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Rejang
Baso Hejang Baso Jang ꤽꥍꤺꥏ
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Bengkulu Province Central Bengkulu Regency Kepahiang Regency Lebong Regency North Bengkulu Regency Rejang Lebong Regency South Sumatra Province North Musi Rawas Regency
Ethnicity	Rejang people
Native speakers	350,000 (2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Greater North Borneo (?) Rejang
Dialects	Lebong Curup Kepahiang Utara
Writing system	Latin (present) Rejang script (historically)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rej
Glottolog	reja1240
Rejang is the majority language where vast majority are first language speakers    Rejang is the majority language, with other languages being spoken largely or as a second language    Rejang is a minority 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.

Classification

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).

Dialects

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.

Writing system

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 that the Latin alphabet was introduced as a way of writing the language.

Phonology

Consonants

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

Vowels

Vocabulary

Astronomical terms

Gender

Colour

Pronouns

Numbers

Days of the week

Prepositions

Place

Basic elements

Sample text

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 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.

Notes

1. Rejang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. McGinn, Richard (2009). "24. Out-of-Borneo subgrouping hypothesis for Rejang: re-weighing the evidence" (PDF). In Adelaar, Alexander; Pawley, Andre (eds.). Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: a festschrift for Bob Blust. Pacific Linguistics. pp. 397–410. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
3. "Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3" (PDF), ISO 639-3 Registration Authority
4. Blust 2010, pp. 44, 47.
5. Smith 2017a, p. 346–364.
6. Smith 2017b, p. 459–460.
7. Rejang (Redjang, Kaganga), ScriptSource (developed and maintained by SIL International), retrieved 30 May 2019
8. Aichele, W. (1984). A Fragmentary Sketch of the Rejang Language. Materials for a Rejang-Indonesian-English dictionary (Pacific Linguistics: Series D, 58.): Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

Bibliography

• 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.

External links

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

• Greater North Borneo languages
• Languages of Indonesia