Diowa Driana speaking Sijunjung-Simaung Minangkabau

Video license

CC BY-NC 4.0

Video file downloads

Dropbox (.mp4)

From Wikimedia Indonesia: Deola speaks the Sijunjung-Simaung dialect of Minangakau. The Minangkabau language is spoken in Sumatra, Indonesia and is related to the Malay lndonesian language. This video was recorded by Ramzy Muliawan in Indonesia. Deola speaks the Sijunjung-Simaung dialect of Minangkabau, a South East Asian Austronesian language spoken by over 5 million people across the island of Sumatra as well as by diaspora communities in Singapore and the Netherlands, where it is a recognized minority language. The Sijunjung-Simaung dialect is primarily spoken in Sijunjung and Simaung, the two towns for which it is named; these towns are notable for the transcription work being done by DREAMSEA (Digital Repository of Endangered and Affected Manuscripts in Southeast Asia) regarding ancient mosques. The Minangkabau people, also known as Minang, are the primary speakers of the Minangkabau language. Minangkabau varieties tend to have high mutually intelligibility between them; they are distinguished primarily by regional differences in phonology and, to a lesser extent, local vocabulary. The regions for Minangkabau varieties (dialects) are divided by villages or groups of villages called ‘nigari’, and sub-villages called ‘jorong’ have “sub-dialects” that native speakers often notice and differentiate. The Minangkabau language was originally written using Jawi script, but has been intermittently Romanized since the 19th century. The orthography was standardized in 1976. This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. To download a copy, please contact hello@wikitongues.org.

Discover new languages, cultures, and stories.

Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest news, stories, and ways to make an impact.