Preliminary observations about Iranun of Sabah
Sean D.Preliminary observations about Conklin the Iranun of Sabah Persatuan Bahasa dan Kebudayaan Iranun SIL International Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics
The Iranun language of Sabah, Malaysia, is one of the four members of the Danao language subfamily: joined by the Maranao, Maguindanao, and Illanon languages on the island of Mindanao (Fleischman 1981). In years past, the Iranun of Sabah were known as the Illanun, an exonym given during the British colonial era. I will hereafter refer to them as IRANUN, the preferred autonym. In this paper, ILLANON is used to refer to the Danao language in Mindanao that Allison (1979) and Fleischman (1981) call Iranun; see also Gordon (2005) for more details on language names. There are at least six thousand Iranun speakers in Sabah (McKaughan 1999:82 n. 2). They reside in twenty-five or more villages, along the northwest coast of Sabah, mostly in the district of Kota Belud, with one village in the Kota Marudu District. Two more villages can be found in the southeast corner of the state, near Lahad Datu. There is also a community located in Likas, a suburb of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. Until the time Howard McKaughan began working with Persatuan Bahasa dan Kebudayaan Iranun ‘Iranun Language and Culture Association’ and the Iranun of Sabah, very little linguistic data had been published about the Iranun language. Fleischman (1981)—built on Allison (1979), among other things—relates the Sabah Iranun to the rest of the Danao family. Banker (1984) then published a survey of the language. Banker cites four unpublished Iranun wordlists, collected around 1979, used as the basis for the lexicostatistical comparisons in Smith (1984). Two of these each were taken in the Kota Belud and Lahad Datu areas. Banker also reports on intelligibility testing between Iranun of Sabah and other members of the Danao family. He concludes that Iranun is a distinct language and that there are potentially two dialects in Sabah, spoken in the two aforementioned areas. The main conclusion of McKaughan (1996) is that although Iranun and Maranao indeed show similarities in the lexicon, pronoun classes, and what he calls the
* To Grandpa Howard: As I write this, it was a little over a year ago when Rebekah and I met you for the first time. In fact, the date was 5 July 2005. It was your birthday and we, along with the Smith family and others from the Malaysia branch of SIL, were taking you out to celebrate. The date 5 July also is significant in the life of our family because it is the day that our son Joshua was born just a few months ago. We were thrilled to have our son share this great day with you. As a result of spending time with you in 2005, we began to see the significance of working with the Iranun of Sabah to help them document their language and culture and because of your encouragement we endeavored to join you in this task. (See also R. Conklin, this volume/Eds.) Thank you for believing in us and challenging us to rise up and enter into this work. It is my desire that our research done with the Iranun will not only honor them as a unique and valuable culture in Malaysia but also reflect the integrity and high standards that you yourself have exemplified in your life and work.
Loren Billings & Nelleke Goudswaard (eds.), Piakandatu ami Dr. Howard P. McKaughan, 82–86. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines and SIL Philippines, 2010. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE IRANUN OF SABAH 83
“voice-focus” system, much more research needs to be done to understand the aspects of Iranun syntax that differ from Maranao; see also McKaughan (1999, 2000). Thus, McKaughan has cleared a path on which to start our journey in helping the Iranun people document and record their language. It is the purpose of this paper, therefore, to present some observations that have resulted from months of living among the Iranun and learning about their language and culture. In 2006 I collected three additional wordlists, based on the ones mentioned above, from three villages in the Kota Belud area: Payas Payas, Rampayan Ulu, and Kaguraan. These new wordlists build on the four from the late 1970s as well as a more recent one from 1997 survey of Rampayan Laut, another village in Kota Belud. Generally, the wordlists are consistent with each other, but there are several examples of Malay words being borrowed or used more frequently. At this point in my research, I cannot identify which words are actually borrowed. Nevertheless, preliminary thoughts are posited in table 1. As McKaughan (1996) has noted, the Maranao and Iranun languages are very rich in synonyms, thus giving the speaker many choices to say the same thing. This is a challenge for the language surveyor and I have sought clarification on these words as much as possible.
Table 1: Potential borrowings from Malay
Iranun Sabahan Malay Comments
lungs bÿgÿ? pÿru-pÿru Malay form is more widely known
spear (N) bÿNkÿw/tumbÿk tombÿk Malay form is sometimes used
wipe bpunÿs«n/lÿplÿp Malay form is sometimes used
smell (V) gkÿbÿw/sjum tSium Malay form is sometimes used
boil (V) nindidi? m«ndidi Possible Malay borrowing
crow (N) pÿpÿnuk gÿgÿk gÿgÿk
heart pusu?/dzÿntoN dZÿntoN Malay form is more widely known
Table 1 gives examples of Iranun words that are falling out of use and being replaced by Malay forms. Each Malay word listed was elicited in at least two communities. In some examples, the Iranun word could only be remembered in discussion with other speakers. In table 2 below, Iranun words are compared with the corresponding Proto-Danao forms (all from Allison 1979). The examples show instances where the Iranun meaning of a word has shifted. For example, the reflex of Proto-Danao *awaN ‘canoe’ is ÿwÿN but means ‘boat’ (larger than a canoe), whereas the Iranun word for ‘canoe’ is gubÿN. Table 3 further below lists Proto-Danao reconstructions, again all from Allison (1979), that were not found in Iranun.1 References to modern Maranao are from McKaughan & Macaraya (1967/1996), the form from Maguindanao was checked in Fleischman et al. (1981), and the form from Illanon of Mindanao is from Allison (1979). It is likely that there are other words in Iranun of Sabah that have been borrowed (but not necessarily from Malay); this language is in continuing contact with Sama-Bajau and Sabahan languages.
1 An asterisk precedes all reconstructed historical forms. Allison places the asterisk in parentheses if only two of the three Danao languages in Mindanao contribute reflexes (1979:78). In addition, Allison’s transcription deviates from the International Phonetic Alphabet by using
Table 2: Changes in meaning from Proto-Danao
Proto-Danao Iranun
*awaN canoe ÿwÿN ‘(larger) boat’ (cf. gubÿN ‘canoe’)
*basa word bÿsÿ ‘politeness/manners’ (cf. kÿdtÿru? ‘word’)
*but bite but ‘pinch, nip, insect sting’ (cf. k«b ‘bite’)
*r(ö)dsik dirty (clothes) r«dsik ‘dirty’, also s«bu? ‘dirty’ (neither Iranun term used to describe clothing)
*linaw lake linÿw ‘calm/clear water’ (cf. l«bÿk ‘lake’)
*rödak rotten r«dÿk ‘worn out, faded’ (cf. miÿdu? ‘rotten’)
*röndiN wall of house r«ndiN ‘curtain or screen’ (cf. k«l«b ‘wall of house’)
*ugat heavy -ugÿt ‘pregnant’ (cf. -p«n«d ‘heavy’)
*urak flower urÿk ‘egg’ (cf. sumpiN ‘flower’)
The number of comparisons of Proto-Danao and Iranun meanings in table 2 is limited by the size of both Allison’s list of protoforms and the Iranun wordlists collected so far. Allison’s list could be refined by including Iranun and in the reconstructions.2 It should be possible to use the lexical materials on Maranao (McKaughan & Macaraya 1967) and Maguindanao (Fleischman et al. 1981; Sullivan 1986) as a basis for comparing Iranun words. What may be most the most compelling aspect of this short study are the questions that arise regarding the origin of the Iranun words in table 3. From whom were these words borrowed, and if they were, which of these are innovations unique to Iranun? It is also evident that Malay is replacing some of the Iranun words. The question that arises is why are some words being borrowed when others are not? A future study is needed to attempt to answer some of these questions. In order to accomplish this, more complete wordlists need to be collected from the different Iranun villages around Sabah. This will also give a larger picture of how the Iranun language is changing as well as give a broader corpus to compare Iranun with its Danao relatives.
2 Allison (1979) reports only on the Danao languages in Mindanao. Fleischman (1981), while considering Iranun of Sabah as well, does not offer reconstructions as such. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE IRANUN OF SABAH 85
Table 3: Replacements from Proto-Danao
(*)agit coconut (young) b«t«N Maranao also attests beteng /b«t«N/.
(*)atag below/under sÿkÿbÿbÿ?ÿn Maguindanao also attests bÿbÿ ‘downward’.
*batuk cough l«g«t
*bisu deaf b«N«l Cf. Malay bisu ‘mute’.
*buanaw wash (hand/body) pÿnÿlÿs
*dumpaw rat riÿ
*gandör pull Ngÿmit
*ikam mat d«mpÿs
(*)löman egg urÿk Maranao also attests orÿk /urak/.
*mara dry (A) -gÿNu
(*)may rice (cooked) b«gÿs Iranun b«gÿs means ‘milled (cooked or uncooked) rice’, and Maranao attests begÿs /b«gÿs/ ‘cooked rice’.
*pagöna? hide (V) tÿpuk
(*)rabi(n,N) old object njadtaj
(*)ruguN thunder dÿl«nd«g Illanon of Mindanao also attests dÿlÿndög.
*sambör wind (N) ndu?
*sandak stab t«b«k«n
*sönöb dive tibpu?
(*)sumpat answer ds«mbÿg Maranao also attests sembÿg /s«mbag/.
*(s,t)aliNgi? revolve bir«N Maranao also attests tÿmbireg /tambir«g/ ‘twirl, spin, revolve’.
(*)tag(ö)nök mosquito r«Nit Maranao also attests rengit /r«Nit/.
*ubal monkey ÿmu? Maranao also attests ÿmo’ /amu?/.
(*)waga(?) boil (infection) p«dsÿ(?) Some Iranun communities lack /?/ here.
References
Allison, E. Joe. 1979. Proto Danaw: A comparative study of Maranaw, Magindanaw, and Iranun. In Papers in Philippine Linguistics, vol. 10 (Pacific Linguistics A–55). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. 53–112. 86 SEAN D. CONKLIN
Banker, John E. 1984. The Illanun language. In Julie K. King & John Wayne King (eds.), Languages of Sabah: A survey report (Pacific Linguistics C–78). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. 67–74. Fleischman, Eric. 1981. The Danao languages: Magindanaon, Iranun, Maranao, and Illanun. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 12 (1). 57–77. Fleischman, Eric, Nasrullah Glang, Makakena Solaiman, Hadji Abdulla Ayub, & Faisal Daud. 1981. Vocabulary: Magindanawn-Pilipino-English / English-Pilipino-Magindanawn / Pilipino-English-Magindanawn. Manila: Summer Institute of Linguistics and Ministry of Education and Culture. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.). 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the world, 15th edn. Dallas: SIL International