The Language Ecology of the Kedayan in Sarawak: A Quantitative Survey on Language Sustainability

Dilah, Tuah and Chong, Shin and Remmy, Gedat and Muhammad Jazlan, Ahmad Khiri (2021) The Language Ecology of the Kedayan in Sarawak: A Quantitative Survey on Language Sustainability. Eco. Env. & Cons.. 3S3-S38. ISSN 0971–765X

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Abstract

The Kedayan is one of the ethnic minorities settled in Bekenu, Limbang and Lawas in the state of Sarawak (Malaysia). As an ethnic minority as well as reside in a multilingual environment, the Kedayan language encountered a language contact with other more dominant languages such as Malay, English, local Malay dialect and Iban language. This research is a language ecology study that investigated the interaction of the Kedayan community in contact with the languages that exists in their environment and this is an attempt to describe the social and psychological situation of a language. Based on previous researches, there were no significant studies on the language choice of the ethnic Kedayans in Sarawak. The domain analysis approach proposed by Fishman (1972) was adapted in this study, i.e. the domains of family, friendship, religion, education and employment. A total of 118 respondents (59 youths and 59 elders) were randomly selected in this study. This study revealed that the Kedayan are loyal to their own mother language in the family domain. Outside the circumstance of family domain, the Sarawak Malay dialect is used broadly in interethnic and intraethnic interactions. This finding has found that the Kedayan language is well maintained presently. The sustainability of this language is closely related to the positive attitude of the Kedayan speakers towards their mother tongue and it is used broadly in interlocutions, particularly in family domain.

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