Malay isn’t the only language spoken in Malaysia. In fact, Ethnologue recorded 137 living languages in Malaysia in 2010. Many of Malaysia’s minority languages are Malayic, bearing a high similarity to Standard Malay and perhaps even carrying “Malay” in their names, but not all of them are so closely related to the dominant language of the land. Particularly in eastern Malaysia, on the highly diverse island of Borneo, you can find a wide variety of indigenous languages that are a far cry from Standard Malay. Coastal Kadazan is one of them.
With around 200,000 native speakers, Coastal Kadazan is an important minority language in the region, but it’s endangered, with the ubiquity and prestige of Standard Malay threatening the language’s long-term vitality. Coastal Kadazan, along with other indigenous languages in Sabah, suffered greatly under Mustapha Harun’s rule, which saw stringent assimilationist policies suppressing native languages to enforce Standard Malay. Today, the regional government in Sabah, which recognizes Coastal Kadazan as a minority language, has introduced policies to reverse the decline of Coastal Kadazan and other minority languages, including by using the language in schools. We at TranslationServices.com would love to do our part in supporting Coastal Kadazan, which is why we’ve set up our own Coastal Kadazan translation team.
Why not contact us now to get a free quote for our Coastal Kadazan translation services?
What is the language of Coastal Kadazan like?
Coastal Kadazan is sometimes also called Dusun Tangara, and it’s so closely related to Dusun that the two are sometimes considered the same language. It’s spoken along the coastal regions of Sabah, the easternmost state of Malaysia, particularly in the districts of Penampang, Papar, and Membakut. Coastal Kadazan has derived significant influence from other indigenous languages in northern Borneo, as well as, of course, Malay.
Coastal Kadazan is a member of the Austronesian language family, like most other languages in Maritime Southeast Asia, but it’s unique in that it features a “z” sound, which is extremely rare among Austronesian languages, otherwise found only in Malagasy, Paiwan, and Tsou. Although distantly related to Malay, Coastal Kadazan is entirely unlike the dominant language of Malaysia, more closely resembling the languages of the Philippines instead. Its pronouns feature three cases, as well as an emphatic form used for extra emphasis. Its basic word order is verb-subject-object, common in the Austronesian family but not among Malayic languages. It certainly presents translation challenges, but that’s why we’ve hired native speakers for our Coastal Kadazan translation team.
Our flexibility means you get the Coastal Kadazan translation services you want.
We’ve gone to great lengths to ensure as diverse and robust a Coastal Kadazan team as possible. We’ve made sure to hire native-speaking translators from all across Sabah and the different areas of Penampang, Papar, and Membakut, which allows us to cover many different dialects of the language. So, if you’re looking for a particular variety of Coastal Kadazan, you can simply request it. Our services are available for both clients looking to translate from English to Coastal Kadazan as well as those interested in translation services from Coastal Kadazan to English.
For anyone looking for specialty translation services to or from Coastal Kadazan, we’re pleased to announce that our diverse team can cater to academic, business, and literary translation needs. Researchers, students, professors, and other academics can rely on our academic translation team for documents covering a wide variety of disciplines, just as business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs from all sorts of industries can lean on our business translation team to translate their business reports, white papers, press releases, and more. Authors, poets, novelists, and other writers can also take advantage of our literary translation services, regardless of the genre or subject matter. For all your Coastal Kadazan translation needs, we’re here to help.
Why not get started with your Coastal Kadazan translation project today? Reach out to place your first order!