Kutainese language

Kutai or Kutai Malay is a Malayan language spoken by 300,000 to 500,000 people. It is the native language of Kutai people (Indonesian: Suku Kutai, Kutai Malay: Urang Kutai), the indigenous ethnic group which lives along the Mahakam River in Borneo, especially in North Kalimantan, Indonesia. They are the principal population in the regencies of West Kutai, Kutai Kartanegara, and East Kutai within North Kalimantan province.

Kutai Malay
Native toIndonesia
RegionWest Kutai, Kutai Kartanegara, and East Kutai (East Kalimantan)
EthnicityKutai
Native speakers
(300,000 cited 1981)[1]
DialectsKota Bangun, Tenggarong, Ancalong
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
mqg – Kota Bangun
vkt – Tenggarong
Glottologkota1275  Kota Bangun
teng1267  Tenggarong

Kutai Malay is part of the local Bornean Malay languages and is closely related but distinct to Banjar language in South Kalimantan, Berau Malay, also spoken in North Kalimantan and to some extent Brunei-Kedayan Malay as well. Kutai Malay forms a dialect continuum between the two varieties and all three shares similar phonology and vocabulary with each other.

Literature

Kutai Malay for most of its history is mainly a spoken language and is mostly used as a form of poetry (pantun). During the period of Kutai Kartanegara Sultanate, most of the literature were being done in Standard Malay in Jawi script instead of Kutai Malay.

Dialects

Kutai, as with many Malay varieties on the island is a dialect continuum. Dialect continuum or dialect chain is a spread of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighbouring varieties differ only slightly, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties are not mutually intelligible. There are three principal dialects of Kutai Malay language, all three have little mutual intelligibility with each other due to the geographical proximity of these dialects. They are divided into three main dialects that is Tenggarong, Kota Bangun, and Ancalong Estuary.

References
  1. Kota Bangun at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Tenggarong at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)


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