BAHASA ETNIK IBAN DI SARAWAK

ETHNIC LANGUAGE IN SARAWAK

Abstract

Bahasa etnik Iban dituturkan oleh satu pertiga daripada penduduk Sarawak, iaitu masyarakat indigenous yang terbesar di negeri yang meliputi kawasan seluas 47,000 batu persegi. Bahasa ini telah menjadi lingua-franca dan bahasa perdagangan dalam kalangan orang Iban, Cina, Melayu, Bidayuh enggau Orang Ulu pada zaman Rajah Brooke. Penutur bahasa Iban didapati di Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei dan Kalimantan dan bahasa ini adalah milik atau kepunyaan kumpulan bahasa Melayu, yakni MalayoPolynesia dari rumpun bahasa Austronesia. Walau bagaimanapun, bahasa Iban tidaklah dapat difahami dengan begitu baik oleh penutur jati bahasa Melayu di Semenanjung Tanah Melayu atau Indonesia. Oleh demikian, bahasa Iban boleh dianggap sebagai satu dialek bahasa Melayu. Sebagai ahli kepada keluarga bahasa Malayo-Polynesia dari rumpun bahasa Austronesia, bahasa Iban sangat berkait rapat kepada bahasa Melayu Indonesia dan pelbagai dialek bahasa Melayu di negara kita. Maknanya, sekiranya seseorang itu mahir berbahasa Melayu, dia memang berkeupayaan untuk memahami kata-kata dan ungkapan bahasa Iban. Bahasa Iban ialah bahasa yang terdiri daripada 60 peratus kata-kata dasar bahasa Melayu. Sesungguhnya, bolehlah ia dikatakan sebagai sub-kumpulan bahasa Melayu. Yayasan Tun Jugah (TJF) yang telah ditubuhkan pada tahun 1985 telah berusaha dengan gigih untuk mengumpul, mentranskripsi, menterjemah dan mengintepretasi folklor masyarakat Iban bagi memudahkan sarjana kontemporari dan generasi Iban yang mendatang mengkaji kesusasteraan dan bahasa etnik Iban. 

Iban language spoken by a third of the population of Sarawak, the indigenous peoples of the largest in a state covering an area of 47,000 square miles. This language has been the lingua-franca and language of commerce among the Iban, Chinese, Malay, Bidayuhenggau Orang Ulu during the Rajah Brooke. Iban language speakers can be found in Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan and this language belong to a group of Malay or the MalayoPolynesian of the Austronesian language family. However, Iban language is not so well understood by native speakers of the Malay Peninsula Malay or Indonesian. Therefore, the Iban language can be considered as a dialect of Malay. As a member of the family Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, Iban language is closely related to Indonesian Malay and various dialects of the Malay language in our country. Meaning, if someone is proficient in Malay, he is able to understand the words and phrases in Iban language. Iban language is a language with 60 percent of basic words in Malay. Indeed, it may be said to be a subgroup of the Malay language. TunJugah Foundation (TJF), which was established in 1985, has been working hard to collect, transcribe, translate and interpret Iban folklores in order to facilitate the contemporary Iban folklore scholars and future generations of the Iban to study literature and language of Iban. Keywords: jaku, ransom, lemambang, manang, globalization, tradition, river community Iban language spoken by a third of the population of Sarawak, the indigenous peoples of the largest in a state covering an area of 47,000 square miles. This language has been the lingua-franca and language of commerce among the Iban, Chinese, Malay, Bidayuhenggau Orang Ulu during the Rajah Brooke. Iban language speakers can be found in Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan and this language belong to a group of Malay or the MalayoPolynesian of the Austronesian language family. However, Iban language is not so well understood by native speakers of the Malay Peninsula Malay or Indonesian. Therefore, the Iban language can be considered as a dialect of Malay. As a member of the family Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, Iban language is closely related to Indonesian Malay and various dialects of the Malay language in our country. Meaning, if someone is proficient in Malay, he is able to understand the words and phrases in Iban language. Iban language is a language with 60 percent of basic words in Malay. Indeed, it may be said to be a subgroup of the Malay language. TunJugah Foundation (TJF), which was established in 1985, has been working hard to collect, transcribe, translate and interpret Iban folklores in order to facilitate the contemporary Iban folklore scholars and future generations of the Iban to study literature and language of Iban.