That's how i speak my Dusun :(

Went to the vet at Ranau today to send my kitten Miss Stoking for checkup. She was being terrorized by two evil male cat and badly injured :(


Ranau do not actually have a private Vet, but do have Jabatan Haiwan where they provide a clinic for animals. Well unlike private vet, they don't have fancy equipments or proper system for checking, but yea, as long as they provide what they suppose to provide rite..

I went in and greeted by middle age man-which i don't think is an animal doctor..But experience assistant. yep he checked my kitten lovingly and he knows what he was doing :)


While he was checking, a couple came in, both in their 50s i think. The woman ask me : Aiyaa..nekure di gima lo dungau nu? (What's wrong with your cat?)

For 3 second i was thinking should i reply in Dusun or in Malay? Then maybe to be polite i choose to reply in Dusun. And it took me another 5 second to think what is 'Actually' in Dusun language. Well just make my sentence nice :)

Unable to figure it out, i reply : Sumakit (Sick) (Or should it actually be Sinumakit? Uh i don't know.)which is a very straight forward answer. Well, i know that as Dusun, i can't just reply a word. people will expect that there will be explanations after that.

My brain keep searching for the right words and then sentence to explain. Before i can think any, the man asked : Haro naakan dau? Naakaakan matu do rasun? (Something she eat? Maybe poison?)

Then my brain like an old harddisk spining soundly to think for a words. I was planning to say 'Attacked by the neighbour's cat' - in which unfortunately i don't know what is neighbour in Dusun. So i said 'Nokokot di Dungau sabalah walai'  (My late grandma might disowned me if she ever hear me speak Dusun like that)

I dont know. Should i use Nokokot or Kinokot or Kinokoton- but im pretty sure the root word is kokot-which mean bite.

And  Sabalah is actually a Malay word being Dusunized by me which is mean next to in that sentence :P..

And yep, to make things easy for me, i just put on my smiling face and let the couple do all the talking and i just smile,nod and say 'iri nogi..'  In English it just mean 'Yeah'

A visit to the vet really makes me realize how poor my vocabulary in Dusun is. Actually maybe i know what the word is , but when trying to put it into sentence, it will really sound funny, stupid or even rude..haih

And it will take me almost 30secs to reply in Dusun, as i need to think of the right words-right grammar and putting it into sentence.  i am really ashamed with myself!