Rejang language

Rejang (baso Jang, baso Hejang) is an Austronesian language predominantly spoken by the Rejang people in southwestern parts of Sumatra (Bengkulu), Indonesia. There are five dialects, spread from mountainous region to the coastal region of Bengkulu, including the Musi (Musai) dialect, the Lebong dialect, the Kebanagung dialect, the Rawas (Awes) dialect, and the Pesisir dialect.

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. It may be that it is related to the newly described language Nasal, but that is speculative at this point. Robert Blust and Alexander Smith classified Rejang as part of Greater North Borneo languages (2017a, 2017b).

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.

Rejang was written with the Rejang script for a long time. 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.

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

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^{[clarification needed]} 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.

• 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.

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