Coastal Kadazan dialect

Coastal Kadazan, also known as Kadazan Tangaa', is a dialect of the Kadazan Dusun language as well as a minority language primarily spoken in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the primary dialect spoken by the Kadazan people in west coast of Sabah especially in the districts of Penampang, Papar and Beaufort (Membakut sub-district).

Contents

• Alphabet
• Our Father
• Hail Mary
• References

The dialect has adopted many loanwords, particularly from other northern Borneo indigenous languages and also Malay.

The use of the dialect has been declining due to the use of Malay by the Malaysian federal government and by the use of English by missionaries, which was done through the method of language shift enforced by the work of both the colonial and federal governments. The state of Sabah has introduced policies to prevent this decline, which is also happening to other native Sabahan languages. This included the policy of using Kadazan and other indigenous languages in public schools. Efforts have also been done to allow the language to become official in the state.

Dusun, including Kadazan, is one of two Austronesian languages which extensively employ the voiced alveolar sibilant fricative /z/ in their native (i.e. non-borrowed) lexicons. The other is Malagasy, spoken on the island of Madagascar thousands of miles away off the coast of Africa.