Sumbanese

English

Etymology

From Sumba +‎ -n- +‎ -ese.

Adjective

Sumbanese (not comparable)

Of or relating to Sumba or its people or language.

Alternative forms

Sumban (rare)

Noun

Sumbanese (plural Sumbanese)

(chiefly in the plural) A person belonging to the native Austronesian people of the island of Sumba.
- 1952, The Bible Translator:
  However, fasting as a prescribed ritual act is unknown to the Sumbanese. The other day I asked a young Sumbanese, who was a graduate of a three-year primary school, but not yet a church member, what was meant in the reading book by ...
- 1997, Janet Hoskins, The Play of Time: Kodi Perspectives on Calendars, History, and Exchange, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 37:
  Indeed, a profound ambivalence is expressed in stories about both European traders and the Bimanese, as in this one, collected by Kruyt in Weyewa in 1920: In the old days, the Sumbanese were friends with the "white foreigners" and the ...
- 1998, Joel C. Kuipers, Language, Identity, and Marginality in Indonesia: The Changing Nature of Ritual Speech on the Island of Sumba, Cambridge University Press, page 60:
  Many ritual-speech representations of Dutch presence on the island that have been preserved have a gendered character to them in which a Sumbanese is depicted in a female role. The voice of the Dutchman typically does not appear anywhere in the song; [...]
- 2008, Jan Sihar Aritonang, Karel Adriaan Steenbrink, A History of Christianity in Indonesia, BRILL, →ISBN, page 322:
  A third missionary, C. de Bruijn, was sent to work more specifically among the Sumbanese, but in his long period of duty (1892–1927) he also concentrated on the Sawunese in Kambaniru. The last decades of the nineteenth century were a ...

Usage notes

As with other terms for people formed with -ese, the countable singular noun in reference to a person (as in "I am a Sumbanese", "writing about Sumbanese cuisine as a Sumbanese") is uncommon and often taken as incorrect. In its place, the adjective is used, by itself (as in "I am Sumbanese") or before a noun like person, man, or woman ("writing about Sumbanese cuisine as a Sumbanese person"). See also -ish, which is similarly only used primarily as an adjective or as a plural noun.

Proper noun

Sumbanese

An Austronesian language or dialect continuum spoken in eastern Sumba.
Synonym: Kambera