Status of Kedayan

Noor Azam and Siti Ajeerah (2016) estimate that, on a scale of 1 to 6, Kedayan in Brunei has a ‘vitality rating’ of 2, which means it is endangered. Indeed, of the indigenous languages spoken in Brunei, they assert that only Brunei Malay is healthy.

Noor Azam (2012) notes that all the minority indigenous languages of Brunei are being squeezed out by Malay and English, and he likens their predicament to children being neglected by their duelling aunties.

In fact, this threat to Kedayan is not a new phenomenon. Nearly fifty years ago, Brown (1970) observed that there was an on-going process of the minority ethnic groups in Brunei decreasing in numbers “through the movement of their members to classification as Malays” (p. 4), and he noted that the Kedayans exemplified this process (p. 5).