Grammar

Introduction

 
Conversations in Lotud came about from our study of the Lotud Dusun language in two different villages in the Tuaran district. We would like to express appreciation to a number of Lotud people who were helpful in those days of language learning: Esin Gapayan, Justina Timbai, Lajumin Kading, and Rusiah Onggoi. We would also like to thank Jilam Arou, and Rusiah Onggoi for their patience in helping us to understand some of the grammar of Lotud. A special thanks to Raymond Tombung who helped us in many ways in our understanding of Lotud. We would like to express our appreciation to Michael Boutin for the careful consulting work he has done on the linguistic aspects of the conversations.

 
Our study of the Lotud language and culture was carried out under the auspices of Institut Linguistik SIL. SIL is an international non-profit voluntary organization which promotes and conducts research on the lesser known languages and cultures of the world. The organization produces and encourages the production of linguistic, applied linguistic and educational manuscripts and materials. SIL began work in Sabah, Malaysia in 1978.
 

The purpose of this volume is to provide a pedagogical grammar based on the conversations. Grammatical notes are included with each conversation and, as much as possible, explain the grammatical features that are found there. It should be understood that these notes are not intended to give a complete analysis of Lotud grammar. In addition there are brief cultural notes relating to some of the conversations. The notes have been written by Doris Blood.
 

These Conversations were started when we lived in the Lotud village, but the final work on them was done after we left the Lotud area. As the work progressed, I often wished for contact with Lotud people to help determine the correct analysis of some features of the grammar. The reader will find notes in the grammar section for those affixes and particles that will need further study.

We hope anyone coming to the Lotud area to do research, even though he or she would be using Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of communication, might have a better understanding of some of the complexities of the Lotud language because of these notes.

David and Doris Blood