The Sabahan languages are a group of Austronesian languages mostly concentrated in the Malaysian state of Sabah, but also extended into neighbouring Sarawak of Malaysia, North Kalimantan of Indonesia, and the sovereign state of Brunei.
Languages
Blust (2010)
The constituents are separated into two families in Blust (2010):
Lobel (2013:367–368) lists the following Proto-Southwest Sabahan phonological innovations that were developed from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian. (Note: PSWSAB stands for Proto-Southwest Sabahan, while PMP stands for Proto-Malayo-Polynesian.)
PMP *h > PSWSAB Ø
PMP *a > PSWSAB *ə / _# (possibly be an areal feature in Sabah or northern Borneo, since this is also found in Idaanic)
PMP *R > PSWSAB *h / (a,i,u)_(a,ə,u)
PMP *R > PSWSAB *g / ə_
PMP *-m- > ø in PSWSAB reflexes of the PMP pronoun forms *kami ‘1EXCL.NOM’, *mami ‘1EXCL.GEN’, and *kamu ‘2PL.NOM’
Reduction of most PMP consonant clusters to either singletons or prenasalized clusters
Smith (2017)
Smith (2017)[2] proposes a North Borneo group comprising the North Sarawak, Northeast Sabah, and Southwest Sabah branches.
Adelaar, K. Alexander; Himmelmann, Nikolaus, eds. (2005). The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. Oxon, UK: Routledge.
King, Julie K.; King, John Wayne, eds. (2015). Languages of Sabah: A Survey Report. Pacific Linguistics, Series C – No. 78. Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-C78.