| Also Known As: Banjarese,Bandjarese,Banjar Malay,Banjar,Banjar language
Description:
Banjar language is the native language used by the Banjarese people of South Kalimantan, Indonesia. As many Banjarese are travelling merchants, they brought their mother tongue wherever they went all over Indonesia, even all over the world.
Especially in the island of Kalimantan, Banjarese can be considered as a lingua franca, as it is used widely in 3 of 4 Provinces of Kalimantan: South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan, with the exception of West Kalimantan where Malay is more popular.
Although Banjarese, with six million speakers, is commonly considered "local Malay", a 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database was not able to verify that it is even Malayic. The study was only able to determine with 80% confidence that Banjar is closer to Malayan and Ibanic than it is to other Malayo-Sumbawan languages. It does appear that it is the most divergent Malayic language included in the study.
The language contains a lot of Malay and some Javanese cognates, but they usually have their own distinctively Banjarese counterparts.
Banjar language is divided into two major dialects; the upper river dialect (Banjar Hulu) and down river dialect (Banjar..... full article at Wikipedia |
