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INTRODUCTION
1. Spelling.—The current spelling of Sea Dayak shows considerable
variations. The spelling used here for the first entry is, in general, that
adopted by Howell and Bailey in their Sea Dayak Dictionary. Usage
is, however, particularly variable, and Howell and Bailey are parti-
cularly inconsistent, in the matter of inserting and omitting e; terebai,
terbai and trebai, all appear for the same word in recent publications.
Much labour may be saved in tracing words of this kind if the e is
inserted wherever it may properly appear, and this convention has been
followed in the present work, which thus gives terebai, beli, and meri,
and not terbai (or trebai), bli, and mri. The inconsistent use of a and e
in syllables before the penult has been retained in a number of common
words, and u has been retained in puputan, but in most cases the only
vowel shown in syllables before the penult is e. It should be noted
that there is frequent uncertainty in current writing in the use of u
and o, and of i and e.
Apart from individual variations, the current spelling is defective
in being inconsistent and in failing to make certain necessary distinc-
tions, such as that betweenpeti, ‘box’, and peti, ‘ trap’. The pronuncia-
tion of peti (petiq), ‘trap’, differs from that of peti, ‘box’, in having
final glottalization, and differs from that of petik, ‘spot’, which also has
final glottalization, in the quality of the vowel of the second syllable.
Similar relations are to be observed in the pronunciations of such
words as I aba1, laba2 (labaq), labak, and sulux, sulu2 (suluq), sulok (suluk),
On p. x a scheme is given for the systematic spelling of Sea Dayak,
adequate for all native and assimilated words, and phonetic in the
sense that, once the conventions are established, the pronunciation is
unambiguously indicated. Where, in the dictionary, the spelling of
the first entry is at variance with this, the systematic spelling follows
immediately in parentheses.
The pronunciation indicated by the double consonant in Col. 4 of
the scheme has not, so far as I am aware, been referred to in print.
Howell and Bailey give tawak and tetawak, ‘a large gong’; the forms
are, I find, (ttawak) and tetawak, and a form setawak also exists. In
this case and a number of others, such as gegudi, more than one form
is possible, and where they are known to exist each is given in the
systematic spelling. There are, however, some words such as liki
(systematic spelling lliki), for which the only form I have found is that
pronounced with the long I indicated by the double consonant. It
should further be noted that when the systematic spelling has a doubled
vowel, as in (meraak), ‘shout at’, the pronunciation has a long vowel;
cf. merak, ‘shatter’.
2. Forms.—‘Nasal forms’ and forms with prefixes are normally
entered under the corresponding ‘base’, e.g. nyabut, enchabut, pechabut,
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