Yesterday, I went on a Brunei Nature Society outing, to visit the sago factory in Tutong District. One of the highlights was the chance to try the delicious (?) sago grub, known locally as utod.
Now, where does the word utod come from? It can't be Malay, as native words of Malay cannot end with /d/. While there are some Malay words that end with /d/, such as masjid (mosque), abad (century) and wujud (exist), these are all borrowed words, mostly from Arabic. While Malay can certainly have /t/ at the end of a word, such as bukit (hill), empat (four), and tempat (place), /d/ is not possible.
So, where does utod come from? My guess is it's from Dusun. Dusun can certainly have /d/ at the end of a word, as in talid (sprouting branch) (see here); so maybe utod as well.
