// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Mainstream Kenyah language say? It's a dialect-ical choice.

Kenyah
Lepo’
Bakung
Native to	Indonesia, Malaysia
Region	Borneo
Ethnicity	Kenyah
Native speakers	50,000 (2007–2013)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian North Bornean North Sarawakan Kenyah Kenyah
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xkl
Glottolog	main1275

Mainstream Kenyah, also known as Usun Apau and Bakung, is a Kenyah dialect cluster of North Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Sarawak, Malaysia. Dialects fall into four clusters:

• Lepo’ Tau, Lepo’ Bem, Uma’ Jalan, Uma’ Tukung
• Lepo’ Ke, Lepo’ Kuda
• Lepo’ Maut, Lepo’ Ndang, Badeng (Madang)
• Bakung, Lepo’ Tepu’ (Lepo Teppu’).

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪		t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ	g
Fricative				s
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Trill				r
Approximant		w		l	j

• Sounds /p, t̪/ can also occur as geminated [pː,  t̪ː] or as unreleased in word-final [p̚, t̪̚].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

• /i/ can also occur as lax [ɪ].
• Sounds /a, u/ can also be heard as long [aː, uː].

External links

• Kaipuleohone's archive of Robert Blust's work includes notes on Kenyah language