Semai language

E224201

The Semai language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Semai people, an indigenous Orang Asli group in Peninsular Malaysia.

All labels observed (3)

Label Occurrences
Semai language canonical 3
Semelai language 1
Temiar language 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Aslian language
Austroasiatic language
language
belongsTo Orang Asli languages
closelyRelatedTo Lanoh language
Temiar language
country Malaysia
endangeredCause language shift to Malay
endangeredStatus vulnerable
ethnicGroup Semai people
geneticClassification Austroasiatic > Aslian > Senoic > Semai
glottologCode sema1266
glottologName Semai
hasAlternativeName Semaq Beri language
surface form: Semaq (historical or variant label)

Səmai
hasDialects Central Semai
Orang Asli
surface form: Northern Semai

Southern Semai
hasFeature contrastive vowel length
nasal consonant contrasts
register or voice-quality contrasts
rich vowel system
hasMorphologicalFeature limited inflectional morphology
hasPhonologicalFeature complex consonant clusters (in some dialects)
hasSociolinguisticSituation bilingualism with Malay
isNotOfficialLanguageOf Malaysia
iso639-3Code sea
languageFamily Aslian
Austroasiatic
linguisticArea Indochinese Peninsula
surface form: Mainland Southeast Asia
minorityLanguageIn Malaysia
region central Peninsular Malaysia
spokenBy Orang Asli
Semai people
spokenIn Malaysia
West Malaysia
surface form: Peninsular Malaysia
subfamilyOf Aslian branch
Austroasiatic
surface form: Austroasiatic language family
subjectOf anthropological linguistics research
descriptive grammars
phonological studies
typology mostly analytic
usedFor daily communication within Semai communities
usedIn oral tradition
traditional songs and stories
wordOrder SVO
writingSystem Latin alphabet
surface form: Latin script

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (5)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Austroasiatic hasLanguage Semai language
Austroasiatic hasLanguage Semai language
this entity surface form: Temiar language
Aslian languages hasMemberLanguage Semai language
Aslian languages of Peninsular Malaysia hasMember Semai language
this entity surface form: Semelai language