title: Belait language
text: # Belait language
  
  Belait, or Lemeting, is a Malayo-Polynesian language of Brunei and neighbouring Malaysia. It is spoken by the Belait people who mainly reside in the Bruneian Belait District. There were estimated to be 700 speakers in 1995.
  
  ## Classification
  
  Belait is related to the Miri, Kiput and Narum languages of Sarawak. It is considered part of the Lower Baram subgroup of North Sarawak languages.
  
  ## Dialects
  
  There are four mutually-intelligible dialects of Belait. These are spoken in two main regions:
  
  * In the villages of Kuala Balai and Labi
  * In the Kiudang subdistrict of Tutong
  
  Two distinct dialects of Belait – Metting and Bong – are spoken within the Mungkom village, Kiudang. There are very few speakers of any of the dialects.
  
  ## Phonology
  
  General references on Belait phonology include Martin (1990) on Metteng Belait and Noor Alifah Abdullah (1992) on Labi Belait. This sketch is based on the Metteng dialect (Clynes 2005). Other dialects may vary in their phonology and lexicon.
  
  ### Consonants
  
  | | | Labial | Apical | Laminal | Dorsal | Glottal |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Nasals | Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
  | Plosives | voiceless | p | t | c | k | ʔ |
  | Plosives | voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | ʔ |
  | Fricatives | Fricatives | | | s | ʁ | h |
  | Laterals | Laterals | | l | | | |
  | Glides | Glides | w | | j | | |
  
  ### Vowels
  
  Metteng Belait has five monophthong vowels /i, u, e, o, a/. There is one diphthong /iə/.
  
  The phoneme /e/ is realised as [ə] in non-final syllables, and as [ɛ] and [e] in final syllables.
  
  ### Syllable Structure
  
  Lexical roots are disyllabic. Final syllables are typically (C)V((C)C). Non-final are typically ((C)C)V(C).
  
  ## Grammar
  
  ### Word classes
  
  The major word classes in Belait are verbs and nouns. The two classes can be distinguished by their distribution, form and function. For example, verbs are negated with the form (e)ndeh and nouns with the form kay':
  
  pra'=yeh
  
  rain=DIST
  
  nga'
  
  already
  
  salit,
  
  be.hard,
  
  ndeh
  
  NEG
  
  ana'
  
  able
  
  umaw'
  
  AV.make
  
  padi
  
  paddy
  
  pra'=yeh nga' salit, ndeh ana' umaw' padi
  
  rain=DIST already be.hard, NEG able AV.make paddy
  
  'The rain has become hard, [we] are not able to grow rice'
  
  kad
  
  tarsier
  
  macim
  
  like
  
  blabiw,
  
  rat
  
  kay'
  
  NEG
  
  blabiw
  
  rat
  
  kad macim blabiw, kay' blabiw
  
  tarsier like rat NEG rat
  
  'The tarsier is like a rat, but it is not a rat'
  
  There are also several closed functional classes:
  
  * Pronouns
  * Prepositions
  * Classifiers
  * Numerals
  * Modals and aspectuals
  * Deictics (including demonstratives)
  
  ### Basic clause structure
  
  Belait is head-initial. This means that head nouns precede possessors and other modifiers. They also precede relative clauses. Most clauses consist of a predicate and a subject. The subject can either follow or precede the predicate. Hence, word order is flexible.
  
  pading=yeh
  
  sword=DIST
  
  lassaw'
  
  hot
  
  pading=yeh lassaw'
  
  sword=DIST hot
  
  'The sword was hot'
  
  nengngay'=nyeh
  
  UV.throw=3S
  
  pading=yeh
  
  sword=DIST
  
  lay'
  
  to
  
  mi'
  
  at
  
  dile'
  
  sea
  
  nengngay'=nyeh pading=yeh lay' mi' dile'
  
  UV.throw=3S sword=DIST to at sea
  
  'He threw the sword into the sea'
  
  Predicates can be Verb Phrases (VP), Noun Phrases (NP) or a Prepositional Phrase (PP). Non-subject arguments of a verbal predicate occur immediately after the verb.
  
  **Verbal Predicates**
  
  The head of a verbal predicate is the verb. There are two main types of verbs in Belait: intransitive and transitive. Intransitive verbs only have a single subject argument. They do not have any voice morphology on the verb. In contrast, transitive verbs occur in two different voices: Actor Voice (AV) and Undergoer Voice (UV). The two constructions are illustrated below:
  
  AV:actor voice UV:undergoer voice
  
  idih
  
  people
  
  unnah
  
  before
  
  kuman
  
  AV.eat
  
  salang
  
  charcoal
  
  idih unnah kuman salang
  
  people before AV.eat charcoal
  
  'The people before [first ancestors of the Belait] ate charcoal'
  
  brejin
  
  durian
  
  kinan=lew
  
  UV.eat=3P
  
  abey'
  
  complete
  
  brejin kinan=lew abey'
  
  durian UV.eat=3P complete
  
  'The durian was all eaten up by them'
  
  In the AV construction in (5) the subject is the Actor, i.e. idih unnah 'the people before'. In the UV construction in (6) the subject in the Undergoer, i.e. brejin 'durian'. In both cases, the subject comes before the predicate. The undergoer voice typically has perfective semantics. The actor voice tends to be used in other contexts.
  
  