Status of Rungus Language as an Indigenous Language Spoken by Rungus Ethnic Group in Eastern Malaysia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1403.13Keywords:
Kudat, language shift, language maintenance, Malaysia, RungusAbstract
Language shift and language maintenance as contact phenomena have received considerable attention in the realm of linguistics. The current study investigated the status of Rungus language, language of Rungus ethnic group in east Malaysia, to find out the status of this language within the Rungus local community. Synchronous unstructured interviews were conducted with twenty five Rungus educated speakers (15 males, 10 females) to elicit their attitudes about their Rungus mother tongue. Thematic analysis showed that the low status of the heritage language vis-à-vis Malay and English is evidently shown in the participants’ responses. This low status is due to various reasons such as parents’ lack of literacy, language policy, and absence of the language in the Malaysian educational system. Results of this research could argue that Rungus language is endangered and it is recommended that Rungus minority should try to maintain their language by any means otherwise it will be subject to death.
References
Avtans, A. (2008). Humane face of language documentation: A Great Andamanese Experience.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.
Calvet, L. J. (1998). Language wars and linguistic politics. Oxford University Press on Demand.
Coluzzi, P. (2010). Endangered languages in Borneo: a survey among the Iban and Murut (Lun Bawang) in Temburong, Brunei. Oceanic Linguistics, 119-143.
Crawford, J. (1998). Language politics in the USA: The paradox of bilingual education. Social Justice, 25(3 (73)), 50-69.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Crystal, D. (2000). Investigating nonceness: lexical innovation and lexicographic coverage. Manuscript, narrative and lexicon: essays on literary and cultural transmission in honor of Whitney F Bolton, Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press/London: Associated University Presses, 218-231.
Crystal, D. (2003). Clinical linguistics. The handbook of linguistics, 673-682.
Crystal, D. (2013). Language and the question of culture. Cultus, 6, 21-46.
David, M. K., & Govindasamy, S. (2017). The construction of national identity and globalization in multilingual Malaysia. In Language policy, culture, and identity in Asian contexts (pp. 55-72). Routledge.
David, M. K. (2005). Reasons for language shift in Peninsular Malaysia. Journal of Modern Languages, 15(1), 1-11.
David, M. K., & Govindasamy, S. (2003). Language education and ‘nation building’ in multilingual Malaysia. Language education, 219-230.
Denham, K., & Lobeck, A. (Eds.). (2006). Language in the schools: Integrating linguistic knowledge into K-12 teaching. Routledge.
Denham, K. (2006). Teaching students about language change, language endangerment, and language death. In Language in the Schools (pp. 156-167). Routledge.
Dumanig, F. P., David, M. K., & Shanmuganathan, T. (2013). Language choice and language policies in Filipino-Malaysian families in multilingual Malaysia. Journal of Multilingual and multicultural Development, 34(6), 582-596.
Fishman, J. A. (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages (Vol. 76). Multilingual matters.
Fishman, J. A. (2006). Language policy and language shift. An introduction to language policy: Theory and method, 311, 328. Oxford: Blackwell.
Foy, S. (2002). Reversing Language Shift in France: The Breton Case. Unpublished BA Thesis. Dublin: Computer Science Linguistics and French, Trinity College. Available online also at: https://www. scss. tcd. ie/undergraduate [accessed in Bandung, Indonesia: December 27, 2016].
Gill, S. K. Theme 4: Research Systems and Specific Challenges for Social Development: (Outreach to key social partners, multiculturalism, changing demographics) Ethnic and National Identities in Multicultural Contexts: Considerations and Challenges.
Gordon, P. C., & Hendrick, R. (2005). Relativization, ergativity, and corpus frequency. Linguistic Inquiry, 36(3), 456-463.
Hale, K. (1992). Language endangerment and the human value of linguistic diversity. Language (Baltimore), 68(1), 35-42.
Hassan, Abdullah. (2004). "One Hundred Years of Language Planning In Malaysia." Æߵߕ© Æ) Æ 4
Haugen, E. (1972). Dialect, language, nation. Sociolinguistics, 4, 97-111.
Hooley, T., Wellens, J., & Marriott, J. (2012). What is Online Research? : Using the Internet for Social Science Research. A&C Black.
Kasper, G., & Dahl, M. (1991). Research methods in interlanguage pragmatics (No. 1). Natl Foreign Lg Resource Ctr.
Kuncha, R. M., & Bathula, H. (2004). The role of attitudes in language shift and language maintenance in a new immigrant community: A case study. Artikel, tidak diterbitkan.
Lasimbang, R., & Kinajil, T. (2004). Building terminology in the Kadazandusun language. Current Issues in Language Planning, 5(2), 131-141.
Lieberson, S. (1965). Bilingualism in Montreal: A Demographic Analysis. American Journal of Sociology. 71, (1), 10-25
Romaine, S. (2008). Linguistic diversity, sustainability, and the future of the past. Sustaining linguistic diversity: Endangered and minority languages and language varieties, 7-21.
Sallabank, J. (2010). Standardisation, prescription and polynomie: Can Guernsey follow the Corsican model?. Current Issues in Language Planning, 11(4), 311-330.
Sands, B., Miller, A. L., & Brugman, J. (2007, March). The lexicon in language attrition: The case of N| uu. In Selected Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (pp. 55-65). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Sapir, E. (1920). The Hokan and Coahuiltecan languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, 1(4), 280-290.
Sapir, E. (1929). The status of linguistics as a science. Language, 207-214.
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. (1992). "Theory of Language Death." Language death: Factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa, 7-30.
UNESCO’s Language Vitality and Endangerment framework (2021). https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=%3A+UNESCO%E2%80%99s+Language+Vitality+and+Endangerment+framework Retrieved June 23, 2021.
Wikipedia. (2021): Kudat map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudat#/media/File:SabahDistricts-Kudat-pp.png Retrieved June 23, 2021.
Yule, G., & Macdonald, D. (1990). Resolving referential conflicts in L2 interaction: The effect of proficiency and interactive role. Language learning, 40(4), 539-556.
