changing the language ecology of kadazandusun

Changing the Language Ecology ofKadazandusun: The Role of theKadazandusun Language Foundation

Rita Lasimbang and Trixie KinajilKadazandusun Language Foundation, PO Box 420, 89507 Penampang, Sabah,Malaysia

This article examines the role the Kadazandusun Language Foundation has played inchanging the language ecology of the Kadazandusun language. Over the period of thelast15 years, the stateof the Kadazandusun language has undergone major progressionthat includes the making of a trilingual Kadazan Dusun–Malay–English dictionary.This article also relates to the impact the language situation has had on changing atti-tudes toward mother-tongue use in the Kadazandusun community.

Sociolinguistic Background1

There are 138 languages in Malaysia,2 of which 54 are indigenous to Sabah(Grimes, 1996). Thirteen of these indigenous languages are classified under theDusunic language family.3 There are no current data for language from the recentnational census, but according to the 1999 Sabah census projection, speakers ofKadazan/Dusun ethnicity should have numbered 750,000 by 2000 – makingKadazan and Dusun the largest single language community in the State.Speakers of the Kadazan/Dusun language are mainly found along the west coastof Sabah and also extending some distance inland (see Banker & Banker, 1984 fordetails).

‘Kadazan’ and ‘Dusun’ in this article are terms that various groups of peoplewho speak varieties of this language have come to call themselves. The term‘Kadazandusun’ is the conjoined term decided on as the official name of theshared language – the standard language – that has been introduced in Sabahschools. More recently, the word has been used as a general umbrella term forboth Kadazan and Dusun people, and as a loose term for all languages in theDusunic language family.

According to Banker and Banker (1984), the Kadazan/Dusun languageconsists of a chain of dialects that are reasonably understood by neighbouringcommunities. But because the language differs in varying degrees, communica-tion between members from one end of the chain to the other may be more diffi-cult, e.g. between Coastal Kadazan speakers in the south, and Central Dusunspeakers in the north.

Bahasa Malaysia, the national language of Malaysia since 1963 (Omar, 1984),was selected on the basis of having the greatest number of speakers – at the timethe Malay people made up more than half of the population of Peninsular Malay-sia. However, Sabah on the island of Borneo, with 80% of its population made up

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Changing the Language Ecology of Kadazandusun

of indigenous ethnic groups,4 presents a host of ethnic languages to choose fromwhen selecting a lingua franca for that region.

The Kadazandusun Language

BeginningsThe Penampang populace – south-east of the capital Kota Kinabalu – was

first introduced to literacy through the school-building efforts of Mill HillMissionaries who arrived in the early 1880s.5 However, World War II inter-rupted these educational efforts. Mission schools were resiliently set up againafter the war. These schools were known as Native Voluntary Schools in the1960s. They appealed greatly to the local Kadazan and Dusun folk because they‘opted to teach literacy to rural folk initially through their local Kadazan orDusun dialect only shifting gradually by the third or fourth year into English’(Reid, 1997).

The Kadazan language underwent vast developments post-war. The year1953 saw the Kadazan language introduced in the all-English newspaper SabahTimes. The following year Radio Sabah started a Kadazan programme that ranfor 15 minutes daily, increasing to 14 hours per week in 1960 (Reid, 1997). The1960s saw massive publication of literature. The earliest record of a Kadazanpublication was Samuel Majalang’s Tanong do Kadazan [Kadazan Stories], whichwas published by the Borneo Literature Bureau in 1962.

During the Nationalism era (after joining Malaya in 1963), mother-tonguedevelopment went into decline as emphasis was put on the acquisition of thenational language, Bahasa Malaysia (Malay). To safeguard social and economicinterests as well as to assist assimilation into the fast-growing Malaysian culture,Kadazan/Dusun parents had begun to allow the use of the Malay language inthe home. However, this move did more harm than good when code-mixingbecame evident, slowly removing the need to converse in the mother tongue(Lasimbang, 1996).

The Kadazan/Dusun community only began to identify with the now-appar-ent language loss in the early 1980s. By then, the infiltration of ‘broken’ Kadazanand Dusun songs into the music industry had added further damage to the situa-tion. Their fun and catchy tunes belied the growing disparaging view heldagainst mother-tongue use by many Kadazan/Dusun speakers.

Therefore, as has happened in many other language situations around theworld (see, e.g. Mühlhäusler, 1996), modernisation and development has meantthat the ecology of the Kadazan/Dusun language chains was breaking down andpowerful new languages were entering that ecology (i.e. Bahasa Malaysia,English).

Cultural factors in the changing ecology of the Kadazandusunlanguage

A new sustaining ecology for the language family was also slow to develop, asthe process of forming a common nomenclature was a difficult one. According toLasimbang and Miller (1990), this was seen as early as 1886 in the problematic‘language labelling’ exercise conducted by various groups amongst the indige-nous population of North Borneo. Members of groups could not agree on a

416 Current Issues in Language Planning

common language/ethnic group label, nor could they agree to the labels outsid-ers had for them. Since language labelling works only if members of a group areopen to it (Lasimbang & Miller, 1990), the not un-alike Kadazan and Dusuncommunities had to contend with the continuing pressure to arrive at a singleway of identifying themselves.

By the 1960s it became obvious that this dilemma was also causing problemsfor the preservation of the mother tongue. While the desire for mother-tongueeducation was central to both communities, the touchy subject of identity –whether Kadazan or Dusun (Reid, 1997) – created confusion as to how to goabout the matter. The following decade saw more ambivalence to mother-tongueissues and to cultural identity for that matter. Finally, in 1985 there was a break-through with the crucial decisions being taken on orthography and, in 1995, thestandardisation of dialects materialised. With that, a close approach to a widergroup identity was achieved.

In the following sections, we discuss how this new language ecology hasbegun to emerge.

Orthography and dialects standardisation issuesThe 100-year old initial Kadazan orthography was standardised in 1985,

based on the orthography decisions by the Kadazan Cultural Association(KCA) Language Sub-Committee in 1984. The amendments to the orthographyincluded the writing of the glottal stop whenever it occurs, the marking ofplosives, e.g. b and d, uniformity in the use of hyphens, spelling of particles orclitics, and decisions on the use of varying spellings (Miller & Miller, 1983,1984).

The KCA began the first application of the standardised Kadazan orthogra-phy during the 1985 publication of books from a Kadazan Children’s LiteratureProduction Workshop. In 1987, the biggest application of the standardisedorthography was made in the update of Antonissen’s 1958 Kadazan Dictionaryand Grammar. The update was manifested in the first-ever linguistic and trilin-gual Kadazan Dusun–Malay–English Dictionary.

In 1988, much encouraged by the outcome of a language survey conductedamongst Kadazan children, the KCA began to make efforts to request that theKadazan language be taught in schools. The survey revealed that the Kadazancommunity had long wanted their language to be taught in schools but that theirdesire for this had never been made public (Lasimbang et al., 1992). That sameyear, the Minister of Education made a statement that the study of languagessuch as Kadazan might be incorporated into the school syllabus.6 This raisedgreat hopes within the Kadazan/Dusun community. However, the long-stand-ing issue of standardisation of the various dialects within the Dusunic languagefamily still needed to be resolved before this could occur.

Therefore, the following year a symposium, Towards the Standardisation ofthe Kadazan Dialects, organised by KCA, was held to examine the matter. Butold differences quickly cropped up on which label to use for the standardlanguage – whether Kadazan or Dusun. All too soon, conflicting views of iden-tity had shelved the issue of standardisationand with it, the hope of teaching theKadazan language in schools.

Changing the Language Ecology of Kadazandusun 417

The re-introduction of the Kadazandusun language in Sabah schoolsNevertheless, in September 1990, various efforts to include the Kadazan

language in schools were once again put forward,7 but none of these efforts werefruitful. The idea of the re-introduction of the Kadazan language in schools wasnot revived until 1994, when a concerned Member of Parliament and aKadazandusun himself, YB [Honourable] Tan Sri Bernard G. Dompok, beganseriously pursuing the matter.8

At that time, however, with no provision for the Kadazan language to betaught in public schools, a private class was proposed and set up under the trad-ing licence of the Kadazan Language Centre (KLC). Nonetheless, YB Tan SriBernard G. Dompok continued pushing for the teaching of the Kadazandusunlanguage and succeeded in the re-introduction of the Kadazan/Dusun languagein schools in April 1995.9

However, the problem of the old ‘name game’ – the need to define the newlanguage ecology – still lacked a definitive resolution. The Sabah EducationDepartment played the mediator for the two cultural custodians – the KadazanDusun Cultural Association and the United Sabah Dusun Association – onthe decision for the name of the standard language that was to be taught inschools. The compromise went on to document the combined term‘Kadazandusun’ as the official name of the shared language,10 at the sametime solving the issue of standardisation of dialects within the Dusuniclanguage family.

In 2000, the Kadazandusun language was being taught to 19,731 children by881 trained teachers, in 440 primary schools in 21 districts throughout the State ofSabah.11

The Role of the Kadazandusun Language FoundationWith these official developments in progress, the time had come for the KLC

(now called the Kadazandusun Language Centre) to expand its functions. Inorder to ensure continued efforts to preserve, develop and promote theKadazandusun language, an official language body to monitor and coordinatelanguage work needed to be set up. In December 1994, the first five trustees-to-bemet to discuss the formation and registration of a trust for the KadazandusunLanguage Foundation (KLF). On 20 June 1995, the KLF’s joint trustees weregranted a Certificate of Incorporation under the Trustees (Incorporation) Ordi-nance 1951 Cap. 148 (Sabah).

The KLF’s objectives are wide-ranging and are subdivided into fourprogramme areas: Linguistics and Anthropology; Literacy and Literature;Translation and Community Service; and Training and Development.

Since its establishment, the KLF has been particularly concerned with mobilis-ing the Kadazandusun community towards taking increasing responsibility forthe development of the language. The KLF recognises that community involve-ment in and acceptance of its work is vital to the survival of the Kadazandusunlanguage. To this end, the following language activities have been conducted bythe KLF to ensure positive involvement by the community in the directions theKadazandusun language is taking.


Imparting basic linguistic knowledgeThe KLF has taught several groups from a variety of backgrounds the basic

linguistic aspects of their mother tongue. Aside from primary school teachers,who needed to understand the linguistic components of the Kadazandusunlanguage before being sufficiently confident to teach the subject in schools,participants have also included journalists, school-aged children, young work-ing adults, pre-school teachers and tertiary-level instructors.

These input sessions are often coordinated by the respectiveKadazandusun communities themselves; for example, the KLF continues tobe called upon to provide input on linguistics in a yearly teacher-trainingworkshop held by Suausindak, a Community Pre-school. Suausindak was thefirst school in Sabah to offer Kadazandusun language classes to pre-schoolage children.

Providing technical support, advice and consultancyOnce it was agreed to go ahead with the teaching of the Kadazandusun

language in schools, the Sabah Education Department called upon the KLF toprovide technical advice and consultancy. The KLF first began to provide thisservice in April 1995 to key personnel from the Department in the firstnational-level meeting to draft the Kadazandusun language curriculum. TheKLF continues to provide technical consultancy to the Sabah Education Depart-ment on a needs basis.

The KLF has also assisted the University of Malaysia Sabah in the preparationof their Kadazandusun language classes, which they offered as an elective in1998. Perwira Tuition Centre, a local organisation that offered conversationalKadazandusun language courses, was also given assistance in setting up theircoursework.

On the occasion of the yearly Harvest Festival (a traditional Kadazandusuncelebration), district level and village level committees have continued to seekthe KLF’s advice on judging criteria and the suitability of material used in read-ing and story-telling competitions. The KLF is also often invited to head the judg-ing panel.

Providing funding supportThe KLF has also assisted the Sabah Education Department in acquiring fund-

ing for running Kadazandusun language teachers’ district-level in-house train-ing programmes. Up to now, the KLF has channelled 29 funding packages to thedistricts that required them, as well as providing additional funds for a majorcentralised training programme held in 1998. The KLF continues to look forfunding opportunities to support training requests of Kadazandusun languageteachers in schools. Another request by the Sabah Education Department forlanguage materials saw the KLF raising funds to purchase 100 copies of the‘Kadazan Dusun–Malay–English Dictionary’ in 1999. A second ‘DictionaryDrive’ is to be conducted shortly. Where possible, the KLF also sponsorslanguage materials for school-level language activities/competitions.


Production of local literatureThe KLF has undertaken a publishing role that had been badly needed in the

Kadazandusun community. It serves as an official outlet for the production ofvernacular books, with the hope that in this way much of Kadazandusun oraltradition could be preserved. To date, 21 titles have been published and circu-lated. By increasing the production of mother-tongue literature, the KLF contin-ues to tap into local talent for materials written in the mother tongue. Byconducting a yearly writing competition, members of the community have beenencouraged to put folktales and short stories down in writing. Since 1996,winning entries in the competition have been compiled into volumes and madeavailable at book fairs and exhibitions.

Training workshopsTraining and workshops have been highly useful in mobilising more commu-

nity involvement in mother-tongue preservation. For a new supportivelanguage ecology to develop, human resource development and the transferenceof skills must take root. To push for this ideal, the KLF has conducted writers’workshops to address the development of literature in the mother tongue. Theaim is to increase writers’ motivation as well as to provide them with the skills toproduce literature to support local education efforts.

To enable writers to tap into information found in source languages, a transla-tion workshop has been conducted where translation principles are taught.Editors’ training and workshops are also conducted to add to the skills of thebody of local writers. It is hoped that this will help to ease the backlog of publica-tion since more members of the community will be confident and able to assist inthe publishing component of literature production. The KLF also has organised aShell Book Production Workshop to introduce the technique of producingmassive numbers of books in a short period of time using a template (shell). TheShell Book technique has been useful in the instruction of basic concepts such ashealth and hygiene for beginning literates.

NetworkingIn setting up a Local Writers’ and Illustrators’ Network, the KLF has encour-

aged local writers and illustrators to forge their like-minded ideas together. Thisnetwork, begun in 1997, has the potential to become a strong advocate forpreserving and promoting the mother tongue.

Providing translation servicesOver the years, the KLF has provided major translation services to several

government agencies that needed them, e.g. the translation of health materials,speeches, advertisements and patriotic songs into Kadazandusun.

There is a growing awareness of the possibilities of using the Kadazandusunlanguage to address a wider audience or to market materials or ideas. In the useof health pamphlets amongst rural communities in particular, it is especiallyimportant to be able to provide instruction in the mother tongue, as there is agreat likelihood that clients only have basic literacy acquisition. The written text


then will be extremely useful to both Kadazandusun and non-Kadazandusunhealth personnel.

Preserving oral traditionIt has been suggested by some scholars that once a non-literate community

becomes literate, it will abandon its oral tradition (cf. the discussion in Crowley,this volume). That has not been the case in the Kadazandusun community.Rather, the strong desire to draw out this oral component of the culture has beenevident in community participation in events such as the Humius (TraditionalKadazandusun Singing) and Mananong (Traditional Kadazandusun Story-tell-ing) conducted by the KLF.

For example, a Humius event in June 2000 involved as many as 24 partici-pants, most of whom were Bobohizan (Kadazandusun priestesses) and elders inthe community. Traditional songs as in ritual chanting and songs traditionallysung in community gatherings were performed. It was truly a celebration of oraltradition as the Kadazandusun community heard it in its original form – theexpression of culture found in traditional songs.

In an earlier event, a Mananong demonstration was held to impart story-tell-ing skills to Kadazandusun language teachers who coach their students yearlyfor a Traditional Kadazandusun Story-Telling Competition. Observations of thisactivity countered the finding that school students were strongly influenced byMalay or English language story-telling styles, e.g. in voice modulation, intona-tion, pitch, etc.

Both events have been videotaped and properly recorded, i.e. transcribed andtranslated for cultural posterity. The Kadazandusun community is proud thatsamples of oral tradition within the community have been preserved, and thatthe KLF has maintained equal interest in the promotion of the rich oral traditionof the Kadazandusun people.

Production of language-learning softwareA major first in terms of Kadazandusun language development in the age of

computers has been the production of the ‘Learning Kadazandusun’ CD-ROM.Produced in January 2000, it displayed the ability of the Kadazandusun languageto respond to the changing needs of the Kadazandusun community and even thewider public. The CD-ROM has also given welcomed prestige to the relativelynew Kadazandusun language efforts.

ConclusionThe KLF’s role in helping to map out the changing ecology in which the

Kadazandusun language is now located has been well defined and given duerecognition by both the Federal and State governments. As a coordinatinglanguage body, the KLF’s role has also given the Kadazandusun community thefirm assurance that language maintenance will be supported. In addition to thisgreat responsibility, the KLF must also bear an added role in the promotion of afuture-oriented outlook for Kadazandusun language development.

For this to happen there is a need for further study of community responses tothe Kadazandusun language, e.g. acceptance or rejection of the label


‘Kadazandusun’, the teaching of the standard language in schools, and parentalsupport or lack thereof for language use at home. This will enable the KLF tofurther understand the perspective of the Kadazandusun community and enableit to meet new community needs as they arise.

Understanding and working with the community on its mother tongue needswill also encourage ecologically sound language planning and policies to assistpractitioners at all levels of language development. Perhaps of paramountimportance in the short term is the need to understand whether the communityhas accepted the Kadazandusun language as a standard language. Acceptancewould indicate that the standard language is in its final stage of development(Lasimbang, 1998).

This paper has provided an example of the role that community-basedlanguage planning bodies like the KLF can have in sustaining language ecolo-gies. There are great expectations from those involved in the KLF and in the pres-ervation of the Kadazandusun language that a viable language ecology can bedeveloped and sustained. However, the ultimate outcome of this will be knownwhen the Kadazandusun language is finally accepted, publicly acknowledgedand fully owned by the Kadazandusun community itself.

Notes1. We wish to thank Associate Professor Richard B. Baldauf Jr of the University of

Sydney for his kind assistance in the preparation of this article.2. UNESCO statistics (1998) – http://www.escap-hrd.org/fsmal.html.3. SIL/Malaysia Branch, Revised ‘List of Western Austronesian Languages and Dialects

in Sabah’ March 1996: Kota Kinabalu.4. Yearbook of Statistics – Sabah (1999 projection) p. 15.5. St. Michael’s Parish Jubilee Celebration Souvenir Book, July 2000, Penampang, Sabah.

p. 126. Sabah Times. 19 November 1988. ‘Kadazan in school?’7. Borneo Mail. 11 March 1999. ‘Kadazandusun language earns degree of recognition.’8. Borneo Mail. 5 June 1994. ‘PDS to push for classes in schools.’9. Daily Express. 4 April 1995. ‘Federal govt’s move on Kadazandusun lauded.’

10. ‘Perjanjian Perisytiharan Bahasa Kadazandusun sebagai Bahasa Rasmi’ [Declarationof Agreement that ‘Kadazandusun’ is Official language] 24 January 1995.

11. Launching speech of YB Tan Sri Bernard G. Dompok, Minister in the Prime Minister’sDepartment, during the Kadazandusun Language Week 2000 organised by the SabahState Library Borneo Mail 20 June 2000. ‘No Place for Opposition’.

CorrespondenceAny correspondence should be directed to Ms Rita Lasimbang,

Kadazandusun Language Foundation, PO Box 420, 89507 Penampang, Sabah,Malaysia, [email protected]

ReferencesAntonissen, A. (1958) Kadazan Dictionary and Grammar. Canberra: Government Printing.Banker, J. and Banker, E. (1984) The Kadazandusun/Dusun language. In J.W. and J.K.

King (eds) Languages of Sabah: A Survey Report (pp. 297–324). Pacific Linguistics C-78.Canberra: Australian National University.

Crowley, T. (2000)The consequences of vernacular (il)literacy in the Pacific. Current Issuesin Language Planning 1(3).

Grimes, B.F. (ed.) (1996) Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Texas: Summer Institute ofLinguistics.


Kadazan Cultural Association (1984) Orthography decisions. Mimeographed minutes.KCA Sabah (1989) KOISAAN Language Symposium: Towards Standardisationof the Kadazan

Dialects [Souvenir Book]. 13–15 January. Kundasang, Sabah.Lasimbang, R. (1996) Cherish your language through knowing your language. Paper

presented at ‘Embrace Your Culture, Cherish Your Language for Excellence and Unity’seminar, in conjunction with Minggu Galakan Membaca Bahasa Kadazandusun[Kadazandusun Language Week]. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 4 November.

Lasimbang, R. (1998) Kadazandusun mother tongue education. In K.K. Soong (ed.)Mother Tongue Education of Malaysia Ethnic Minorities (pp. 96–9). Kuala Lumpur: DongJiao Zong Higher Learning Centre.

Lasimbang, R. and Miller, C.P. (1990) Language labelling and other factors affectingperception of ethnic identity in Sabah. In J.T. Collins (ed.) Language and Oral Traditionsin Borneo (pp. 115–39). (Selected Papers from the First Extraordinary Conference of theBorneo Research Council, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, 4–9 August.) Borneo ResearchCouncil Proceedings Series (vol. 2). Williamburg, VA: Borneo Research Council.

Lasimbang, R., Miller, C. and Miller, J. (eds) (1995) Kadazan Dusun–Malay–EnglishDictionary. Kota Kinabalu: Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA).

Lasimbang, R., Miller, C.P. and Otigil, F.G. (1992) Language competence and use amongcoastal Kadazan children: A survey report. In W. Fase, K. Jaspaert and S. Kroon (eds)Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages (pp. 333–55). Studies in Bilingualism 1.Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Majalang, S. (1962) Tanong Do Kadazan [Kadazan Stories]. Kuching: Borneo LiteratureBureau.

Miller, J. and Miller, C. (1983) Problem areas within the Kadazan writing system. Papersubmitted to KCA as reference in updating the spelling system of Kadazan.Unpublished manuscript.

Miller, J. and Miller, C. (1984) Addenda and additional comments on Kadazan spelling.Paper submitted to KCA as reference in updating the spelling system of Kadazan.Unpublished manuscript.

Mühlhäusler, P. (1996) Linguistic Ecology: Language Change and Linguistic Imperialismin thePacific Region. London: Routledge.

Omar, A.H. (1984)The development of the national language of Malaysia. In A. Gonzalez(ed.) Panagani: Essays in Honour of Bonifacio P. Sibayan on his Sixty-Seventh Birthday (pp.7–23). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.

Reid, A. (1997) Endangered identity: Kadazan or Dusun in Sabah (East Malaysia). Journalof Southeast Asian Studies 28, 120–36. Singapore: National University of Singapore.

The AuthorsRita Lasimbang is Chief Executive Officer of the Kadazandusun Language

Foundation after serving as Curator at the Department of Sabah Museum. Shehas served as a project coordinatorand linguistic consultant in the compilation ofthe Kadazan Dusun–Malay–English Dictionary, a major application of the stand-ardised Kadazan orthography. She maintains active involvement in thenation-wide Database of Indigenous Terms Project coordinated by the Instituteof NationalLanguage and Literature in Malaysia [Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka].

Trixie Kinajil has been a Research Officer at the Kadazandusun LanguageFoundation since 1998. Previously she taught English Language in a localsecondary school. For her training in Child Development she practised at ParentEducational Services, Kamehameha Schools, Hawaii, on how to observe theirchildren’s development; and at Michigan Database, a data bank and researchunit at Michigan State University, where she helped prepare statistical data for aneeds project on childcare.


changing the language ecology of kadazandusun

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