Introduction

The total number of speakers of Banjar in Indonesia and other countries is 3,505,000. Most of the population is located in the Kalimantan Selatan province: Banjarmasin area; Kalimantan Tengah province: Palangkaraya, Pangkalanbun, and Sampit; Kalimantan Timur province: Kutai, Pasir, and Pulau Laut coastal regions, north toward Samarinda city and Mahakan delta; Kalimantan Barat province: some in coastal Matua; Kalimantan south and southeastern coasts, Java Sea and Makassar Strait.

The Banjar language is classified as Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Malayic, Malay. Alternate names for the language include: Bandjarese, Banjar Malay, Banjarese, and Labuhan. The two known dialects of Banjar are Kuala and Hulu.

Banjar became a language of wider communication (LWC) through trade, in the market, in business, and in media (newspapers, TV). Banjar is already dominant in the South Kalimantan Province, and is also growing rapidly in the Central and Eastern Kalimantan provinces. The Banjar highly value their language, and for that reason alone, a dictionary was created for the preservation and formal use of the language.