PRONOUNS IN THE MIND OF THE MENDRIQS

Abstract

Orang Asli are indigenous group who inhabited Malay Peninsular about 100 thousand years ago. Their languages are grouped under the Austroasiatic group. One of the languages that attract the researcher is the Mendriq language. Mendriq language is a language used by Orang Asli who are known as Mendriq. This language is spoken by a total of 245 people in three villages known as Kampung Kuala Lah, Kampung Baru and Kampung Kuala Stail. This paper discusses and analyzes the pronouns of Mendriq language. This is a field study conducted at Kuala Lah for 6 months. The data are primary data collected from the native speakers, which were collected through story-telling method by a native speaker of Mendriq language. Then, the data were translated by a translator appointed by the Department of Orang Asli, Kelantan.  The data consist of various types of sentences. However, this study focuses only on the pronouns of Mendriq. The pronouns are analysed descriptively. The descriptive analysis revealed that  the mind of these aborigines are very complex. I would claim that they have complex mathematical system even in their pronouns system.

Keywords: pronouns, Mendriq, descriptive analysis, Orang Asli, Austroasiatic, indigenous