Dompok: Big leap in preserving mother tongues (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Dompok: Big leap in preserving mother tongues
25 July, 2004
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=28287

THE first Timugon Murut-Malay dictionary was launched Saturday after two
decades of meticulous research headed by linguists, Richard Brewis and
wife Kielo Brewis.

The project for the dictionary, containing 3,700 word roots, began in
1983 when the Brewises, who are attached with the Summer Institute of
Linguistics (SIL) Malaysia branch, started collecting data for the
language as well as information on the culture and customs of the
Timugon people.

Timugon is one of the Murut tribes. Murut, in turn, is among the major
native ethnic groups in Sabah.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, who
launched the dictionary, said its successful completion signified a
major achievement in the effort to preserve the mother tongues of the
people in Sabah.

“It will be in danger of dying out along with other minority languages
if we do nothing to preserve it,” he said.

The dictionary was also another step forward towards providing teaching
materials in the event that the language be taught in schools in the
future, he said.

“There’s still a lot more to be done...the Murut language has been
proposed to be accepted as a subject in the Malaysian schools
curriculum but I think the problem lies with insufficient teaching
materials.

“The Government is sympathetic with the proposal but perhaps we are not
quite ready in terms of teaching materials and also the staffing,” he
said.