Talk:Banjar language

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Is Banjarese considered a Dayak language? --T.woelk 08:24, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

No, it's not. It's closer to Malay language. Ethnologue classification: Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayic, Malayan, Local Malay. Matahari Pagi 04:56, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

If I get the classifications right the Iban language is also a lot closer to Malay than to any other language on Borneo and yet it is considered a Dayak language. If i'm not much mistaking Dayak is not any hint to the Language ancestry or relationship (do not mistake it with the very similar word dayic), it is above all a geographic term just like European language would include some unrelated languages such as Indoeuropean languages, Uralic languages, Turkic languages and isolates such as the Basque language or the extinct Etruscan language. Defining exactly what makes a person native to the island of Borneo be considered as Dayak or not may be difficult. Malays are not considered Dayaks. If Dayak indeed means "upriver" or "inland" people then the Melanau shouldn't be called Dayak as well. I don't think this is a question of ethnologue classification but rather a geografic or cultural or religious or historic question or a combination of more than one. If the Banjarese came to Borneo from Sumatra, maybe during the middle ages and had a culture centered on ports and merchants and never penetrated deep into the inland jungle, at least not in the form of isolated agrarean pockets and mostly are or became moslems then I would say they shouldn't be called Dayak ... but that's my interpretation of the terms and I dont know much about the traditional culture and the history of the Banjarese. --T.woelk 19:27, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I see your point. I've edited the Banjar (ethnicity) article, you can see there for further information and decide for yourself :) But basically, they are a fusion of Malay people from Sumatra, Javanese and local Dayaks.Matahari Pagi 11:41, 2 April 2007 (UTC)