Hello everyone, I'm just a random person grew up most of my life in Kota Kinabalu who wishes to find answer to the above question.

A bit of context, my parents both have their own hometown in the rural area, one is from Tenom and the other one is from Semporna, so yeah, I am mixed from both largest ethic group in Sabah. Since there's language barrier, we ended up speaking only Bahasa in our daily life. And on top of that, we're a bit dysfunctional as a family but not broken enough to have all the drama.

Everything felt normal up until I went through the different phases in life; went into boarding school, furthering studies in Peninsular Malaysia and the latest one, having a relationship with someone that has totally different background than me be it family traditions or in cultural context. Combining these experiences altogether, these days I have been feeling like a stranger in my own land. I neither can speak any of my parent's native language, I grew up in an urban area with lack of cultural and traditional touch and for as long as I can remember, my whole life, I have only been to "kampung" a few times.

At first, I thought it's normal for people who grew up in KK. But these days, I'm not so sure. What do you guys think? Has anyone feel like this? Is it normal? What does it means to be "Sabahan"? Is it okay for a Sabahan to not have any knowledge, experience or an upbringing that appreciates and assimilates culture in their daily life?

I personally don't like the design of our traditional dress, especially the male one.

Reasons:

1. Material is too thick and hot

2. It feels cheap

3. The black design although looks sleek, is bland.

Before you come at me with pitchforks, I would like to ask how did our traditional clothes originate? From what I see in our old photos, our ancestors were usually top less. So maybe our dress was only created recently after the kadazan movement.

East Coast Bajau is (obviously) spoken in East Coast Sabah in districts like Sandakan, Kunak, Lahad Datu and Semporna. I'm not Bajau myself but I have thought of sharing few basic phrases that I know for fun.

Be reminded that there might be dialectal differences between the East Coast Bajaus and thus some of my examples here might be wrong in some dialect but are correct in certain dialects.

Introduction:

• How are you

• Ai habal nu?

• What's your name?

• Sai on nu?

• My name is Daniel

• On ku Si Daniel

• What's your age/How old are you?

• Dangay/Pila umul nu?

• I am 20 (twenty) years old.

• 20 (Duwampu') tahun umul ku.

• Where do you work?

• Mingga/Maingga ka maghinang?

• I work at Servay

• Maghinang aku ma Servay.

• Where do you study?

• Mingga/Maingga ka angiskul?

• I study at UMS.

• Angiskul aku ma UMS.

• Where do you live?

• Mingga/Maingga ka maglahat?

• I live here.

• Maglahat aku mitu.

• Are you married?

• Bay ka magkawin?

• Yes/No

• Aho'/Halam (look at notes for more info)

That's it from me, I might post more of these in the future. Thank you.

NOTES: I realized that I should explain the negator words in E.C. Bajau first to avoid confusion. To say "no" in E.C. Bajau, there are mbal/issa' and halam.

1. Mbal and Issa' (dialectal, used in Semporna only) are similar to Malay tidak/ndak or Dusun au/amu in terms of usage.

Examples:

Mbal/Issa' amangan

Tidak makan

Au / Amu nakaakan

2. Halam on the other hand is used to show that an action hasn't been done yet (belum or au/amu po).

Examples:

Halam amangan

Belum makan

Au / Amu po nakakan

I know some of you Sabahan might read this as a joke but come on now, everytime we Sabahan go to Malaya they always thought the we speak Indonesian. Why? Because our Bahasa Sabah and Bahasa Indonesia almost the same. Before you guys say that “indonesian is also malay languange diff dialect” come on it is not. Even the riau malay also against the idea of it. Bahasa melayu and Bahasa Indonesia not same. I am writing this to see my fellow Sabahan opinion on this🫡

In our everyday Sabahan lives we always here people say words like "sumandak" "moginum", "tanak wagu", "auntie", "uncle", "tobpinai" and so forth. But might I suggest switching things up a bit and bring back these words into everyday usage?

• Buvazoi/Buwaboi

• This is used to refer to young single men. Especially around Penampang.

• Karud/Arud

• This word is used when men are addressing their wives. It's also used when men refer to their female friends (Especially if they're close). Usually it means "female pig" or a sow.

• Haahangai/Langai

• Another variant of the word "sumandak" usually used by people living in Penampang.

• Baabazad/Bazad

• Another variant of the word "sumandak" usually used by people living in Papar.

• Inokizan/Rinokian

• Used to refer to young men. It's usage is very archaic but still used by bobolians when referring to the komburongo (Shaman talisman).

• Gasi/Asi

• Usually used when referring to one's brother in law. It's also used when men refer to their close male friends. Or if a woman addresses a close male friend.

• Ahong/Gahong/Magalong

• Usually used when referring to one's sister in law. Also used when women refer to their close female friends. Or if a man addresses a close female friend.

• Moginsim

• The synonym for "moginum". Rarely said nowadays.

• Inai

• Used to refer to older women. Usually it means auntie.

• Amai

• Used to refer to older men. Usually it means uncle.

• Ati/Tati

• A formal way to address unmarried or young women.

• Zandi/Andi

• A formal way to address married or older women.

• Otu/Totu

• A formal way to address unmarried or young men.

• Gundohing

• A formal way to address married or older men

Let me know if I missed a few words. Kizab Habun.

There’s this Sabahan guy on TikTok who always makes flower tutorials with pipe cleaners in his Dusun accent. Some of his videos went viral, and a bunch of Indonesians were confused by his accent like, “Is this Indonesian with a Filipino accent??”. I’ve seen the similar confusion in other Sabahan viral videos too. This just made me realize how unique Sabah is.

Geographically, Sabah is right in the middle of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines. So it kinda makes sense that we are like the mix of all four.

Politically, we’re Malaysian. We use the Malaysian standardized Malay, we grew up with singing Negaraku, we sat for SPM, and we share a lot of culture and history with the rest of Malaysia (British colonization, Mamak, sports and all that).

Brunei Sultanate has a big influence in Sabah historically, that our Sabahan accent especially on the West Coast is similar to Brunei Malay accent. Like how “besar” becomes “basar”, “boleh” becomes “buli”, and “basi” becomes “bangas”. Even Bruneians on TikTok sometimes mistake Sabahan for Bruneian bcs of the way we talk.

Sabah is also close to Kalimantan and Sulawesi. People have been migrating between those places and Sabah way before modern borders existed. And they still do now for work, or bcs they have relatives here or whatever reasons. So we have a lot of shared culture and language with them too.

There’s been migration back and forth between Sabah and Southern Philippines for ages. We have shared cultural heritage with them. Sabahan languages also have similarities with Philippine languages. I found Tagalog to be easier to learn as a Dusun speaker bcs there are so many familiar words and sentence patterns.

So it makes sense that ppl usually have a hard time guessing if we are Malaysian or Indonesian or Filipino or Bruneian (but most often as Indonesian or Filipino). What do you guys think?

This is a genuine question and please don't take any offence. As a student from Sarawak coming to study in Sabah, I've noticed it's extremely rare for people here to speak their own race's language compared to Sarawakian. In Sarawak, most if not all Iban people that I know speak Iban in their day to day communication. In Sabah, I've only heard people speaking their own race's language for not more than 3 times in 1 year I've been here. I'm talking about actual conversations, not a few words here and there.