Tatana language

Tatana'
RegionSabah
EthnicityBisaya
Native speakers
(21,000 cited 1982–2000)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
txx – Tatana'
Glottologtata1257  Tatana
Sabah Bisaya
RegionSabah
EthnicityBisaya
Language codes
ISO 639-3
bsy – Sabah Bisaya
Glottologsaba1267  Sabah Bisaya

Tatana (Tatanaq) is a Sabahan language spoken in Sabah, Malaysia. Due to limited studies, it is hard to ascertain whether Tatana requires a category on its own or is considered a Bisaya variety based on its 90% linguistic intelligibility with the closely related Bisaya ethnic in Sabah. The current speakers of Tatana identify themselves as an ethnic subgroup of the Dusun people of Borneo. Jason Lobel (2013:360) classifies Tatana (along with Papar) as Murutic rather than Dusunic.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Fricative s
Approximant w l j
Rhotic ɾ ~ r

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid (ɛ) ə (ɔ)
Open a
Phoneme Allophone
/ə/ [ə], [ɛ], [œ], [ɤ], [ɔ]
/a/ [ä], [æ], [ʌ]

References

  1. ↑ Tatana' at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Dillon, John Albert (1994). A Grammatical Description of Tatana'. University of Texas at Arlington.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading