Bisaya (Borneo)

The Bisaya are an indigenous people of northwestern Borneo, Malaysia, concentrated around the Limbang river in northern Sarawak state. There are other related tribes called Kadazan-Dusun in Sabah and in Brunei. They are distantly related to the Visayan of the Philippines, though a comparison with Cebuano Bisaya vocabulary shows that the language bears few similarities, most of which are more related to Bahasa Malaysia than Philippine Bisaya. Such similarities may be due to the standardizing effect and influence Bahasa Melayu had over not just the Bornean Bisaya but also all other ethnic languages spoken in Malaysia. The same could be seen in Germany, where Standard German has influenced the vocabulary and grammar of the regional dialects.

One of their main festivals called Babulang is celebrated annually in Batu Danau near the Brunei border. More photos of the festival in June 2006 showing their black traditional costumes and their buffalo racing tradition are available on flickr at [http://www.flickr.com/photos/babulang2006/]

ee also

*Dayak
*Bisaya, a major ethnic group of the Philippines.
*Austronesian languages and peoples.
*Demographics of Malaysia