Lower Baram Varieties of Brunei and Sarawak: Belait, Ba'ong, Miraik and Tutong

Language	Belait, Ba’ong, Mirak, Tutong
Depositor	Holly Drayton
Affiliation	University Brunei Darussalam, Newcastle University
Location	Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia
Collection ID	0662
Grant ID	SG0715
Funding Body	ELDP, The Leverhulme Trust, Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research
Collection Status	Collection online
Landing page handle	http://hdl.handle.net/2196/3cedd0c8-64b4-5768-9e38-5552927e2f1g

 

 Summary of the collection

 English: This deposit represents speakers of several closely-related Lower Baram language varieties spoken in Brunei and Sarawak, north Borneo. These groups are scattered across a number of discontinuous areas around Brunei (Belait district and Tutong district), and the city of Miri in Malaysian Sarawak and, as such, do not retain a central location. The relationships between these groups is unclear, and somewhat controversial. Particularly in terms of linguistic affinities, it is contested which variety represents the ‘main’ language, and which are ‘sub-dialects’. Although speakers from each group agree that the language varieties are broadly ‘the same’, each group posits their variety as the ‘main’ language. Therefore, in this documentation I leave aside the issue of sub-varieties or dialects and I aim to characterise each variety according the preferences of its speakers.

Ringkasan Koleksi

Bahasa Melayu: Deposit ini mewakili penutur beberapa ragam bahasa Lower Baram yang saling boleh difahami yang dituturkan di Brunei dan Sarawak, Borneo utara. Kumpulan ini tersebar di beberapa kawasan terputus di sekitar Brunei (daerah Belait dan daerah Tutong), dan bandar Miri di Malaysia Sarawak dan, oleh itu, tidak mengekalkan lokasi pusat. Hubungan antara kumpulan ini tidak jelas, dan agak kontroversi. Khususnya dari segi pertalian linguistik, dipertikaikan ragam mana yang mewakili bahasa ‘utama’, dan yang mana ‘subdialek’. Walaupun penutur dari setiap kumpulan bersetuju bahawa bahasa itu ‘sama’, setiap kumpulan meletakkan ragam mereka sebagai bahasa ‘utama’. Oleh itu, dalam dokumentasi ini saya mengetepikan isu subvarieti atau dialek dan saya berhasrat untuk mencirikan setiap varieti mengikut keutamaan penuturnya.

Ragam bahasa ini sangat terancam. Terdapat kurang daripada 100 penutur Belait di Brunei dan segelintir penutur Ba’ong di kampung Mungkom, Brunei. Terdapat juga beberapa ratus penutur varieti Miraik, berpusat di sekitar Miri di Sarawak Malaysia.

Golongan ini kini telah memeluk Islam dan mengenal pasti sebagai Melayu,. Ini bermakna pengetahuan tentang kepercayaan dan amalan budaya pra-Islam hanya diingati oleh generasi tertua, dan amalan tradisi sebahagian besarnya telah ditinggalkan. Dokumentasi ini termasuk penceramah daripada beberapa jenis: Kuala Balai, Labi, Ba’ong, Tutong(Kiudang), dan Miraik, yang dituturkan merentasi sempadan di Sarawak.

 

Group represented

English: This deposit represents speakers of several mutually-intelligible Lower Baram language varieties spoken in Brunei and Sarawak, north Borneo. These groups are scattered across a number of discontinuous areas around Brunei (Belait district and Tutong district), and the city of Miri in Malaysian Sarawak and, as such, do not retain a central location. The relationships between these groups is unclear, and somewhat controversial. Particularly in terms of linguistic affinities, it is contested which variety represents the ‘main’ language, and which are ‘sub-dialects’. Although speakers from each group agree that the languages are ‘the same’, each group posits their variety as the ‘main’ language. Therefore, in this documentation I leave aside the issue of sub-varieties or dialects and I aim to characterise each variety according the preferences of its speakers.

Kumpulan Diwakili

Bahasa Melayu: Deposit ini mewakili penutur beberapa ragam bahasa Baram Hilir yang saling boleh difahami yang dituturkan di Brunei dan Sarawak, Borneo utara. Kumpulan ini tersebar di beberapa kawasan terputus di sekitar Brunei (daerah Belait dan daerah Tutong), dan bandar Miri di Malaysia Sarawak dan, oleh itu, tidak mengekalkan lokasi pusat. Hubungan antara kumpulan ini tidak jelas, dan agak kontroversi. Khususnya dari segi pertalian linguistik, dipertikaikan ragam mana yang mewakili bahasa ‘utama’, dan yang mana ‘subdialek’. Walaupun penutur dari setiap kumpulan bersetuju bahawa bahasa itu ‘sama’, setiap kumpulan meletakkan ragam mereka sebagai bahasa ‘utama’. Oleh itu, dalam dokumentasi ini saya mengetepikan isu subvarieti atau dialek dan saya berhasrat untuk mencirikan setiap varieti mengikut keutamaan penuturnya.

Ragam bahasa ini sangat terancam. Terdapat kurang daripada 100 penutur Belait di Brunei dan segelintir penutur Ba’ong di kampung Mungkom, Brunei. Terdapat juga beberapa ratus penutur varieti Miraik, berpusat di sekitar Miri di Sarawak Malaysia.

Golongan ini kini telah memeluk Islam dan mengenal pasti sebagai Melayu,. Ini bermakna pengetahuan tentang kepercayaan dan amalan budaya pra-Islam hanya diingati oleh generasi tertua, dan amalan tradisi sebahagian besarnya telah ditinggalkan. Dokumentasi ini termasuk penceramah daripada beberapa jenis: Kuala Balai, Labi, Ba’ong, Tutong(Kiudang), dan Miraik, yang dituturkan merentasi sempadan di Sarawak.

 

Language information

English: The exact nature of the relationships between the language varieties in the Lower Baram region is controversial. The Lower Baram subgroup includes around 8 closely-related varieties spoken in Brunei and Sarawak. Different groups have different understandings of which languages are sub dialects of others. For example, recordings beg010 and beg011 included in this collection present the perspectives of two Belait speakers who explain that Belait is the ‘main’ language, with sub dialects spoken in Brunei and across the border in Sarawak. Conversely, beg051 presents the view of Mirak speakers, who characterise Miraik as the ‘main’ language, with the other Lower Baram varieties characterised as sub dialects.
Despite these differences, speakers of the Lower Baram varieties generally agree that they speak varieties of ‘the same language’.

Further research is required to better understand how these varieties are related. According to speakers involved in this documentation project, the Belait people originally lived along the Tinjar river in Sarawak. However, conflict with another ethnic group forced the Belaits to migrate downriver, settling in the villages of Kuala Balai and Labi in Brunei around the beginning of the 20th century. Subsequent nation-building initiatives by the Bruneian state has driven a process of ‘Islamicization, Malayicization or Bruneization’ which has encouraged speakers to adopt the national Islamic Brunei-Malay identity, language and religious culture, leading to the current situation where Belait is only spoken by fewer than 100 in Brunei of the oldest generations and intergenerational transmission has ceased. A similar situation is found over the border in Malaysian Sarawak, where there are several hundred speakers of Miraik, clustered around the city of Miri.

Maklumat Bahasa

Bahasa Melayu: Sifat sebenar hubungan antara ragam bahasa di wilayah Baram Bawah adalah kontroversi. Subkumpulan Lower Baram merangkumi sekitar 8 ragam bahasa yang berkait rapat yang dituturkan di Brunei dan Sarawak. Kumpulan yang berbeza mempunyai pemahaman yang berbeza tentang bahasa mana yang merupakan subdialek orang lain. Contohnya, rakaman beg010 dan beg011 yang disertakan dalam koleksi ini membentangkan perspektif dua penutur Belait yang menjelaskan bahawa Belait adalah bahasa ‘utama’, dengan subdialek yang dituturkan di Brunei dan merentasi sempadan di Sarawak. Sebaliknya, beg051 membentangkan pandangan penutur Mirak, yang mencirikan Miraik sebagai bahasa ‘utama’, dengan ragam Lower Baram yang lain dicirikan sebagai subdialek.

Walaupun terdapat perbezaan ini, penutur ragam Baram Bawah secara amnya bersetuju bahawa mereka menuturkan ragam bahasa ‘yang sama’.

Kajian lanjut diperlukan untuk lebih memahami bagaimana ragam bahasa ini berkaitan. Menurut penutur yang terlibat dalam projek dokumentasi ini, orang Belait pada asalnya tinggal di sepanjang sungai Tinjar di Sarawak. Walau bagaimanapun, konflik dengan kumpulan etnik lain memaksa orang Belait berhijrah ke hilir sungai, menetap di kampung-kampung Kuala Balai dan Labi di Brunei sekitar awal abad ke-20. Inisiatif pembinaan negara berikutnya oleh negara Brunei telah mendorong proses ‘Islamisasi, Kemelayuan atau Kebruneuan’ yang telah menggalakkan penutur untuk menerima pakai identiti, bahasa dan budaya keagamaan Islam Brunei-Melayu kebangsaan, yang membawa kepada situasi semasa di mana Belait hanya dituturkan oleh kurang daripada 100 generasi tertua di Brunei dan transmisi antara generasi telah terhenti. Situasi yang serupa ditemui di sempadan di Sarawak Malaysia, di mana terdapat beberapa ratus penutur Miraik, yang berkumpul di sekitar bandar Miri.

 

Collection contents

• Elicitation and Language Learning/Teaching:
  13 hours of audio-visual recorded language learning and elicitation sessions
• Language Vitality:
  8 detailed sociolinguistic interviews on language use and language attitudes
  A report on the current vitality status of Belait in Brunei
• Response to Stimuli:
  2.25 hours of parallel narratives collected using the Jackal and Crow storyboard and the Choregirl storyboard
  1.5 hours of picture descriptions based on the artwork of Bruneian artist, Maziyah Yussof
  2.5 hours of Responses to Information Structure elicitation stimuli
  22 mins Responses to Cut and Break videos
• Spontaneous Language production:
  2.5 hours of Narratives (History, Descriptions of cultural practices relating to marriage, Pre-Islamic beliefs, Personal histories)
  1.5 hours of audio-visual narration and description during a nature walk and medicinal herb garden in Tutong district
  0.25 hrs of Musical demonstration
  12 hours of Multi-speaker conversation
• Annotations:
  15 hours 50 minutes are orthographically transcribed
  12 hours are translated into English
  11 hours are translated into Malay
  5 hours are glossed
• Text Files:
  Field and Annotation notes
  Stimuli prompts
  Legacy texts with glossing
  Maps
  Description of Belait language context (attitudes and vitality)

Kandungan Koleksi

 

Collection history

English: Data included in this collection has been recorded during two periods. In 2022 I began interviewing speakers in Brunei, and recorded the first batch of audio and audio-visual files. I returned to Brunei and Malaysian Sarawak in 2024 to continue the documentation.

Sejarah Koleksi

Bahasa Melayu: Data yang termasuk dalam koleksi ini telah direkodkan dalam dua tempoh. Pada tahun 2022 saya mula menemu bual penceramah di Brunei, dan merakam kumpulan pertama fail audio dan audio-visual. Saya kembali ke Brunei dan Malaysia Sarawak pada 2024 untuk meneruskan dokumentasi.

 

References / Rujukan

Abdullah, Noor Alifah (2004). Struktur Bahasa Belait. Brunei Darussalam: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei, Kementerian Kebudayaan, Belia dan Sukan.

Alwi, Askhaiunisa & Mohd Husli, Noor Hazwani (eds.). 2020. Bup Iddeh Itai: Daftar Kata Bahasa Miriek. Miri: Persatuan Jatti Miriek.

Asmah, Haji Omar & Norazuna, Norahim. 2020. Lower and Upper Baram Sub-group. The GLOCAL Proceedings Asia 2020 92–100.

Blust, Robert. 2014. Fieldwork Notebooks [Data set]. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10125/33162

Chuchu, Ifwah Fauzani. 2006. Ayat Pasif Bahasa Belait. Universiti Brunei Darussalam dissertation.

Chuchu, Ifwah Fauzani. 2023. Bahasa Belait Terancam Kepupusan: Tinjauan terhadap bahasa minoriti di Brunei Darussalam. Buletin MABBIM 14. 40–43.

Clynes, Adrian (2005). “Belait”. In: The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. 1st Edition. Routledge, pp. 429–455.

Damit, Ashrol Rahimy. 2025. Language Choice Among the Tutong Ethnic Groups in Brunei Darussalam: A Preliminary Study. Presented at the The 34th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society.

Damit, Ashrol Rahimy & Zulkiflee, Zulfadzlee. 2025. Language Shifts and Transnational Migration in the Belait Community: A History of Resilience and Adaptation. In Ho, Hannah Ming Yit & Chan, Ying-kit (eds.), Transnational Southeast Asia, Vol. 29, 121–142. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3608-2_8

Drayton, Holly. 2025a. Symmetrical Voice in Belait: Evidence for the Central Borneo-type Voice System. Northumbria University. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25398/RD.NORTHUMBRIA.30096139

Drayton, Holly. 2025b. The Symmetry of Belait Voice Alternations in Narrative Discourse: Properties of the Subject. JSEALS 18(3). 1–13. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10524/52539

Drayton, Holly. 2026. Feature specification and A-movement in Symmetrical Voice: evidence from Miraik and Belait, languages of northern Borneo. Presented at the The 33rd meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association, Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), New Zealand.

Drayton, Holly (to appear). “Subjecthood and Voice Choice in Belait”.

Ghani, Bibi Aminah Abdul. 1992. Language shift among the Orang Miriek of Miri, Sarawak.

Ma’alip, Sa’adiah & Kamarudin, Syaidul Azam. 2021. Background and language of the Narum community in Marudi, Sarawak. Malaysian Journal of Society and Space 17(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17576/geo-2021-1702-32

Nagaraj, Shyamala & Nai-Peng, Tey & Chiu-Wan, Ng & Kiong-Hock, Lee & Pala, Jean. 2015. Counting Ethnicity in Malaysia: The Complexity of Measuring Diversity. In Simon, Patrick & Piché, Victor & Gagnon, Amélie A. (eds.), Social Statistics and Ethnic Diversity, 143–173. Cham: Springer International Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20095-8_8

Rafee, Yakup Mohd. 2024. Cross-Cultural Influences on Jatti Miriek Grave Markers. Journal of Islamic Architecture 8(2). 569–584. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18860/jia.v8i2.25660

Sercombe, Peter. 2002. Language maintenance and shift: a review of theoretical and regional issues with special reference to Borneo. In David, Maya Khemlani (ed.), Methodological and analytical issues in language maintenance and language shift studies, 1–18. Frankfurt: Lang.

Smith, Alexander. 2017. The languages of Borneo: a comprehensive classification. Hawaii: Uni. Hawaii Mānoa dissertation.

Tunggal, Ramlee (2005). Struktur Bahasa Tutong. Brunei Darussalam: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei, Kementerian Kebudayaan, Belia dan Sukan

Zulkiflee, Zulfadzlee. 2024. Rekonstruksi Varian-Varian Bahasa Belait. Universiti Brunei Darussalam dissertation.

Zulkiflee, Zulfadzlee & Chuchu, Ifwah Fauzani. 2025a. Sociocultural Perspective Among the Kiput of Baram: a Study of Kuala Tutoh and Benawa Communities. TAMADDUN: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial, Seni, Dan Humaniora 3(3). 132–146. DOI: https://doi.org/10.70115/tamaddun.v3i3.361

Zulkiflee, Zulfadzlee & Chuchu, Siti Ifwah Fauzani. 2025b. Belait Language Maintenance in Brunei Darussalam. International Journal of Linguistics and Indigenous Culture 3(1). 77–92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36312/ijlic.v3i1.2617

 

Acknowledgement and citation

English: A special thank you to Noor Alifah Abdullah for the many hours spent teaching me Belait. Thanks also to Dr Yabit Alas for help in getting the documentation project running. Thanks to Hazwani Husli for help arranging meetings, and working on elan files.

To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:

Drayton, Holly. 2022. Lower Baram Varieties of Brunei and Sarawak: Belait, Ba’ong, Miraik and Tutong. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/4cede0p9-32c4-5967-9e38-5882928e2g3f. Accessed on [insert date here].

Penghargaan dan Petikan

Bahasa Melayu: Ucapan terima kasih khas kepada Noor Alifah Abdullah kerana banyak menghabiskan masa mengajar saya Belait. Terima kasih juga kepada Dr Yabit Alas kerana membantu dalam menjalankan projek dokumentasi. Terima kasih kepada Hazwani Husli kerana membantu mengatur mesyuarat, dan menguruskan fail elan.

Untuk merujuk kepada mana-mana data daripada koleksi, sila petik seperti berikut:

Drayton, Holly. 2022. A documentation of Belait, an Austronesian language of Brunei. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/4cede0p9-32c4-5967-9e38-5882928e2g3f. Diakses pada [masukkan tarikh di sini].