The Kelabit Language

00:00:05mo, petabi' lekedtang ngen muyuh ngabi
good morning to you all

00:00:08ngadan uih Lian Raben
my name is Lian Raben

00:00:12anak Raben Bala ngen Sineh Raben Bala
the son of Raben Bala and Sineh Raben Bala

00:00:16tetepuh kudih, ngadan Tepu' Balang Ribuh
my grandparents' names were Balang Ribuh

00:00:22ngen Sineh Pian Ayu'
and Sineh Pian Ayu'

00:00:28idih teh Beken Ayu' ngen Uwan Bala ngilad
and Beken Ayu' and Uwan Bala

00:00:34pipa tetameh kuh
on my father's side

00:00:35tetepuh kudih, Tama Labang ngadan neh ngilad
my grandfather was called Tama Labang

00:00:42ngen awan nedih Mekatu Aren
and his wife, Mekatu Aren

00:00:50mo
yeah

00:00:52uih nih mudeng tungey ngi Bario pulu' teluh laak neh
I have been living in Bario for 13 years

00:01:03let ena' uih ngilad, let sekolah ngi New Zealand
I came from school in New Zealand

00:01:07ngi nangey iwa' laak mudeng nangey, kerja nangey
I lived and worked there for nine years

00:01:14mo, pengeh neh nemuli' let nangey
after that, I came back

00:01:17let New Zealand nangey marih tungey
from New Zealand to here

00:01:19marih peruyung ngen diweh tetepuh kudih tungey
and came to live with my grandparents here

00:01:24marih la' keli' ulun Kelabit
to learn about the life of the Kelabit people

00:01:31la' keli' adet
to learn about our customs

00:01:34neh teh narih la' mala belajar lah
that's how I want to say study

00:01:37belajar lem karuh tauh
to say "study" in Kelabit

00:01:39mo, inan lemulun doo' pian ngen kerja kudih tungey
some people were very happy with my work here

00:01:49nemutuh kuh mey sekolah ngi UK
and asked me to go to study in the UK

00:01:52mey naru' Linguistics ngi nangey
to do Linguistics there

00:01:56pengeh ineh, jadi' ko' edteh lexicographer neh keduih
after that I became a lexicographer

00:02:01edteh lun nurat/nulis kamus lah
someone who writes a dictionary

00:02:05kamus lem karuh tauh tebey'
a Kelabit dictionary

00:02:08kadi' lem tuda'-tuda' laak suk pengeh nih
in the past few years

00:02:15mula' ayu' teh nuk midih perlu tu'en tauh lem karuh tauh
there have been lots of things that we needed to do for our language

00:02:22ieneh...
namely...

00:02:27edteh neh lem spelling
one of them is the spelling

00:02:30lem nulis lem karuh tauh
when we write in Kelabit

00:02:31kapeh dih doo'?
what is the best way?

00:02:33kapeh dih doo' pian ngen kekamih anak-adi' nuk beruh ih?
what will be the best for the younger generations?

00:02:39nuk beruh mulun ih, mo?
and future generations?

00:02:41neh neh tauh netaru'-taru' ngen idih lah
so we have been working on that

00:02:48tuda' laak inih, mo
for several years

00:02:55ineh peh, neh neh lem pasal internet ih
the same goes for the internet

00:03:06lem social media
and on social media

00:03:09inan kamih perlu ngen edteh tulisan lah
we need a spelling system

00:03:14edteh ayu' nuk teretek ih tu'en kamih pekaruh
a proper way of chatting

00:03:20tu'en kamih semulud lem idih
and conversing on it

00:03:24lem karuh tauh, lem internet ih
in Kelabit on the internet

00:03:27pengeh neh saru' neh kamih edteh standard Kelabit lah
atfer that we made a standard Kelabit

00:03:33kuan anak adi' nuk beruh ih
for the future generations

00:03:37lem ineh peh
on that subject

00:03:41uih peh doo' teh pian kuh kekeli' irat karuh tauh lah
I also would like to know where our language comes from

00:03:49iih keduih nih?
who am I?

00:03:51lun tauh, lun Kelabit kedeh keyh?
who are the Kelabit?

00:03:55kapeh ayu' lun Kelabit?
what makes someone Kelabit?

00:03:58enun nuk beken lem erang kamih lah ngen lun beken ih?
what is unique about us compared with other people?

00:04:04ngen bawang-bawang beken ih?
or other places?

00:04:09lem keli' kuh, mula' nuk midih kekeli' narih
in my opinion, there are lots of things I know

00:04:17kadi' lun merar dih, lun merar ideh nuk mala sekunuh
because the elders told stories

00:04:22mala irat deh
and talked about where they came from

00:04:24mala nuk kekeli' deh
talked about what they knew

00:04:27kadi' kineh ih, edteh nuk leng-leng penting lah lem karuh tauh idih ineh
because of that, something that is very important for our language is

00:04:37narih mileh ninger
that we are able to listen

00:04:42kadi' karuh tauh ineh ieneh secara lisan lah ken narih, oral language
because our language is an oral language

00:04:50jadi ineh peh, edteh skill tu'en tauh...
so that is a skill that we should...

00:04:56mesti tauh belajar lah let lun merar tauh
we have to learn from our elders

00:05:02mileh ninger narih keleyh
if we can listen

00:05:04mileh ketaru' nuk midih
we should be able to do things

00:05:06diren peh narih edteh nuk midih
if we want to preseve something

00:05:12maya' ineh neh narih, lun merar dih
we should follow our elders

00:05:16neh teh ayu' ih keli' keduih lah
that's how it seems to me

00:05:19murih-murih teh lun malem mala edteh nuk midih pedingeren narih
often people said things to me

00:05:25kadi' narih ena' teh, taru'-taru' teh narih
because I was trying to work out

00:05:30lem ayu' enun doo' ih lah ngen kedideh, mo
what was good from them

00:05:34kadi' kineh ih, mula' anak-adi' tauh lah nuk beruh ih
so many of the children

00:05:44ideh - kamih harap lah - ideh nih mileh ninger
we hope they will know how to listen

00:05:51paad teh lem zaman kinih nih tauh nulis
just like in this age we are writing

00:06:01inan teh zaman tauh mileh type edteh nuk midih
this is an age where we know how to type

00:06:07tak ineh keyh, enun peh narih nulis keleyh
so whatever we write

00:06:11enun peh narih type keleyh
whatever we type

00:06:13paad teh idih pedingeren ketauh lah
we will hear it in the same way

00:06:16kedideh nuk narih mo berey bala ngen ideh nuk kineh ih
those who we send messages to

00:06:26uih ngelinuh, suk penting idih ieneh
so I think the important thing is

00:06:31adet kapeh tauh mala edteh nuk midih lem tulisan lah
the custom of how we spell things