Kedayan

The origins of the Kedayans are uncertain. Some of them believe their people were originally from Ponorogo, Java,^[1] which they left during the reign of Sultan Bolkiah. Because of his fame as a sea captain and voyager, the Sultan was well-known to the people of Java, Sumatra and the Philippines.^[1] It is believed that when the Sultan arrived to the island of Java, he became interested in the local agricultural techniques.^[1] He brought some of the Javanese farmers back to his country to spread their techniques. The farmers inter-married with the local Bruneian Malay people, giving birth to the Kedayan ethnicity.^[1] Most Kedayans have adopted Islam since the Islamic era of the Sultanate of Brunei. They have also adopted Malay culture.^[6] The Kedayans are recognized as one of the indigenous people of Borneo.^[8] They are experts in making traditional medicines. The Kedayans are well known for their cultivation of medicinal plants, which they grow to treat a wide range of ailments and to make tonics.^[4]

The language of one of the indigenous tribes, the Banjar people in Kutai, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, is said to share more than 90% of the vocabulary with the Kedayan language, despite the fact that the Banjarese do not refer to themselves as Kedayans.^{[citation needed]} Both the Kedayans and the Banjarese are related, to a certain extent, because of the similarities in their languages.^[9]

The Kedayan language is similar to Brunei Malay, and it has been claimed that as many as 94% of the words in the two languages are cognate.^[10]

The main differences in pronunciation are that Kedayan has initial /h/ while Brunei Malay does not, so Kedayan hutan (forest) is utan in Brunei Malay;^[11] and Kedayan does not have /r/, so Malay rumah (house) is umah in Kedayan.^[12]