The Cadasan language (Cadasan: pahaca Cadasa) is an Austronesian language officially spoken in Cadasa, and is also commonly spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Baraltamuri, Singapore, Brunei, and parts of Daidieu, Valenzuela, the Philippines, and Thailand. It shares 60-65% of its vocabulary with Malay.
History[]
Ancient Cadasan started out as a dialect of Malay. Starting in the 10-11th centuries, Classical Cadasan was used, and it started to diverge from Malay after it started to absorb Jazalic loanwords. Classical Cadasan was gradually abandoned in the 13-14th centuries, however it was used as a literacy language until the fall of the Cahaya dynasty in 1920. From the 14th centuries to the 17th, Middle Cadasan was used, after which it started to shape into Modern Cadasan, the language used today.
However, even though Cadasan was made the official language of Cadasa in 1920, it was reserved for the elite and government officials, and education of Cadasan in schools were poor. Most Cadasans spoke their own languages, like Malay, Tamil, or Mandarin. It wasn't until the 1950s and 1960s that then-president Tan Yeng Sen and the subsequent military dictatorship that Cadasan was vigorously promoted as the lingua franca.
Phonology[]
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Grammar[]
Syntax and word order[]
Cadasan uses the SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) word order. Adjectives come after the verb, except when talking about size or number:
| Cadasan | Literal | English |
|---|---|---|
| kachia sudau | car white | white car |
| dua kachian sudau | two cars white | two white cars |
| dua pesar kachian-besarwa sudau | two big cars (sized) white | two big white cars |
Pronouns[]
As a descendant of Malay, Cadasan inherits most Makay personal pronouns. There are also some Jazalic influences, as in the familiar 2nd person pronoun kanu (from proto-Jazalic ŋū). Personal pronouns can also be possessive pronouns (as in mine, yours, etc)
| person | clusivity | respect | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | exclusive | informal, familiar | aksan | kamitia (we: they and I, s/he and I) |
| standard, polite | saya | |||
| inclusive | kita (we: you and I, we and you) | |||
| 2nd person | familiar | kanu | kanuei | |
| polite | anda (you) |
anda (you, y'all) | ||
| 3rd person | te/ta/tia
(he/she/it) |
tei (they) | ||
In Cadasan, possessive pronouns are enclitic. The suffix is the last two letters of the pronoun, except for the 3rd person pronoun, which is the same.
| Pronoun | Enclitic | Possessed form | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consonant | Vowel | ||
| aksan | -an | -n | kitapan (my book) |
| saya | -ya | kitapya (my book) | |
| kanu/ei | -u | -nu | kitapu (your book) |
| anda | -a | -da | kitapa (your book) |
| kamitia | -ia | -tia | kitapia (our book) |
| kita | -ia | -ta | kitapia (our book) |
| te/ta/tia | kitapte/ta/tia/tei (his/her/its/their book) | ||
There are four demonstrative pronouns in Cadasan: ini (this), inin (these), itu (that), itua (those).
Examples[]
- Ini kachiaya (This is my car)
- Itu rukainu (That is your home)
- Inin pano-panoda (These are your children)
- Itua kamitia (Those are ours)
Object pronouns, direct or indirect, are the same as personal pronouns. They come before the verb and after the subject. The exception is when names are introduced, then the name is after the verb.
Examples[]
- Saya tei yangdeyah (I give it to him)
- Te ta taramayano (He married her)
- Anda saya ajano pendelek (You were going to push me)
- Kamitia perjane Yahya (We're meeting Yahya)
Plurality[]
Plurality may be indicated in Cadasan with the suffix -n (for vowels) or -en (for consonants). There are also words that can either be plural or singular, and must be determined by context. For example, most words that end in -n/-en, like acsun (reference), so the words pepara (some), sekala (all), or a number must be used. This rule generally doesn't spread to formal written Cadasan, as it wastes time, so acsunen would be accepted.
Reduplication is also used, but far less than Malay or Indonesian. It is mainly used when one doesn't want to use number/pepara/sekala and/or if the plural form is hard to pronounce (in speech). For example, the plural form of tangan (word for hand) would be tanganen (hands), but instead, tangan-tangan is used.
When added with 1st and 2nd person possessive pronouns, the -n/en suffix goes after the enclitic (ex. kosatun (your shoes)). However, if a person's name is involved, then it goes after the noun and before the name. (ex. tangan-tangan Fatima; Fatima's hands)
Examples[]
- Saya akar sepuluh kitapen (I have ten books)
- Ta mahas pepara oren (She wants some oranges)
- Kanu lijat tekseten (You're looking at his texts)
Verbs[]
Cadasan is an agglutinative language. Unlike Malaysian/Indonesian however, Cadasa uses gender, due to Jazalic influence. Most verbs in Cadasan are gender-neutral, like English. For gendered verbs, here is a table of endings:
| Gender | Ending |
|---|---|
| he | permaine |
| she | permaina |
| they | permainei |
| it | permain |
Many new verbs can be made by adding affixes. They include the prefixes:
- per-
- sen-
- aka-
- ja-
- ter-
Suffixes:
- -al
- -ng
- -ang
| Affix | Examples |
|---|---|
| per- | sana → persana (to ask)
jasa → perjasa (to place) |
| sen- | |
| aka- | |
| ja- | |
| ter- |
Tenses and moods[]
Another notable difference between Cadasan and other Austronesian languages is the inclusion of tenses. The inclusion of tenses began when the Cahaya dynasty defeated the Alyatak Kingdom in the 1710/20s. The Alyatak language had tenses, so over time, via borrowing, it became part of Cadasan. Cadasan has 2 aspects in the language, which are the simple tense and the perfect tense. There are 3 tenses in the language, which are the past tense, the present tense, and the future tense.
| Aspects/Tenses | Tenses | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Past | Present | Future | ||
| Aspects | Simple | -o
-ro |
-a
-ra | |
| Perfect | -akar- | |||
For the simple past, an -o/-ro suffix is inserted (ex. Anda kerjaro; You worked). For the simple future, an -a/-ra suffix is inserted (ex. Kamitia marana; We will eat). The perfect tense has the same rules, but with the word akar (have) between the subject and the verb.
Tenses aren't necessary in Cadasan; sometimes a person can use the simple present tense only. They just have to say the time or date.
Examples:[]
- Saya jhang (I go/I am going)
- Saya akar jhang (I have gone)
- Saya jhango (I went/I was going)
- Saya akar jhango (I had gone)
- Saya jhanga (I will go/I will be going)
- Saya akar jhanga (I will have gone)
- Saya jhang skolah hari ini (I go to school today)
- Saya jhang skolah jemasan (I went to school yesterday)
- Saya jhang skolah ejos (I will go to school tomorrow)
The word "yang"[]
Yang is one of the most common words in Cadasan. It usually means a relative pronoun (which, that), a quantity of something (eg. 'one', 'some' or 'of them'), or it can be a prefix (yang-) meaning "it", an unspecified object. Yang can also be an intensifier, meaning "so much".
Examples[]
| Cadasan | English |
|---|---|
| Anda yang mahas yang? Saya mahas yang itu. |
Which one do you want? I want that one. |
| Persana-kasangar daiyalen anda akar? Saya akar tes yang. |
How many dogs do you have? I have three (of them). |
| Kanu akar pensilan? Ya, aksun yangakar. |
Do you have my pencil? Yes, I have it. |
| Ini kulitpulu yang mahal. Ya, tia 1000 krung. |
This jacket is so expensive. Yeah, it's 1000 krung. |
Negation[]
Negation in Cadasa can be expressed using five words, tidak, nadrihon (commonly shortened to nadri), behe, chagar, and pelan.
- Tidak (not) is used for the negation of verbs and adjectives. Ti, the short form of tidak, is the Cadasan word for a general "no".
- Nadrihon is used for the negation of nouns.
- Behe is used for an event that will or has not happen(ed).
- Chagar is used for negating imperatives or advising against certain actions.
- Pelan is used when something has not yet been accomplished or experienced. As an answer, pelan is used negatively.
Examples[]
| Cadasan | English |
|---|---|
| Saya tidak kanu kelang. | I don't understand you. |
| Itu nadrihon rukaitia. | That's not our house. |
| Ahmed behe yangsana! | Ahmed will never do it! |
| Chagar penbelok kari, penbelok karan. | Don't turn left, turn right. |
| Kanu akar jhagah ke KP pelan? Pelan, aksan memsa pelan. |
Have you been to the UK (or not)? No, I have not. |
| Kanu mahas aisakreim? Ti, sarima kasi. |
Do you want ice cream? No thanks. |
Writing system[]
Cadasan is written in the Latin alphabet, as prescribed by law. Formerly, it was written in the Kawi script, the descendant of most indigenous scripts in southern Sumatra and western Java, as well as the Vijhutu script used to write most languages in northern Vizhutua. This was used until 1923, after republicans criticized the Kawi script for being "old", "ugly" and "hard to read", and they decided to alleviate the problem by replacing the Kawi script with Latin, which rapidly increased Cadasa's literacy rate because it was completely phonemic.
Cadasan alphabet Uppercase Latin alphabet A B C D E Ê F G H I J K L M N Ŋ O P Q R S Š T U V W X Y Z ' Lowercase Latin alphabet a b c d e ê f g h i j k l m n ŋ o p q r s š t u v w x y z ' IPA phonemes a b tʃ d ə e f g h i dʒ k l m n ŋ o p q r s ʃ t u v w x j z ʔ
Vocabulary[]
See also: List of loanwords in Cadasan
The vast majority of Cadasan vocabulary is borrowed from Malay. About 20-25% are borrowed from other languages like Tamil, Hokkien/Chinese, English, Nantungese, and various native languages. 15% are distincly Cadasan words.
Status and variaties[]
Cadasan is natively spoken and the official language in Cadasa. The Cadasan spoken around Selamat is considered to be the "standard variety" in Cadasan. There are also other varieties and dialects in Jazali, Camatanam/Nan Tung, Lang Cit, Krunghom, and the outerlying islands of Haql and the Cendang Islands.
In Baraltamuri, Cadasan is a recognized minority language, along with 103 indigenous languages. Before the 2010 constitutional amendments, Cadasan was one of three official languages of Baraltamuri, the others being Tufur, and Alyatak.