A Vocabulary of the Dusun 

 Language of Kimanis. 



The Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal i\diatic 

 Society No. 5 (June 1880) contained a h'st of Dusun words, 

 collected by Mr. W. H. Treacher at the Tampassuk river. 

 The author then added the following note to his vocabulary : 

 " I believe there are various dialects of Dusun, more distiuct 

 the more inland the tribes live. The Vocabulary is from 

 Dusuns in the constant habit of seeing- Iranuns, Bajaus, and 

 Brunei ^Falays." 



The following list of words was collected in Kimanis, 

 British North Borneo, in the year 1891. There is no doubt 

 that the language to which these words belong, is spoken in 

 various dialects by the so-called Dusuns of that region. They 

 call themselves u/dun Kadasan and utterly deny the statement 

 that they are descended from early Chinese settlers on the 

 coast of Borneo which has often been made by European tra- 

 vellers. Their language certainly does not permit the least 

 doubt as to their genuine Bornean origin. In many particulars 

 it is one of the oldest and purest in all Malaya. Philology 

 proves in regard to its languages what botany and zoology 

 has proved with regard to its flora and fauna, that Borneo 

 was separated from the western portion of Malaya, i.e., the 

 Peninsula and Sumatra, at a very early period. This early 

 separation has caused many primitive forms of speech to sur- 

 vive which have disappeared in the western territories. 



It is a cause of regret that sufficient material has not yet 

 been collected or published by philologists and travellers, to 

 enable us to fix beyond the possibility of doubt the position of 



