Sinama
| Sama | |
|---|---|
| Bajau | |
| Sinama | |
| Native to | Philippines, Malaysia |
| Region | Tawi-Tawi and neighboring islands of the Sulu Archipelago (Sibutu, Siasi), Darvel Bay and north coast of Sabah |
| Ethnicity | Sama, Sama Banguingui |
|
Native speakers
|
410,000 (2000–2007) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: ssb – Southern Sama sml – Central Sama sse – Balangingi Sama slm – Pangutaran Sama |
| Glottolog | inne1244 |
The Sama language, Sinama (Sama + the infix -in-; also known as Siyamal and Bajau), is the language of Sama people of the Sulu Archipelago and the Bajau of Sabah, Malaysia. The Sama are one of the most widely dispersed peoples in Southeast Asia.
The Ethnologue divides Sinama into 4 languages based on mutual intelligibility. The 4 Sinama languages are Northern Sinama, Central Sinama, Southern Sinama, and Sinama Pangutaran from the island of Pangutaran off of Jolo island. Jama Mapun, a language from the island of Mapun, formerly known as Cagayan de Sulu, is a related language and sometimes also referred to as Sinama. These classifications are rarely recognized by Sama themselves who instead classify their Sinama by the village or island it originates from. The emic classification of a Sama person's language e.g. Silumpak, Laminusa, Tabawan generally form the different dialects of the 4 Sinama languages.
The following list of Sama dialects is from Ethnologue, with some additions from Pallesen (1985) (individual languages with separately assigned ISO codes highlighted in bold; locations and speaker populations are from Palleson (1985:45-50)):
Ethnologue provides the following location information for various Sama languages.
Balangingih Sama is located in western Mindanao, the Sulu archipelago northeast of Jolo, Zamboanga coast peninsula and islands, and Basilan island.
Central Sama is located in:
Southern Sama is located in Tawi-Tawi Island Province (in Tawi-Tawi, Simunul, Sibutu, and other major islands).
Pangutaran Sama is spoken on Pangutaran Island, located to the west of Jolo; and in Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi, southern Palawan
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