| Greater North Borneo | |
|---|---|
| (proposed) | |
| Geographic distribution | Historically: most ofBorneo andSumatra, westernJava andMainland Southeast AsiaNowadays: ThroughoutMaritime Southeast Asia |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | nort3253 (partial match) |
TheGreater North Borneo languages are a proposed subgroup of theAustronesian language family. The subgroup historically covers languages that are spoken throughout much ofBorneo (excluding the areas where theGreater Barito andTamanic languages are spoken) andSumatra, as well as parts ofJava, andMainland Southeast Asia. The Greater North Borneo hypothesis was first proposed byRobert Blust (2010) and further elaborated by Alexander Smith (2017a, 2017b).[1][2][3] The evidence presented for this proposal are solely lexical.[4] Despite its name, this branch has been now widespread within theMaritime Southeast Asia region, with the exception of thePhilippines (although this depends on the classification ofMolbog).
The proposed subgroup covers some of the major languages inSoutheast Asia, includingMalay/Indonesian and relatedMalayic languages such asMinangkabau,Banjar andIban; as well asSundanese andAcehnese. In Borneo itself, the largest non-Malayic GNB language in terms of the number of speakers isCentral Dusun, mainly spoken inSabah.[5]
Since Greater North Borneo also includes the Malayic, Chamic, and Sundanese languages, it is incompatible with Alexander Adelaar'sMalayo-Sumbawan hypothesis.[6][7] However, in 2023, Alexander D. Smith reinterpreted the branch as a "zone of lexical diffusion" rather than a proper linguistic branch.[8] Languages not included under Greater North Borneo by this paper arestroked on the infobox.
Blust connects the GNB expansion with the migration of Austronesian speakers intoMaritime Southeast Asia. According to Blust, when Austronesian speakers came from the north through thePhilippines, they split into three groups: one that went into Borneo, one that went intoSulawesi, and one that went into theMoluccas.[9] After landing in Borneo, the first group was further split into two: one that moved along the northwestern coast facing theSouth China Sea, and another one that moved along the eastern coast. The language variety spoken by the northwestern group eventually developed into the Greater North Borneo languages.[10]
Robert Blust proposed a set oflexical innovations that defined Greater North Borneo. One of these innovations is *tuzuq replacingProto-Malayo-Polynesian *pitu for 'seven'.[1] The following subgroups are included:
While Blust assumed that all languages of Borneo other than those in Greater Barito subgroup with GNB,[1] he does not attempt to explicitly classify several languages, including those with insufficient available data.[11][12]
Smith recognizes an independent Central Sarawak branch within Greater North Borneo, combining the Melanau, Kajang and Punan–Müller-Schwaner languages.[13] Additionally, he also excludes Moklenic from GNB and places it all the way up as one of the primary branches of Malayo-Polynesian.[3]
Proto-Kayanic, Proto-Punan, Proto-Müller-Schwaner, Proto-Land Dayak, and Proto-Kenyah have also been reconstructed in Smith (2017a).[14]
Smith reinterprets the Greater North Borneo branch as a "zone of lexical diffusion", considering its lexical innovations are sparsely attested among the languages.[8] He also removes 8 reconstructed words, attributed to borrowing from other languages such asMalay, leaving only 22 reconstructions (and 4 of them are weak).[15]
Bold denotes the inclusion within GNB lexical diffusion. According to the source, the Land Dayak languages are removed from the branch.
According toRoger Blench (2010),[16]Austroasiatic languages were once spoken in Borneo. Blench cites Austroasiatic-origin vocabulary words in modern-day Bornean branches such asLand Dayak (Bidayuh,Dayak Bakatiq, etc.),Dusunic (Central Dusun,Bisaya, etc.),Kayan, andKenyah, noting especially resemblances with theAslian languages of peninsular Malaysia. As further evidence for his proposal, Blench also cites ethnographic evidence such as musical instruments in Borneo shared in common with Austroasiatic-speaking groups in mainland Southeast Asia.
Blench (2010) claims that lexical forms shared among Bornean and Austroasiatic languages include 'rain', 'to die', 'back (of body)', 'flying lemur', 'monkey', 'barking deer', 'lizard', and 'taro'.
Kaufman (2018) presents further evidence of words in various Austronesian languages of Borneo that are of likely Austroasiatic origin.[17]
