The Sa'ban language has several sounds that are rare among the world's languages. These include voiceless nasal and liquid consonants[2] and a distinction between long and short vowels as well as long and short consonants. Some examples of words with voiceless nasals and liquids are given in the table below. They have a stative reading in contrast to long consonants:[2]
Voiceless Nasals and Liquids in Sa'ban
Voiceless Continuant (Stative)
Long Consonant (Transitive)
⟨ɹ̥⟩
/hraək/[ɹ̥ɹa:k] 'torn'
/rraək/[ɹa:k] 'to tear'
⟨ɬ⟩
/hləu/[ɬləu] 'correct'
/lləu/[ləu] 'to steer'
⟨n̥⟩
/hnau/[n̥nʌu] 'opinion'
/nnau/[nʌu] 'to think'
Bibliography
Blust, Robert A. (1997-01-01). "Ablaut in Northwest Borneo". Diachronica. 14 (1): 1–30.
Blust, Robert (2001). ‘Language, Dialect and Riotous Sound Change: The case of Sa’ban’. In Graham W. Thurgood (ed.) Papers from the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 249–359. Tempe: Arizona State University.
Clayre, Beatrice (1972). "A preliminary comparative study of the Lun Bawang (Murut) and Sa’ban languages of Sarawak". Sarawak Museum Journal 20: 40-41, 45-47.
Clayre, Beatrice (1994). ‘Sa’ban: a case of language change’. In Peter W. Martin (ed) Shifting Patterns of Language Use in Borneo, 209-226. Williamsburg VA: Borneo Research Council.
Clayre, Beatrice (2005). "Kelabitic languages and the fate of ‘focus’: evidence from the Kerayan". In I Wayan Arka & Malcolm Ross (eds.) The many faces of Austronesian voice systems: some new empirical studies, 17-57. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Clayre, Beatrice (2014). ‘A preliminary typology of the languages of Middle Borneo’. In Peter Sercombe, Michael Boutin & Adrian Clynes (eds.) Advances in research on cultural and linguistic practices in Borneo, 123-151. Phillips, Maine USA: Borneo Research Council.
Clayre, I. F. C. S. (1973). "The Phonemes of Sa'ban: A Language of Highland Borneo". Linguistics. 11 (100).
^Martin, Peter (1996). "A comparative ethnolinguistic survey of the Murut (Lun Bawang) with special reference to Brunei". In Martin, Peter; Oz̊óg, Conrad; Poedjosoedarmo, Gloria (eds.). Language Use and Language Change in Brunei Darussalam. Athens OH: Ohio University Press. pp. 268–279.