Bulungan language

Bulungan
Native to	Indonesia
Region	North Kalimantan
Ethnicity	Bulungan
Native speakers	30,000 (2002)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Greater North Borneo (?) Sabahan (?) Bulungan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	blj
Glottolog	bolo1268

Bulungan (also known as Bolongan and Bulongan, both are archaic), is an Austronesian language spoken in Bulungan Regency, North Kalimantan. The language was the court language of the Bulungan Sultanate. The classification of this language is not clear. Glottolog places it in the Sabahan group.

Geographic distribution

The Bulungan language is predominantly spoken in eight villages in Bulungan Regency, namely:

• Tanjung Palas: Antutan, Tanjung Palas Ulu, Tanjung Palas Tengah, Tanjung Palas Ilir
• West Tanjung Palas: Mara Ilir
• East Tanjung Palas: Mangkupadi
• Peso: Long Bia
• Sekatak: Sekatak Puji

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Stop	Voiceless	p	t	c	k		ʔ ⟨q⟩
	Voiced	b	d	ɟ ⟨j⟩	ɡ ⟨g⟩
Fricative			s				h
Lateral			l
Trill						ʀ ⟨r⟩
Semivowel		w		j ⟨y⟩

Consonants /f/, /z/, and /h/ are restricted to loan words, and the first two could be respectively substituted with [p] and [s]. The last of three, however, has been dropped during the course of its history (atay ('liver') vs. Indonesian hati). The phoneme /k/ does not exist in the final position, and instead replaced by a glottal stop (/ʔ/), as in sigoq ('happy').

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e ⟨é⟩	ə ⟨e⟩	o
Low		a

There are three diphthongs in Bulungan, all of them only occur word-finally, namely /aj/, /aw/, and /uj/.

Stress

Words are stressed on the penultimate syllable, regardless of its structure: mendus 'to bath', mendusna 'go bath now!'.

Sources

• Adul, M. Asfandi (1985). Struktur Bahasa Bulungan (PDF). Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa.