Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 8, 2026

Duanoʼ language

Duanoʼ is a Malayic language of Indonesia and Malaysia. In Malaysia the language is moribund, being spoken by only a tenth of the ethnic population.

Last revised
Jul 8, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
117 w
Citations
2
Source
Duanoʼ
RegionIndonesia (Sumatra),
Malaysia (Malay Peninsula)
EthnicityOrang Kuala
Native speakers
16,000 (2006)1
Language codes
ISO 639-3dup
Glottologduan1242
ELPDuano'

Duanoʼ is a Malayic language of Indonesia and Malaysia.2 In Malaysia the language is moribund, being spoken by only a tenth of the ethnic population.

While Duanoʼ is usually considered a Malayic language, it contains a significant amount of words derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian that do not follow Malayic sound changes, such as *qulu > kulu "head" and *qatay > ɣati "liver", which indicates that Duanoʼ was originally a non-Malayic language that underwent heavy Malayic influence.

References

References

  1. Duanoʼ at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). "Duano". Glottolog . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.