The Bidayuh Language Yesterday, Today and ... - SIL International

1980). Although a few brief wordlists were published earlier, Chalmers’ work is the oldest dictionary for
a western Bornean language, marking the start of serious study of the indigenous languages of western
Borneo. 2
Another missioner who collected a considerable number of Bidayuh words was Rev. Fr. A. Reijffert.
He compiled an English–Sarawak Land Dayak (Singai dialect) vocabulary, but his work was not printed
until over forty years after his death in 1914 (Reijffert 1956).
Other missionaries also made lists of Land Dayak words: Rev. L. Zaender (first published with other
lists by F. A. Swettenham), Rev. F. W. Abe (Biatah) and Rev. William Gomez (Rara, Salako and Dayak
Lundu (the original inhabitants of Lundu River)). Rev. Chas. Hupé also collected words for forty-three
items in a great number of Bornean languages, including several Land Dayak dialects. All these, along
with Chalmers’ dictionary, were published or republished in Volume II of Henry Ling Roth’s work, The
Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo (originally compiled in 1896, republished in 1968 and 1980).
Later, Rev. P. Aichner (1949) also published a wordlist of the Upper Sarawak, Penrissen and Tebakang
dialects of Land Dayak.
There were also other Western writers—most of them administrators for the Brooke regime—who
collected and compiled Bidayuhic wordlists. Among them were Spencer St. John (Sadung and Rara; in
Ling Roth [1896] 1980, originally published in 1862), E. H. Elam (Salako and Rara, 1935; Sadung,
1937), W. S. B. Bucks (Land Dayak of Kampung Boyan, upper Sarawak River, 1933) and N. Mace
(Sadung at Tebakang, 1935).
2.3 Christian materials
The Christian missionaries not only compiled wordlists, but also made use of them to write prayer books,
catechisms, Bible stories and other religious books for use in the various Bidayuh areas. These were the
first reading materials ever produced in Bidayuh.
Rev. Fr. Peter H. H. Howes, an Anglican missionary who worked in Sarawak from 1937 to 1981, was
particularly active in developing materials. While he was interned during World War II, he translated the
New Testament into the Biatah dialect (Kitab Payu Bauh). This was first published in 1963. He also
translated and published liturgical materials (hymns and prayerbooks) in Biatah (see also the section on
education).
In the Bau district, from 1957 to 1980, Rev. Fr. Luis Schwabl of the Roman Catholic church did
much to develop Christian materials. He trained a number of Bidayuhs as catechists, and together they
wrote many new books, including prayer books and religious instruction books, and revised old books.
Rev. Fr. Luis also changed the spelling system then in use in Bau.
Indeed, the main institution today that still actively uses, preserves and develops terminology for the
Bidayuh dialects is the Christian church. The Anglican, Catholic and Seventh Day Adventist missions in
2 A conference was held to commemorate Chalmers’ dictionary: The Languages and Literatures of Western Borneo:
144 Years of Research, on 31 January–2 February 2005 at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi.
Proceedings will be published by the Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu at UKM.
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