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Eighteen years conversing with the Temiars in Kelantan, Malaysia, has enabled David P. Quinton to accumulate over 5000 word definitions, including 1000 names of plant and animal species. Thousands more lexical derivatives and example phrases are included under the entries while over 400 words are explored in greater detail in a section of Extended Definitions. An English to Temiar section contains a vocabulary list of over 2000 words while various appendices contain even more language.
In terms of surveying an Aslian language of Malayan indigenous tribes, this work is undoubtedly one of a kind, as no other attempts come close to the amount of words accumulated, and the detail and accuracy of the definitions. Even though it is far from exhaustive of the whole language, as there remain heaps of concepts and traditions yet to be recorded, this hopefully will be a welcome contribution to Asian language study and preservation of a fine indigenous peoples’ heritage.
Dictionary of the Temiar language, an indigenous people group of Malaysia, complete with 5000 entries, 400 expanded entries and a concise grammar, produced from over 15 years of work.
386pp, paperback, ISBN: 978-1-7391344-5-7
● Preface A description of how the work began and progressed, of previous dictionary work by the Means.
● Introduction to the Temiars A short description of who the Temiar people are and how their language continues to survive.
● A Concise Grammar of Kelantan Temiar A succinct version of the author’s other work, A Grammar of Kelantan Temiar, to enable easy access by the dictionary user.
● Temiar word definitions A – Y Definitions of all Temiar words known to the author, in concise yet sufficient detail to explain the language.
● Extended word definitions Over 400 words (marked with ➥ in the A – Y section) described in greater detail, including all words concerned with traditions.
● English – Temiar Lists of Temiar vocabulary referenced from English words, to help the students of English or Temiar. A final section contains 1400 Temiar words listed under almost 200 ‘concepts’.
● Appendix 1 Pɛntaaᵏ tawùn – petition of first fruits An example Temiar petition or prayer that is made at the beginning of the fruit season.
● Appendix 2 Customary methods of the Temiars A discourse recorded from the Temiars detailing how different foods and crafts are prepared.
● Appendix 3 List of bird names The author’s complete list of bird names, identified by Temiars.
● Appendix 4 Species of the forest known to the Temiars Lists of species and generic animal names that were collected from the Temiars.
● Appendix 5 Herbal medicines used by the Temiars A list of every herbal medicine and the ailments that they are used for by the Temiars.
● Appendix 6 List Of Taboo Animal And Fruit Species The list of taboo species referred to in the Extended definitions.
● Appendix 7 Anatomies Lists of Temiar words for body parts and parts of the house.
● Appendix 8 Description of the human body Descriptive words, many of which ideophonic in nature, used to describe the appearance of humans and animals.
● Appendix 9 List of borrow words Lists of words borrowed from Melayu and English into the Temiar language.
● Bibliography List of reading references on Senoic linguistics.
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In 2010, I bought a copy of Natalie Means’ Temiar-English Dictionary and I took this with me into the Temiar villages of the Bʹtʉs, Símpor and Gɔɔb regions, being confident that I would pick up their language with ease. This hope was somewhat shattered by the difficulties that the publication produced for me. It was helpful in some respects, in that it pointed out the most basic rules of speech, such as attaching pronoun markers to verbs, and it gave some clues to the use of spatial and temporal words, which are important at any level. But I found that it didn’t stand up too well against the critique of the Temiars themselves, who often demanded corrections or dictated alternative words. When, in 2011, I began analysing the dictionary in depth, word by word, I found that the majority of the work was, in fact, erroneous and so the margins began filling up with my notes. Thus, at that moment, I began the second dictionary revision work of the same year, along with the work I had commenced on the Semai of Pahang.
Most of the errors I discovered were created by poor spelling, not helped by a weak system of symbology. Because of Means’ lack of phonemic symbols, I was often led to mispronounce the words I was trying to check (and I was not a Temiar speaker at that stage). Words were spelled with double vowels as if they contain a diphthong, when they should have had a glottal stop mark to denote a break between two sounds. The inclusion of many Perak spoken Temiar words, which are only vaguely known (and not in use) with Temiars in Kelantan (north of Kuala Betis), were probably unhelpful, and would have done better being published in a dictionary of Perak Temiar.
Semantics was also a severe problem, with countless wrong or mixed up meanings in their work, which often baffled my Temiar helpers, who even suggested that these errors might have come from the intentional misleading, for whatever reason, or perhaps laziness, of Means’ collaborators. All in all, I found Means’ dictionary to be completely unusable as a learning tool in the Temiar language. It was only useful to me for digging out words, with much help from native speakers, in order to begin compiling a new volume without errors.
There is an abundance of words not found in Means’ dictionary but which are in every-day usage with Temiar speakers. There are also many slang words or expressions that can only be collated as they are heard by interacting with the Temiars in their daily activities, such as out on long hikes in the forest or a day fruit foraging, and during household activities such as cooking, house-building and craft making. Therefore compiling a complete dictionary has necessitated many years of interaction and it will still need to grow, and be revised, into the future.
After checking through Natalie Means’ dictionary for three years, I began compiling a new draft made of accepted words, which I checked over by December 2017, with still more non-used words to throw out. After this I added some 3000 new words from lists and, in 2019, I began adding customs and enhancing many definitions. Over the years I compiled thousands of new words, as well as listed many grammatical rules. I collated and added, right up until 2024 when I added over 1000 names of species to the entries. At some stages, new vocabulary came at the rate of thirty new words per day, during interviews and hearing daily conversation. To begin with, I made visits to the Temiars in Kelantan for a few months each year, but since 2016, I have been based permanently at Pos Gɔɔb, at the Puyan River, which means I haven’t had a day without Temiar conversation up until the present.
This work will not be faultless, however, as I am just another whitey, a non-Temiar, and I can only add to the work as I understand what they communicate to me. And not every one is trustworthy either in their feedback, as they can contradict themselves at different times. But I do hope that it will stand up better against real critique and will also be found a better guide to learning the language (as currently, as far as I know, there has not been any attempt at publishing a dictionary of Temiar other than Means’ work).
This work will also not attain to a full linguistic survey of the language and it shouldn’t be treated as one. For one, I am not trained enough to begin to logically analyse the language in sufficient detail, and also it is probably best to keep it minimal and understandable to the lay person. Secondly, there remains heaps of words, concepts and customary beliefs that are still unknown to me and can only come to the surface as the years go on. I am well aware of this fact because every other week or month I stumble upon new concepts that they never mentioned before.
It is my hope that this work will contribute to the safeguarding of the language in this modernising world. Many thanks are due to all the Temiars who have given me much of their time and contributed valuable information towards the building of the volume.