ASSIMILATION OF VARIOUS MALAY WORDS OWNED BY DUSUN ETHNIC IN SABAH

Assimilation of various Malay words owned by Dusun ethnic in Sabah allowed this tribal language to survive and being used as the language spoken at home by young and old generations. The Malay lexical possessing which is initially alien to Dusun language, over time, eventually being absorbed into the Dusun language vocabulary so much so the Malay words lost its original sounds. This instance showed Dusun speakers tendency in selecting and incorporating into the Dusun language the Malay lexical choices which were relevant to the Dusun language. Such Malay words thrived in Dusun language and used in everyday speech. Other than that, there were Malay words which had experienced the change of phoneme sounds due to replacement, shedding and addition processes. Acoustic characteristics of Malay and Dusun language also found in utterances. Fossilization, namely negation, simplification and over generalization both complement the Malay words owned by the Dusun ethnic in Sabah.