Belait (tauʼ kitah)

Belait is a member of the North Bornean branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family. It is spoken by about 700 people mainly in the Belait District of Brunei, particularly in the villages of Kuala Balai and Labi. It is also in the Kiudang subdistrict of Tutong District in Brunei, and in nearby parts of northern Sarawak in Malaysia. Belait is considered endangered as it is spoken mainly by adults, who speak Brunei Malay to their children.

Belait is also known as Balait Jati, Lemetting or Metteng. Dialects include Metting and Bong. It can be written with the Latin alphabet.

Latin alphabet for Belait

Download alphabet charts for Belait (Excel)

Sample sentences

praʼ-yeh ngaʼ salit, ndeh anaʼ umawʼ padi.
The rain has become hard, [we] are not able to grow rice.
kad macim blabiw, kayʼ blabiw.
The tarsier is like a rat, but it is not a rat.
pading-yeh lassawʼ. nengngayʼ-nyeh pading-yeh layʼ miʼ dileʼ.
The sword was hot. He threw the sword into the sea.
idih unnah kuman salang.
The people before [first ancestors of the Belait] ate charcoal.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belait_language#Grammar

Links

Information about Belait
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belait_language
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belait_(langue)
https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/9729
https://www.elararchive.org/dk0662/
https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/bela1260

Bornean languages

Belait, Bonggi, Central Dusun, Coastal Kadazan, Idaʼan, Kadazandusun, Kelabit, Lun Bawang, Melanau, Rejang, Tombonuwo

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page created: 16.01.25. Last modified: 01.06.25

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