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Southeast Asia is home to many distinct groups of sea nomads, some of whichare known collectively as Orang (Suku) Laut. Those located between Sumatra andthe Malay Peninsula are all Malayic-speaking. Information about their speech ispaltry and scattered; while starting points are provided in publications such asSkeat and Blagden (1906), Kähler (1946a, b, 1960), Sopher (1977: 178?180), Kadiret al. (1986), Stokhof (1987), and Collins (1988, 1995), a comprehensive accountand description of Malayic Sea Tribe lects has not been provided to date. Thisstudy brings together disparate sources, including a bit of original research, tosketch a unified linguistic picture and point the way for further investigation.While much is still unknown, this paper demonstrates relationships within andbetween individual Sea Tribe varieties and neighbouring canonical Malay lects.It is proposed that Sea Tribe lects can be assigned to four groupings: Kedah, RiauIslands, Duano, and Sekak. |
