Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Malaysia Sabah
MyJurnal

Abstract

Dictionary production is one of the most effective methods of preserving languages and cultures. The
Dusunic Family of Languages (DFL) in Sabah, Malaysia would have welcomed the efforts to
document their languages through dictionary production as there are still lacking of dictionary,
vocabulary and phrase books. Furthermore, more than half of the languages in DFL are unwritten.
However, making dictionary conventionally is tedious and time consuming. The Dusunic Family of
Languages which are facing extinction threats do not have the luxury of time to wait for dictionary
production via the conventional method. Hence, this study explores the use of a method called Root-
Oriented Words Generation (ROWG) which is formulated based on spelling orthography of DFL to
generate one and two-syllable words list. From the words list, root words registers were compiled
which can then be used as database for dictionary production. Findings of this study showed that
ROWG was able to generate an exhaustive word lists of DFL and compile a large volume of root
words register in DFL. Hence, this study was able to highlight the feasibility and viability of using
ROWG to produce root words register of DFL which could possibly reduce the time for dictionary
production significantly. In future studies, it is recommended that the ROWG is extended to include
more than two syllable words. This study showed the potentiality of ROWG to address the looming
demise of DFL by providing a more efficient way of compiling root words for the purpose of making a
dictionary.