A short vocabulary of the Banggi and Bajau language
W.F. Schneeberger published this trilingual vocabulary in 1937, presenting the first recorded word list for the Banggi language and the Bajau dialect of North Borneo, compiled during his two-year residence in the region. The work serves as a foundational linguistic record for two speech communities on the periphery of the Bornean world, with the explicit aim of providing a base for future investigation into the origins of the Banggi people and their relations to mainland Dusun and the hill tribes of Balabac and Palawan.
Summary
Schneeberger’s introduction situates Banggi Island geographically and demographically before turning to the linguistic material. The island, comprising approximately 98,700 acres north of the Bengkoka Peninsula, is home to roughly 1,000 Banggi Dusun living in twelve small semi-permanent villages, alongside Ubian (Philippine immigrants) and Bajau (Orang Laut) communities along the northern and western coasts. A 1932 typhoon had devastated the northern part of the island, forcing emigration southward and to the Kudat peninsula, and the population was already in decline at the time of writing.
The vocabulary itself is organised alphabetically under the Malay headword, with parallel Bajau and Banggi equivalents. Schneeberger’s comparative analysis against Owen Rutter’s Comparative Vocabulary (appendix to The Pagans of North Borneo) reveals that Banggi shares 40 per cent of its lexicon with other Pagan dialects (largely Indonesian-origin words), 12 per cent with Malay, and 48 per cent is Banggi proper; for Bajau the figures are 45, 21, and 34 per cent respectively. The most striking phonological feature he identifies is the Banggi substitution of f for p throughout the lexicon (api–afi, dapur–dēforn, pulau–furu), a pattern he notes is prevalent east of Celebes and in New Guinea but unknown elsewhere in Borneo. The Bajau dialect shows its own systematic shifts: l to r, a to o, ch to s, and medial r to h.
Schneeberger is candid about the limitations of the list, acknowledging it is “far from being comprehensive” and urging that a full grammatical study be undertaken before the language is lost. The vocabulary covers approximately 700 entries spanning everyday vocabulary, kinship terms, body parts, flora and fauna, and numerals, with occasional glosses distinguishing semantic sub-senses (e.g., hutan split into virgin jungle, old secondary jungle, and young secondary jungle in Banggi).
Key Findings
- Banggi Island comprises approximately 98,700 acres; the highest point is Banggi Peak (Sinambong) at 1,880 feet; cultivated land covers only 0.02 per cent of the total area (p. 145).
- The Banggi Dusun numbered approximately 1,000 people distributed across twelve named villages (Limbuak, Pangkalan, Kalangkaman, Lok Bahu, Kapitangan, Sibumbung, Ipil, Sabur, Mamang, Laksian, Kubung, Layak-Layak) (p. 145).
- A 1932 typhoon destroyed jungle and kampongs in northern Banggi and Balambangan, prompting the founding of new settlements at Kubung and Layak-Layak and emigration to Tg. Kapor and Pengaraban on the Kudat peninsula (p. 145).
- Lexical comparison with Rutter’s Comparative Vocabulary: Banggi shares 40% of words with Pagan dialects, 12% with Malay, 48% Banggi proper; Bajau shares 45%, 21%, 34% respectively (p. 146).
- The Banggi p → f substitution is described as “prevalent on the islands E. of Celebes and as far as New Guinea but is unknown in Borneo” (p. 146).
- The vocabulary contains approximately 700 trilingual entries (Malay–Bajau–Banggi) spanning letters A through Y, including a full numeral series up to one hundred (pp. 147–164).
Conclusion
Schneeberger’s definitive takeaway is one of urgency: the Banggi language is “very little known” and a comprehensive study “should be completed before it is too late.” The vocabulary is offered not as a finished account but as a provisional foundation, with the comparative data pointing toward a possible linguistic connection between the Banggi people and populations east of Celebes—a hypothesis that the f-for-p isogloss makes particularly compelling.
Context
- The primary source material is field-collected vocabulary from Schneeberger’s own two-year residence in North Borneo, with no named informants or specific collection sites beyond the general Banggi/Balambangan area.
- The study’s historiographical contribution lies in being the first published Banggi word list and the first to document the Bajau dialect of North Borneo specifically, filling a gap left by Rutter’s earlier comparative work which omitted Banggi entirely.