Overview
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Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

< 10,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

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Recent Resources

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Community Members

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Revitalization Programs

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Language Information By Source

To Be or Not to Be: Challenges Facing Eastern Penan in Borneo
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Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

< 10,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

all

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2009

Location and Context

Countries

Malaysia; Indonesian; Brunei

Coordinates

No data

Location description

traditionally inhabit hilly areas in the interior of northeast Borneo

Government support

no

Institutional support

no

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

latin scripts

Other writing systems

traditionally inhabit hilly areas in the interior of northeast Borneo

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

"Penan contact with other groups means they are generally exposed to a minimum of three languages beyond their own in their daily lives, and these include one or more of the following in Sarawak: Kayan, Kelabit, Kenyah, or Sa'ban (the ethnolinguistic groups located nearest to Penan); in Brunei, neighbouring groups include Dusun and Iban, with a recorded high degree of affiliation to local Iban (Sercombe 2003). Penan are inevitably primary bilinguals through acquiring a neighbouring language via informal exposure; and they are balanced bilinguals by often having a high level of second language competence. This second local language is also additive in that it is acquired without pressure and generally functions, in areas where Penan live, as a means of wider communication within the larger sub‐district speech community... When Penan children enter primary education, they are submerged in language education that takes place in either a second or foreign language(s). As stated earlier, (p.196) Penan children are taught in Malay medium in Sarawak throughout their school years. In Brunei, primary education is through Malay until year three, following which it shifts to English medium (theoretically at least, for the aforementioned subjects— Geography, History, Maths, and Science). Children are thus under pressure to be multilingual in Malay (the national language of Malaysia and Brunei) and English if they are to progress in education. Minority groups with a different first language from the national code are obliged to acquire a sufficient level of the selected medium in order to benefit from the formal education to which they are exposed, a form of transitional bilingualism which (whether deliberate or not) aims at language shift (cf. Gunn 1997; Martin 2002; and Wellen 2006)."

Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

~10,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2003

Location and Context

Countries

Malaysia; Brunei

Coordinates

No data

Location description

Sarawak in Malaysia

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

Sarawak in Malaysia

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Malay

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

10,055

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

10,000 in Malaysia (2011 SIL). 55 in Brunei (2003 P. Sercombe).

Year of info

2015

Location and Context

Countries

Malaysia; Brunei

Coordinates

No data

Location description

In Malaysia: "Sarawak, Apoh river district, east of Baram river." In Brunei: "Belait District, west of the Baram river."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

Latin

Other writing systems

In Malaysia: "Sarawak, Apoh river district, east of Baram river." In Brunei: "Belait District, west of the Baram river."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

No data

Native Speakers Worldwide

No data

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

4.59, 114.58

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

<10,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

10,000

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

Data gathered by Sellato and Sercombe show ethnic populations numbers and not necessarily numbers of native speakers. A significant portion of the younger population may be speaking only Malay, so ethnic population numbers are approximate at best when referring to number of speakers.

Year of info

2006

Location and Context

Countries

Malaysia; Brunei

Coordinates

No data

Location description

The Easter Penan inhabit north eastern Sarawak and the south of Brunei Darussalam. Until the early part of the 20th century they were hunter-gatherers, but most have now settled and become rice farmers. They are located in the upper reaches of the Baram river.

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

The Easter Penan inhabit north eastern Sarawak and the south of Brunei Darussalam. Until the early part of the 20th century they were hunter-gatherers, but most have now settled and become rice farmers. They are located in the upper reaches of the Baram river.

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Media Resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

Filter By

No programs

  1. Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled by research teams at University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute for Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) at Eastern Michigan University
    2012. "Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled By Research Teams At University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute For Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) At Eastern Michigan University."
  2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)
    Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)
    http://www.ethnologue.com/
  3. "A dictionary of Eastern Penan" HRELP Abstract
    Sercombe, Peter. 2003. ""A Dictionary of Eastern Penan" HRELP Abstract." Online: http://www.hrelp.org/grants/projects/index.php?projid=27.
    http://www.hrelp.org/grants/projects/index.php?projid=27
  4. Glottolog
    "Glottolog." Online: http://www.glottolog.org/glottolog/.
    http://www.glottolog.org/glottolog/
  5. Introduction
    Bernard Sellato and Peter Sercombe. 2006. "Introduction." In "Beyond the green myth: Borneo's hunter-gatherers int he 21st century", edited by Peter Sercombe and Bernard Sellato. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
  6. A Study of the Punan Busang
    Ellis, D. B. 1972. "A Study of the Punan Busang." In Sarawak Museum Journal, 20: 235-300.
  7. Punan Ba
    Needham, Rodney. 1955. "Punan Ba." In Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 28: 24-36.
  8. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 18th Edition
    Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2015. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.
    http://www.ethnologue.com
  9. Melanau and the Languages of Central Sarawak
    Rensch, Calvin R. 2012. Melanau and the Languages of Central Sarawak. (SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2012-011.) SIL International.
    http://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/47763
  10. To Be or Not to Be: Challenges Facing Eastern Penan in Borneo
    Peter Sercombe. 2009. To Be or Not to Be: Challenges Facing Eastern Penan in Borneo. In Margaret Florey (ed.), Endangered Languages of Austronesia, 191-203. Oxford University Press.
    http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544547.001.0001/acprof-9780199544547-chapter-11