Editing Jedek language

{{Short description|Aslian language spoken in Malaysia}}

| name = Jedek

| nativename =

| states = [[Malay Peninsula]]

| ethnicity = Menriq; Batek

| speakers = 280

| date = 2017

| ref = <ref name="Yager 2017"/>

| familycolor = Austroasiatic

| fam2 = [[Aslian languages|Aslian]]

| fam3 = [[Jahaic languages|Jahaic]]

| fam4 = Eastern

| iso3 = none

| glotto = jede1239

| glottorefname = Jedek

'''Jedek''' is an [[Aslian languages|Aslian]] language from the Austroasiatic family first reported in 2017.<ref name="ScienceDaily">{{cite web |title=Language previously unknown to linguists discovered in Southeast Asia |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180206100349.htm |publisher=[[ScienceDaily]] |date=6 February 2018 |access-date=10 February 2018}}</ref> Jedek speakers describe themselves as ethnic [[Minriq language|Menriq]] or [[Batek language|Batek]] to outsiders, but their language, although very closely related, is distinct from these languages.<ref name="Yager 2017">{{harvp|Yager|Burenhult|2017}}</ref>

==Etymology==

Jedek speakers have no autonym (endonym). Nearby Aslian speakers, particular the [[Jahai language|Jahai]] and Menriq, refer to them as the {{lang|aav|Jdɛk}} {{IPA|[ɟᶽəˈdɛk˺]|lang=aav}}.<ref name="Yager 2017"/>

==Sociolinguistics==

Jedek is spoken by about 280 people<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web |title=Unknown Language Discovered in Malaysia |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/unknown-language-discovered-malaysia-180968099/ |publisher=Smithsonian |date=9 February 2018 |access-date=10 February 2018 }}</ref> in Sungai Rual, located on the Rual River just south of the town of Jeli in [[Jeli District]], [[Kelantan]] state, northern [[Peninsular Malaysia]]. In the 1970s, the Malaysian government sponsored the resettlement of several bands of Semang foragers, both [[Jahai language|Jahai]] and Jedek speakers who roamed the middle reaches of the [[Pergau Dam|Pergau]] River, to the Sungai Rual area.<ref name="Yager 2017"/> Today, the area comprises three hamlets and is inhabited by seven bands, of which four are primarily Jedek-speaking, and three are primarily [[Jahai language|Jahai]]-speaking.

The low number of Jedek speakers could lead it to being considered endangered, but several factors are ensuring that intergenerational transmission of the language is not interrupted. The Semang have a strong tradition of maintaining their unique cultural and linguistic identity while undergoing constant contact and social change. The speaker population of Jedek has grown since the 1970s, and Jedek is used in all environments by speakers of all age groups. Meanwhile, all schooling is in the national language Malay, and getting a paid job invariably means knowing Malay, the main language of communication in the areas surrounding Aslian speech communities. Although Jedek speakers have a positive attitude towards their language, the language is unrecognized by the Malaysian government, which regards the settlement area as Jahai-speaking.<ref name="Yager 2017" />

Traditionally, Semang communities are highly nomadic and accustomed to the breakup of groups to suit the particular conditions they were experiencing. The Semang also practice band exogamy, meaning that marriage between speakers of different languages is quite common. Due to frequent contact with surrounding communities, Semang are typically fluent in multiple Aslian languages, and in most cases an adjacent majority language (Malay or Thai). Due to the settlement of Jedek- and Jahai-speaking bands together at Rual, most Jedek speakers have some knowledge of Jahai.

== Phonology ==

=== Vowels ===

Jedek has 9 vowels. All vowels have nasal equivalents, and Jedek demonstrates contrastive nasalization.<ref name="Yager 2017" />

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!

![[Front vowel|Front]]

![[Central vowel|Central]]

![[Back vowel|Back]]

|-

![[Close vowel|Close]]

|{{IPA link|i}}

|{{IPA link|ɨ}}

|{{IPA link|u}}

|-

![[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]

|{{IPA link|e}}

| rowspan="2" |{{IPA link|ə}}

|{{IPA link|o}}

|-

![[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]

|{{IPA link|ɛ}}

|{{IPA link|ɔ}}

|-

![[Open vowel|Open]]

|{{IPA link|a}}

|

|

|}

=== Consonants ===

Jedek demonstrates a typical Jahaic consonant inventory.<ref name="Yager 2017" />

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="2" |

![[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]

![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]

![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]

![[Velar consonant|Velar]]

![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]

|{{IPA link|m}}

|{{IPA link|n}}

|{{IPA link|ɲ}}

|{{IPA link|ŋ}}

|

|-

! rowspan="2" |[[Plosive]]

!<small>voiceless</small>

|{{IPA link|p}}

|{{IPA link|t}}

|{{IPA link|c}}

|{{IPA link|k}}

|rowspan="2" |{{IPA link|ʔ}}

|-

!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>

|{{IPA link|b}}

|{{IPA link|d}}

|{{IPA link|ɟ}}

|{{IPA link|g}}

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Fricative]]

|({{IPA link|ɸ}})

|

|{{IPA link|ç}}

|

|{{IPA link|h}}

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]

|

|{{IPA link|l}}

|{{IPA link|j}}

|{{IPA link|w}}

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]

|

|{{IPA link|r}}

|

|

|

|}

The voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/ is a marginal consonant that occurs only in word-final position

Nasals are prestopped in word-final position when preceded by an oral vowel. Nasal consonants also cause progressive nasalization of vowels.

The rhotic consonant varies in pronunciation from the alveolar trill /r/ to the voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/. How the speaker pronounces it is dependent partially on the speaker's age: younger speakers are more likely to pronounce it closer to /r/ while older speakers are more likely to have a pronunciation closer to /ʁ/.

{{refbegin}}

* {{Cite journal |last1=Yager |first1=Joanne |last2=Burenhult |first2=Niclas |date=2017 |title=Jedek: A newly-discovered Aslian variety of Malaysia |url=http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:2506643/component/escidoc:2511374/Yager_Burenhult_2017.pdf |journal=Linguistic Typology |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=493–545 |doi=10.1515/lingty-2017-0012 |via=deGruyter|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-002E-7CD2-7 |s2cid=126145797 |hdl-access=free }}

{{refend}}

== External links ==

* http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)

* [[hdl:10050/00-0000-0000-0003-E6EC-7@view|http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-E6EC-7@view]] Jedek in RWAAI Digital Archive

[[Category:Endangered languages of Asia]]