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Classification

Rejang is not obviously close to other Malayo-Polynesian languages in Sumatra. McGinn (2009) classified it among the Bidayuh languages of Borneo, closest to Bukar–Sadong. According to the source, these languages shared raising of *a to *ə word-finally, or in final syllables except those ending in velar consonants *k, *ŋ.¹ It may be that it is related to the newly described language Nasal, but that is speculative at this point.² Robert Blust and Alexander Smith classified Rejang as part of Greater North Borneo languages (2017a, 2017b).³⁴⁵

Dialects

Rejang has five different dialects. Speakers of each dialects are able to communicate with one another, in spite of lexical and phonological differences. The four dialects of Rejangs are Curup, Lebong, Kepahiang, and Utara. Among all dialects, Awes dialect is the hardest for the speakers of other dialects.

Writing system

Rejang was written with the Rejang script for a long time.⁶ The script is thought to predate the introduction of Islam to the area in the 12th century CE, although the earliest attested document has been dated to the mid-18th century. It is traditionally written on bamboo, buffalo horn, bark or copper plates. It was only recently[when?] that the Latin alphabet was introduced as a way of writing the language.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
Fricative			s			h
Trill			(r)
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		j

A trill /r/ is also present, but only in loanwords.⁷

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Vocabulary

Astronomical terms

English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
earth	bumaidêniodunio	bumêidêniodunio	bumêidêniodunio	bumaidêniodunio
star	bitang	bitang	bitang	bitang
moon	bulên	bulên	bulên	bulên
sun	mataibilai	matêibilêi	matêibilêimatoibiloi	mataibilai
cloud	awên	awên	awên	awên
sky	lenget	lenget	lenget	lenget

Gender

English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
female	slawêi	bia, sêbia, bie, sêbie, slawie	bêa	slawêi
male	smanêi	sêbong, smanie	smanêi	smanêi
third gender	tayuk	tayuk	tayuk	tayuk

Colour

English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
red	miləak	miləak	abang	miləak
white	putiak	puteak	puteah	puteak
black	məluo	mələu	mələa	məluo
green	ijo	ijo	ijo	ijo
blue	biru/blu/blau	biru/blu/bləu	biru/blu/bləu	biru/blu/blau
grey	abu-abu/abau	abu-abu/abəu	abu-abu/abəu	abu-abu/abəu
orange	jingga	jingga	jingga	jingga
violet	ungau	ungəu	ungəu	ungau
brown	perang	perang	perang	coklat
pink	miləak mudo/miləak jamau	miləak mudo/miləak jaməu	miləah mudo/miləak jaməu	abang mude/miləak jamau
silver	pirok	pirak	pirak	pirak
maroon	miləak atie	miləak atəi	abang atəei	miləak atəi

Pronouns

English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
I	ukuku	ukuku	ukuu	uku, ku
you	kumu (honour, formal)ko (common)	kumu (honour, formal)ko (common)	ko	kumu (honour, formal)ko (common)
we	itê	itê	itê	itê
they	tobo'o	tobo'o	toboho	tobo'o
he/she	si	si	si	si

Numbers

Numeral	English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
0	zero	kosong	nol	nol	nol
1	one	do (sometimes dəlai)	do (sometimes dəlai)	do (sometimes dikup)	do (sometimes dəlai)
2	two	duai	duəi	dui	duəi
3	three	təlau	tələu	tələu	təlau
4	four	əpat, pat	əpat, pat	əpat, pat	əpat, pat
5	five	ləmo	ləmo	ləmo	ləmo
6	six	num	num	num	num
7	seven	tujuak	tojoak	tojoah	tojoak
8	eight	dəlapən	dəlapən	dəlapən	dəlapən
9	nine	semilan	semilan	semilan	semilan
10	ten	dəpuluak	dəpoloak	dəpoloah	dəpoloak
11	eleven	səblas	səblas	səblas	səblas
12	twelve	duai bəlas	duəi bəlas	dui bəlas	duəi balas
13	thirteen	təlau bəlas	tələu bəlas	tələu bəlas	təlau bəlas
19	nineteen	seilan bəlas	semilan bəlas	semilan bəlas	semilan bəlas
20	twenty	duai puluak	duəi poloak	dui poloah	duəi poloak
21	twenty-one	duai puluak satu	duəi poloak satu	dui poloah satu	duəi poloak do
50	fifty	ləmo puluak	ləmo poloak	ləmo poloah	ləmo poloak
100	one hundred	sotos	sotos	sotos	sotos
200	two hundred	duai otos	duəi otos	dui otos	duəi otos
1000	one thousand	səribau	səribeu	səribeu	səribau
10,000	ten thousand	dəpuluak ribau	dəpoloak ribəu	dəpoloah ribəu	dəpoloak ribau
100,000	one hundred thousand	sotos ribau	sotos ribəu	sotos ribəu	sotos ribau
1,000,000	one million	dəjuta	dəjuta	dəjuta	dəjuta

Days of the week

English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
Monday	sənin	sənin	sənin	sənin
Tuesday	səlasa	səlasa	səlasa	səlasa
Wednesday	rabau/rabu/rəbau	rabəu/rabu/rəbəu	rabəu/rabu/rəbəu	rebaa/rəbu/rəbəu
Thursday	kəmis	kəmis	kəmis	kəmis
Friday	jəm'at/jum'at	jəma'at/jum'at	jəmahat/jum'at	jəm'at/jum'at
Saturday	sabtau/səbtau/səbtu	sabtəu	seteu	sabtau/səbtau
Sunday	mingau	mingəu	mingəu	mingəu

Prepositions

Place

English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
behind	bêlakangkədong	bêlakangkêdong	bêlakangkêdong	bêlakangkêdong
beside	dêpêakpêak	dêpêakpêak	dêpêahpêahsaping	dêpêakpêak
above	das	das	das	das
in front of	muko	muko	adep	muko
outside	luêa	luêa	luêh	luêa
inside	lêm	lêm	lêm	lêm
corner	iding	iding	iding	iding
under	bêak	bêak	bêah	bêak
between	antaro	antaro	antaro	antaro

Basic elements

English	Lebong Dialect	Curup Dialect	Kepahiang Dialect	Utara Dialect
wind	angin	angin	angin	angin
water	bioa	bioa	bioa	bioa
land	tanêak	tanêak	tanəah	tanəak
soil	pitok	pitak	pitak	pitak
air	udaro	udaro	udaro	udaro
fire	opoi	opoi	opoe	opoi

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Rejang, of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations):

Kutê tun laher mêrdeka, tmuan hok-hok gik srai. Kutê nagiak-ba akêa peker ngen atêi, kêrno o kêlok-nê bêkuat-ba do ngen luyên lêm asai sêpasuak.

Gloss (word-to-word):

Article 1 – All human was born independent, has an equal rights. They are endowed a way to think and heart; then they need to be friend each other in the taste of brotherhood.

Translation (grammatical):

Article 1 – All human beings are born free and equal in rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Notes

Bibliography

• Blust, Robert (2010). "The Greater North Borneo Hypothesis". Oceanic Linguistics. 49 (1). University of Hawai'i Press: 44–118. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0060. JSTOR 40783586. S2CID 145459318.
• MacGinn, Richard (1982). Outline of Rejang Syntax (PDF). NUSA 14. Jakarta: Universitas Atma Jaya.
• Smith, Alexander D. (2017). The Languages of Borneo: A Comprehensive Classification (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
• Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "The Western Malayo-Polynesian Problem". Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (2). University of Hawai'i Press: 435–490. doi:10.1353/ol.2017.0021. S2CID 149377092.

External links

Rejang language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rejang script.

• Richard McGinn, Archive of Materials for the Study of the Rejang of Sumatra. Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine

References

1. McGinn, Richard (2009). "24. Out-of-Borneo subgrouping hypothesis for Rejang: re-weighing the evidence" (PDF). In Adelaar, Alexander; Pawley, Andre (eds.). Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: a festschrift for Bob Blust. Pacific Linguistics. pp. 397–410. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20140102191035/http://www.ohio.edu/people/mcginn/Out_of_Borneo_Hypothesis.pdf ↩

2. "Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3" (PDF), ISO 639-3 Registration Authority http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/cr_files/2007-198_nsy.pdf ↩

3. Blust 2010, pp. 44, 47. - Blust, Robert (2010). "The Greater North Borneo Hypothesis". Oceanic Linguistics. 49 (1). University of Hawai'i Press: 44–118. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0060. JSTOR 40783586. S2CID 145459318. https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fol.0.0060 ↩

4. Smith 2017a, p. 346–364. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). The Languages of Borneo: A Comprehensive Classification (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. http://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/SMITH_Alexander_Final_Dissertation.pdf ↩

5. Smith 2017b, p. 459–460. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "The Western Malayo-Polynesian Problem". Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (2). University of Hawai'i Press: 435–490. doi:10.1353/ol.2017.0021. S2CID 149377092. http://muse.jhu.edu/article/677288 ↩

6. Rejang (Redjang, Kaganga), ScriptSource (developed and maintained by SIL International), retrieved 30 May 2019 https://scriptsource.org/scr/Rjng ↩

7. Aichele, W. (1984). A Fragmentary Sketch of the Rejang Language. Materials for a Rejang-Indonesian-English dictionary (Pacific Linguistics: Series D, 58.): Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) /wiki/Template:Cite_book ↩