Kedayan

The Kedayan (also known as Kadayan, Kadaian or Kadyan) are an ethnic group residing in Brunei, Labuan, Sabah, and parts of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.[1][2] According to the Language and Literature Bureau of Brunei, the Kedayan language (ISO 639-3: kxd) is spoken by about 30,000 people in Brunei,[3] and it has been claimed that there are a further 46,500 speakers in Sabah and 37,000 in Sarawak.[4][5][6] In Sabah the Kedayan mainly live in the cities of Sipitang, Beaufort, Kuala Penyu and Papar.[4][7] In Sarawak the Kedayans mostly reside in Lawas, Limbang, Miri and the Subis area.[4] The Kedayan people are also regarded as a sub-ethnic group of the Klemantan Dayak people.[8]

Not to be confused with Kendayan people.

Kedayan people
Kadayan / Kadaian / Kadyan
Kadayan women, 1908. Note the light tunic with rows of buttons.
Total population
Est. 240,000 in Borneo
Regions with significant populations
Borneo:
 Brunei
 Malaysia
Languages
Kedayan, Standard Malay, English
Religion
Shafi'i Sunni Muslim
Related ethnic groups
Bruneian Malay, Banjarese, Javanese, Lun Bawang/Lundayeh

History
A Kedayan man, standing underneath a rice barn.

The origins of the Kedayans are uncertain. Some of them believe their people were originally from Java,[1] which they left during the reign of Sultan Bolkiah. Because of his fame as a sea captain and voyager, the Sultan was well-known to the people of Java, Sumatra and the Philippines.[1] It is believed that when the Sultan arrived to the island of Java, he became interested in the local agricultural techniques.[1] He brought some of the Javanese farmers back to his country to spread their techniques. The farmers inter-married with the local Bruneian Malay people, giving birth to the Kedayan ethnicity.[1] Most Kedayans have adopted Islam since the Islamic era of the Sultanate of Brunei. They have also adopted Malay culture.[6] The Kedayans are recognized as one of the indigenous people of Borneo.[9] They are experts in making traditional medicines. The Kedayans are well known for their cultivation of medicinal plants, which they grow to treat a wide range of ailments and to make tonics.[4]

The language of one of the indigenous tribes, the Banjar people in Kutai, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, is said to share more than 90% of the vocabulary with the Kedayan language, despite the fact that the Banjarese do not refer to themselves as Kedayans. Both the Kedayans and the Banjarese are related, to a certain extent, because of the similarities in their languages.[10]

Language

The Kedayan language is similar to Brunei Malay, and it has been claimed that as many as 94% of the words in the two languages are cognate.[11]

The main differences in pronunciation are that Kedayan has initial /h/ while Brunei Malay does not, so Kedayan hutan (forest) is utan in Brunei Malay;[12] and Kedayan does not have /r/, so Malay rumah (house) is umah in Kedayan.[13]

Notable people

References
  1. Ahmad Ibrahim; Sharon Siddique; Yasmin Hussain (1985). Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 312–. ISBN 978-9971-988-08-1.
  2. James Alexander (2006). Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. New Holland Publishers. pp. 367–. ISBN 978-1-86011-309-3.
  3. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei (2006). Kamus Kedayan-Melayu Melayu-Kedayan. Berakas: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei, p. xi.
  4. Shiv Shanker Tiwary & P.S. Choudhary (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia Of Southeast Asia And Its Tribes (Set Of 3 Vols.). Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-81-261-3837-1.
  5. Michael Zanko; Matt Ngui (1 January 2003). The Handbook of Human Resource Management Policies and Practices in Asia-Pacific Economies. Edward Elgar Pub. pp. 10–. ISBN 978-1-84064-751-8.
  6. A. Suresh Canagarajah (15 January 2005). Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice. Routledge. pp. 227–. ISBN 978-1-135-62351-7.
  7. Julie K. King; John Wayne King (1984). Languages of Sabah: Survey Report. Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-85883-297-8.
  8. John Alexander Hammerton; Dr. Charles Hose (1922). Peoples of All Nations. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 81-7268-156-9.
  9. Carl Skutsch (7 November 2013). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. Routledge. pp. 781–. ISBN 978-1-135-19388-1.
  10. Shiv Shanker Tiwary & Rajeev Kumar (2009). Encyclopaedia of Southeast Asia and Its Tribes, Volume 1. Anmol Publications. p. 216. ISBN 81-261-3837-8.
  11. Nothofer, B. (1991). The languages of Brunei Darussalam. In H. Steinhuaer (Ed.), Papers in Austronesian Linguistics (pp. 151–176). Canberra: Australian National University.
  12. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei (2011). Daftar Leksikal 7 Dialek. Berakas: Dewan dan Pustaka Brunei.
  13. Faahirah, R., & Deterding, D. (2019). The pronunciation of Kedayan, South East Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 19, 78–85. On-line Version
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