Baduy language

Baduy (or sometimes referred to as Kanekes) is one of the Sundanese-Baduy languages spoken predominantly by the Baduy people. It is sometimes considered a dialect of Sundanese, but more often it is considered a separate language due to its diverging vocabulary and cultural reasons that differ from the rest of the Sundanese people. Native speakers of the Baduy language are spread in regions around the Mount Kendeng, Rangkasbitung district of Lebak Regency and Pandeglang Regency, Banten Province, Indonesia. It is estimated that there are 11,620 speakers as of 2015. Just like Sundanese, Baduy based on linguistic typology is a language that sequences sentence structure elements of type subject–verb–object word order. As an agglutinative language, Baduy has various affixes which are still productive. Verbs can be distinguished into transitive and intransitive forms, as well as active and passive. The position of Sundanese-Baduy languages is still being debated between the Malayo-Sumbawan and Greater North Borneo which are both in the branch Malayo-Polynesian in Austronesian languages. Some reference sources classify Baduy as part of Banten Sundanese dialect. However, unlike some other Sundanese dialects in the Banten which has been mixed with elements of non-Sundanese languages, Baduy only gets a little influence from other languages and still retains some language elements of Old Sundanese as its predecessor, this contrasts when compared to several other Sundanese dialects which are considered more modern. Baduy is one of the regional languages in Indonesia and its existence is sufficiently preserved by the local government, although research on this language is still relatively small. The use of the Baduy language is considered as the most important marker of ethnic identity for the Baduy people. Even though the Baduy themselves are a isolated society, in fact some of them have bilingual ability, which means they can also communicate using Indonesian in their daily lives, especially when speaking with others from outside the Baduy who come to their area.