Page:A SEA Dyak Dictionary in alphabetical parts, with examples and quotations shewing the use and meaning of words.pdf/5



language of the so-called Sea Dyaks of Sarawak is a dia­lect of the wide spreading Malay language intermixed with words borrowed from Kayan and, it is surmised, other primitive Bornean races with whom the Dyaks have come in contact.

It cannot yet be said that the language is that of a Nation. It is the language of a number of tribes who may be conveniently grouped as follows: —

[see Daya].

These different tribes are, with the exception of the Saribas and Bugau, inhabitants of the Batang Lupar River and its tributaries, and from these tributaries, they mostly derive their tribal names such as Sabuyau, Lemanak, Skarang, Undup. It is however necessary to state that in recent years some of these tribes have so increased and spread beyond their ancient limits that there are now said to be as many, if not more, Dyaks living in the Rejang river than in the whole Second Division (a tract of land which with the Batang Lupar includes the Saribas and Kalaka rivers and the area drained by these three rivers).

Each of these tribes has some peculiarities of dialect, and some make use of words quite unknown to other tribes, but we doubt if these peculiarities are as striking as the difference between the speech of a man from Yorkshire and one from Sussex.

The Balau Dyaks, who derive their tribal name from a ridge of low hills about twenty-five miles up the Batang Lupar river, have adopted many words in common use by the Malays and this is not to be wondered at when we call to mind that about half a century ago large numbers of this tribe were gathered together and lived with many Malays upon Banting Hill for the sake of mutual protection against a common foe (Saribas and Skarang Dyaks), and that they have always lived in close proximity to Malays, and further that a large portion of the regular force (the Sarawak Rangers) has been and is still recruited from them. This fact has also no doubt, in some measure, given an additional impulse to their “knowledge” of Malay. The Undup Dyaks, who have always been allied with the Balau tribe in their tribal wars, and who have frequently intermarried with them, certainly possess less knowledge