Foreword

This dictionary is dedicated to my ex-girlfriend, ie Utung, from Kampung Radtak, Kudat. We've broke up for quite a while now, and she's got another boyfriend, but my feelings for her is still as strong as it used to be. She's my motivation for learning the Rungus language (one of the languages used in Sabah), and I feel closer to her by speaking Rungus (okay, it's pretty broken, but I'm still learning lol).

Anyway, before you start, here is a little something and some important pointers about the language and the dictionary:

1. The language
Momogun (or commonly known as Rungus) is a language of the Rungus people, who reside in the North-most point of Sabah. In terms of words, it is close to Malay and Tagalog, with the existence of a root word, and you add a suffix or prefix or both to the root word to describe a situation. Examples of commonly used prefixes are no~ (past tense) and ko~ (past tense, but just passed), while the most common suffix is ~on (I don't know how to explain this though).

In terms of grammar, it varies a lot from other languages. It's grammar is like that of to Dusun and Kadazan (other tribal languages in Sabah). I don't really know how to explain it, but if you want to pick up Rungus, you cannot achieve that by memorizing words. You'll have to learn how to apply it in a sentence. That's why in this dictionary, I've included some example sentences.


2. How to use the dictionary
Ok, so I don't have a fancy search function like the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary website, and neither do I have a search function in this site, so it's pretty straightforward (okay, maybe it's not that user friendly). You just look for the letter of the word you want to kook up, and click on it, and use the search function (Ctrl+F). Do note that the letters are all for Rungus words. So if you want to look up an English word, you can't do that without knowing what it is called in Rungus (I'll try to come up with something to overcome this).

The explanations in this dictionary comes in 3 languages: English, Malay and Chinese (Mandarin). When you look up a word, you'll come across something like this:

Aso This is the Rungus word
Pronoun This is where you see what type of word it is: noun, verb etc.
Eng: None / Do not have (something)
Mal: Tiada
Chi: 没有 (mei2 you3) The letters in the brackets are the pinyin, see below.
Usage: This is where see how the word is applied
Run: Aso nunu-nunu.
Eng: Nothing at all.
Mal: Tiada apa-apa.
Chi: 没什么

Note: The words in red are explanation notes. For some words which I am not sure how to use, I will omit the usage part.

3. Pronunciation
Let's move on to the next pointer: Pronouncing Rungus words.
Basically, there are some phoenetics which don't exist in Momogun. One of the few I can think of right not is the letter "L". A guy who started a website called the Momogunology Research Centre says that words should be spelled as "LZ". For instance, the word house is commonly spelled as "valai", so people would usually pronounce it as "ˈvæˈlaɪ" (va - lai), but the actual pronunciation should be "va-lzai" (Don't know the phonetics for this, pronunciation in Rungus is a bit complicated). So words with the letter "L" are pronounced like there is a letter "Z" after the "L" (unless the letter "L" is at the end of the word). But I'll be omitting the letter "Z", because beginners might end up reading the word like this: "Val-Zai" instead of "Va-Lzai".
Another non-existent phonetic is "ˈw", which is the sound of the letter "W". It is instead replaced by the sound of the letter "V". I think there are still others, but I'll add in when I come across them.

Next up is the Chinese pronunciation. I've used the standard pinyin, so don't pronounce the romanizations with English pronunciation. The numbers at the side of the letters are an indication of the tone of the words. In Chinese, there are 5 tones (1st to 4th tone, and a light tone). I'll label the 1st tone as 1, 2nd tone as 2, and it goes on til the 5th tone, which is the "light tone". For light tones, I would omit the number (since there is no symbol for light tones in pinyin) so there's no number 5.


4. Note: I'm just a beginner, and there are a lot of things I don't quite really understand, so there might be mistakes or somethings might not be that accurate. Do inform me if you see any inaccurate information. Thanks :)

A

Akan
Verb, Root
Eng: Eat
Mal: Makan
Chi: 吃 (chi1)

Variants:
1. Makan
Verb
Eng: Eat
Mal: Makan
Chi: 吃
Usage:
Run: Kano makan kito.
Eng: Let's eat together.
Mal: Jom kita makan.
Chi: 咱们一起吃。

2. Koakan
Verb Eng: Just finished eaten something.
Mal: Baru habis makan sesuatu.
Chi: 刚吃好东西。
Usage:
Run: Koakan ku.
Eng: I've just eaten.
Mal: Aku baru makan.
Chi: 我刚吃好东西。

3. Nakakan
Verb Eng: Eaten (I'm not sure if it's actually past tense though).
Mal: Sudah makan
Chi: 吃了
Usage
Run: Amu po nakakan oku.
Eng: I haven't eaten yet.
Mal: Aku belum makan lagi.
Chi: 我还没吃。

4. Takanon
Noun Eng: Food (food is an object we eat, so the word eat is in food)
Mal: Makanan
Chi: 食物 (shi2 wu4)
Usage:
Run: Haro ogumu takanon siti.
Eng: There is a lot of food here.
Mal: Ada banyak makanan di sini
Chi: 这边有很多食物。

Note: "Takanon" can also be used this way:
Run: Nunu takanon nu?
Eng: What are you eating?
Mal: Apakah yang kamu makan?
Chi: 你吃什么？
Direct translation would be "What is your food?" which is basically how they ask you about what you are eating.

5. Moginakan
Verb
Eng: Eating at a traditional feast.
Mal: Makan secara tradisional/jamuan.
Chi: 宴饮 (yan4 yin2)

6. Tiakan
Verb
Eng: Craving (Wanting to eat)
Mal: Ingin makan.
Chi: 想要吃 (xiang3 yao4 chi1)

7. Akanon
Noun
Eng: Food that is being served (to be eaten)
Mal: Makanan yang sedang dihidang.
Chi: 正在被送来饭桌的食物。
8. Mokiakan
Verb
Eng: Asking to eat.
Mal: Meminta makan.
Chi: 讨吃 (tao3 chi1)


Antad
Eng: From
Mal: Dari
Chi:从 (cong2)


Asamod
Verb
Eng: Have affection for
Mal: Sayang
Chi: 对一个人有特别感情。
Usage:
Run: Asamod oku sid dikau.
Eng: I love you.
Mal: Saya sayang kamu
Chi: 我爱你。
See also: Engin

Aso
Pronoun
Eng: None / Do not have (something)
Mal: Tiada
Chi: 没有 (mei2 you3)
Usage:
Run: Aso nunu-nunu.
Eng: Nothing at all.
Mal: Tiada apa-apa.
Chi: 没什么。


Avantang
Adjective
Eng: Good
Mal: Bagus
Chi: 好
Usage:
Run: Avantang tantu bo!
Eng: Very good!
Mal: Sangat bagus!
Chi: 很好哦！


Amai
Noun
Eng: Uncle
Mal: Pak Cik/Bapa Saudara
Chi: 叔叔(shu1 shu1)/伯伯 (bo2 bo2)/舅舅(jiu4 jiu3)

B

Batos
Noun
Eng: Memory (the period of time that somebody is able to remember events)
Mal: Kenangan
Chi: 回忆 (hui2 yi4)
Usage:
Run: Kadan no polingan e batos dikito miduvo.
Eng: Don't forget the memories we had together.
Mal: Jangan lupakan kenangan kita berdua.
Chi: 不要忘记我们俩之间的回忆。


Biano
Adverb
Eng: Now (Also used for today/this morning etc)
Mal: Kini (Juga digunakan sebagai "ini" dalam hari ini/petang ini)
Chi: 今/现在 (jin1/xian4 zai4)
Usage:
Run: Nunu habal nu do tadau biano?
Eng: How are you today?
Mal: Apa khabar kamu hari ini?
Chi: 你今天好吗？
See also: Didino

Boros
Verb, root
Eng: Speak (in some cases it can mean language)
Mal: Cakap (kadang-kadang membawa maksud bahasa)
Chi: 说（有时被用为“语言”的意思）

Variantions:
1. Momoros
Eng: Speak (the act of speaking)
Mal: Bercakap/Berkata
Chi: 说/讲 (shuo1/jiang3)
Usage:
Run: Nokuro tu amu ko momoros Rungus?
Eng: Why don't you speak in Rungus?
Mal: Mengapakah kamu tidak cakap dalam bahasa Rungus?
Chi: 你为什么不讲Rungus语？

D

Darun
Noun
Eng: Rain
Mal: Hujan
Chi: 雨 (yu3)

Variants:
1. Dumarun
Verb
Eng: Raining
Mal: Hujan
Chi: 下雨 (xia4 yu3)
Usage:
Run: Dumarun no.
Eng: It's raining.
Mal: Hujan sudah turn.
Chi: 下雨了。


Didino
Adverb
Eng: Now
Mal: Sekarang
Chi: 现在 (xian4 zai4)
See also: Biano


Dikau
Pronoun
Eng: You
Mal: Kamu
Chi: 你 (ni3)
Usage:
Run: Engin oku dikau.
Eng: I love you.
Mal: Saya sayang kamu.
Chi: 我爱你。
See also: Nu, Ko

E

Engin
Verb
Eng: Love
Mal: Cinta
Chi: 爱 (ai4)
Usage:
Run: Engin oku dikau.
Eng: I love you.
Mal: Saya mencintai kmau.
Chi: 我爱你。

F

G

Gama
Verb, Root
Eng: Do
Mal: Buat
Chi: 做 (zuo4)

Variants: 1. Agama
Noun
Eng: Societal norm
Mal: Hukum-hukum/nilai-nilai yang baik dilakukan.
Chi: 社会规范 (she4 hui4 gui1 fan4)

2. Gamaon
Noun
Eng: Task
Mal: Kerja
Chi: 办着的事
Usage:
Run: Nunu gamaon nu?
Eng: What are you doing?
Mal: Apakah yang kamu sedang buat?
Chi: 你在做什么？

3. Pigagama
Noun Eng: Task at hand
Mal: Kerja/Perkara yang sedang dilakukan.
Chi: 正在办着的事
Usage:
Run: Nunu pigagama nu?
Eng: What are you doing?
Mal: Apakah yang kamu sedang buat?
Chi: 你在做什么？

Ginazau
Noun
Eng: Rice
Mal: Nasi
Chi: 饭 (fan4)