Bandar Seri Begawan - Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Dewa Major General (Rtd) Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Awang Mohammad bin Haji Daud, yesterday officiated the opening of the third international seminar on the Austronesian Dialects in the Region (SADDAN III, 2008) at Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
In his speech, the minister emphasised the importance of language as a component of nonmaterial culture that plays a significant role in strengthening the evolution or culture of a race.
He said in learning a language, we not only learn to understand the terminology but also other important elements that cannot be separated with culture and knowledge that have been passed down from one generation to another.
For a long time, the Malay language has become the learning language in this region. So increased combined efforts are needed to preserve the Malay language in respective areas to ensure its survival, said the minister.
He further stated that quality research written in the Malay language may attract the attention of scholars beyond the region to study the Malay language in order to obtain significant and relevant knowledge and therefore, language experts should carry out intensive research activities, be it individually or in a group.
Aside from establishing the Malay language as the heritage of Austronesian language, the minister highlighted that experts also need to consider other Austronesian dialects that are not used as frequently because of urbanisation and modernisation.
In preserving the survival of our mother language, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, through relevant agencies such as the Language and Literature Bureau, Brunei Museums, and History Centre is collaborating with Universiti Brunei Darussalam to achieve this objective.
As his ministry is associated with the development of language and culture, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Dewa Major General (Rtd) Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Awang Mohammad applauded UBD‘s Faculty of Arts and Social Science for its efforts in carrying out this research to gain new findings on the Austronesian‘s Dialect in Borneo Island.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Working Committee, Dr Yabit bin Alas in his welcoming address said that the three-day seminar themed ‘Dialek Peribumi Warisan Ketrampilan Jati Diri‘ or ‘Ethnic Dialect is a Heritage that Reveals Competence in Personality‘, aims to bring to our attention that too many cultural heritage has been forgotten due to the process of modernisation.
He said that this year, the seminar gathered the most people - 90 participants comprising university professors, specialists, linguists, intellectuals, culturists, researchers, lecturers and academicians from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Brunei, making it the biggest linguistic seminar ever held in Brunei.
The first seminar on Dialects of Austronesia Nusantara was held in 1996 and gathered 27 participants, while the second seminar was held in 2005 and brought together only 28 participants.
The seminar is organised by the Department of Malay Language and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UBD and will see the presentation of three principal papers from three regional linguistic figures - Professor JT Collins (Malaysia), Professor Dr Haji Mansoer Pateda (Indonesia) and Professor Madya Dr Haji Jaludin bin Haji ChuChu (Brunei).
Source: www.brudirect.com (25 Januari 2008)
