Tidung Dialects

Abstract

Correspondences in the vocabulary render it not unreasonable to discuss Tidung (spoken on the East coast between Lahad Datu and the country a little South of Bulungan) after our treatment of North Borneo Murut. Some words of the Tarakan dialect of Tidung strongly resemble words of the Tengara dialect of Murut, which latter language, however, seems to occupy a slightly separate place among the related dialects. We know the Tarakan dialect from a small work by Beach of 1908 (198); it also deals with the Bolongan (i.e. Bulungan) dialect which is rather different, perhaps due to stronger Malay influences. The booklet provides beside vocabularies of the dialects mentioned (with a few words of the Nonukan and Simbakong dialects) more than one hundred short phrases and a story in both dialects, as well as some brief notes on the grammar. The preface was written by A. A. Fokker, who also added many notes and an appendix concerning phonetical and morphological problems. It is rather striking to observe that the sentences and the stories do not show the great variety of morphological elements which is characteristic for North Borneo Murut.