017-12-7
Published in Print: 2017-12-20

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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