Modang Wahau and Woq Helaq Wordlist
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This collection contains over 800 lexical items from two Modang languages, Modang Wahau and Modang Woq Helaq, spoken in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo. Modang languages are closely related to the neighboring Segai languages of Berau Regency. Modang is known for having rather different phonological systems from other, more conservative Austronesian languages. Culturally, Modang people identify as Dayak, a cover-term for the indigenous Austronesian-speaking inhabitants of Borneo. Most Modang languages are poorly documented, so these wordlists may be of particular interest to anyone with an interest in languages of this area.
The project itself took place in Samarinda, the capital city of East Kalimantan. It was generously funded by a grant from the American Philosophical Society, and took place in May and June of 2018. This research was aided tremendously by Edena, who hosted all language consultants and the researcher in her home in Samarinda.
Before listening to the audio files, the user is recommended to first download either the Excel file ADS1-001.xlsx or the identical .csv file, ADS1-001.csv. These files contain the entire wordlist with data entries from the two target languages and Indonesian and English equivalents, as well as an IPA key for the practical orthography that are used.