Malay trade and creole languages
In addition to its classical and modern literary form, Malay had various regional dialects established after the rise of the Srivijaya empire in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the south East Asia Archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay and in Malay Melayu Pasar. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Hokkien, Portuguese, and Dutch traders.
Besides the general simplification that occurs with pidgins, the Malay lingua franca had several distinctive characteristics. One was that possessives were formed with punya 'its owner, to have'; another was that plural pronouns were formed with orang 'person'. The only Malayic affixes that remained productive were tər- and bər-.
Other common features:
- Ada became a progressive aspects|progressive] particle.
- Reduced forms of ini 'this' and itu 'that' before a noun.
- The verb pərgi 'go' was reduced, and became a preposition 'towards'.
- Causative constructions were formed with kasi or bəri 'to give' or bikin or buat 'to make'.
- A single preposition, often sama, was used for multiple functions, including direct and indirect object.
- Rumahku 'my house' becomes Aku punya rumah
- Aku pukul dia 'I hit him' becomes Aku kasi pukul dia
- Ardi dipukul oleh Dani 'Ardi is hit by Dani' becomes ''Ardi kena pukul dek Dani''
Peranakan-Baba Malay
Baba Malay
Baba Malay is spoken by the Peranakans in Malacca and Singapore. A typical contact language between Hokkien male settlers and local Malay women, it has "more Hokkien grammar and more Malay lexicon". As of 2014, there are 1,000 speakers in Malaysia and another 1,000 in Singapore. It is mostly spoken among the older populations. In 1986, Pakir estimated there were 5,000 speakers in Singapore. A Baba Indonesian variant is also spoken in East Java.Example :
- Dia suka datang sini sembang.: He likes to come here and gossip.
- Keliap-keliap, dia naik angin.: Slightly provoked, he gets angry.
- Gua tunggu dia sampai gua k'ee geram.: I waited for him until I got angry.
- Oo-wa! Kinajeet, dia pasang kuat.: Wow! Today he dresses stylishly!
Peranakan Indonesian
A kind of Baba Malay, locally called Peranakan from the ethnonym, is spoken among Chinese-Indonesians living in various regions of Indonesia, most visibly in Surabaya and Medan. It is a mixture of three languages: Indonesian, a local language and Chinese elements. The most famous variety is found in East Java, especially in Surabaya and surrounding areas, called Basa Suroboyoan, with a strong emphasis of low Javanese and informal tone, which is not only spoken by Chinese-Indonesian in Surabaya, but also by non-Chinese-Indonesians when conversing with the former.Example :
- Kamu mbok ojok gitu!: Don't act that way!
- Yak apa kabarnya si Eli?: How's Eli?
- Ntik kamu pigio ambek cecemu ae ya.: Go with your sister, okay?
- Nih, makanen sakadae.: Please have a meal!
- Kamu cariken bukune koko ndhek rumahe Ling Ling.: Search your brother's book in Ling Ling's house.
Sri Lanka Malay
Singapore Bazaar Malay
Singapore Bazaar Malay, also known as Bazaar Malay, Pasar Malay, or Market Malay, is a Malay-lexified pidgin, which is spoken in Singapore. Tamil and Hokkien contributed to the development of Bazaar Malay, with Hokkien being the dominant substrate language of Bazaar Malay, with Malay being the lexifier language. However, there are many input languages spoken by immigrants that also contributed to the development of Bazaar Malay, including languages spoken by Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, and Europeans. Singapore Bazaar Malay emerged along with the opening of Singapore's free trade port in 1819, to overcome barriers in communication and business transactions. Since Singapore has only four official languages, Singapore Bazaar Malay not only is a lingua franca in interethnic communication, it is also used in intra-group communication. Singapore Bazaar Malay is mostly spoken by elders and middle-aged workers today, but its language status is declining due to education policies and language campaigns with less than 10,000 speakers.Bazaar Malay is used in a limited extent in Singapore and Malaysia, mostly among the older generation or people with no working knowledge of English. The most important reason that contributed to the decline of Bazaar Malay is that pidgin Malay has creolised and created several new languages. Another reason is due to language shift in both formal and informal contexts, Bazaar Malay in Singapore is gradually being replaced by English, with English and its creole Singlish being the lingua franca among the younger generations.
Sabah Malay
A creolised variant of standard Malay, Sabah Malay is a local trade or Malay-based creole language. There are a large number of native speakers in urban areas, mainly children who have it as first or second native language. There are also some speakers in the southernmost parts of the Philippines, particularly in the Sulu Archipelago as a trade language, also spoken in the southern part of Palawan and Zamboanga Peninsula. There are loanwords from Dusun, Tausug, Sama-Bajau languages, Chabacano, Brunei Malay, Indonesian, standard Malaysian as well as other ethnic native languages of Sabah & North Kalimantan.Makassar Malay
Makassar Malay is a creole-based mixed language, which is built of Bazaar Malay lexicon, Makassarese inflections, and mixed Malay/Makassarese syntax.It is now widely spoken as the first language in Makassar City and its surrounding areas, especially those who were born after the 1980s. It has widely spread to the entire region in southern part of Sulawesi island, including in the provinces of Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Tenggara, and Sulawesi Barat as regional lingua franca or as second language due to contact or doing business with people from Makassar City.
Makassar Malay used as a default dialect or neutral language when communicating with people from other tribes or ethnicities whom do not share the same local language to the native local speakers in those three provinces. It appears that Makassar Malay also used as the first language of younger generation who live in the cities or regencies' capital across those three provinces.
Furthermore, apart from those three provinces in the southern part of Sulawesi island, Makassar Malay also used by people in some parts of Sulawesi Tengah Province, especially when communicating with people from those three provinces. It can also be used when communicating with people from other people from other provinces in Eastern Indonesia and in the province of East Kalimantan.
Balinese Malay
or Loloan Malay is a dialect of Malay spoken in the island of Bali. It is also known as Omong Kampong by its speakers. Balinese Malay is the primary language of ethnic Malay who live in the northwestern part of the island, mainly in the districts of Melaya and Negara, Jembrana Regency. The current language status is threatened.According to I Wayan Bawa, Balinese Malay is spoken as the first language in western Bali by 14,422 people in Jembrana Regency. The speakers are found in Negara district, including the villages of West Loloan, East Loloan, Tegal Badeng Islam, Pembangunan, Cupel, and Banyubiru, as well as in Melaya district, specifically in Melaya Bawah village.
Eastern Indonesia Malay
The creoles of eastern Indonesia appear to have formed as Malays, using lingua franca Malay, established their monopoly on the spice trade before the European colonial era. They have a number of features in common:- ə becomes a, e, or assimilates to the following vowel
- i, u lowered to e, o in some environments, especially when it is at the end of a syllable
- there is a loss of final plosives p, t, k, and n the neutralisation of final nasals in part of the lexicon
- the perfective marker juga reduces to ju or jo
- the perfective marker lebih reduces to le
- the perfective marker mau reduces to mo
- the perfective marker mana reduces to ma.
- the perfective marker dan reduces to deng
- the perfective marker pun reduces to pung
- the perfective marker sudah reduces to su or so
- makan becomes makang
- pərgi becomes pigi or pi
- tərkəjut becomes takajo
- ləmbut becomes lombo
- dapat becomes dapa
- jangan becomes jang
- pada becomes pa
- lupa becomes lu
- the diphthong "au" become to "o"
- the diphthong "ai" reduces to "e"
- the letter" u" become "o"
- The prefix "mə" reduces to "ma"
- The prefix "bə", reduces to "ba"
- The prefix "tə", reduces to "ta"
- The prefix "kə", reduces to "ka"
The loss of middle "ə" and "h" in the last end of words:
- tərbəlah becomes tabala
- bərtəngkar becomes batengkar
- mənangis becomes manangis
- kəhidupan becomes ''kaidopan''
Alor Malay
is spoken in the Alor archipelago. Speakers perceive Alor Malay to be a different register of standard Indonesian, but both of these are prestige varieties of the archipelago. Many people are able to understand standard Indonesian, but cannot speak it fluently and choose to use Alor Malay on a daily basis.Alor Malay is based on Kupang Malay; however, Alor Malay differs significantly from Kupang Malay, especially in its pronouns.
Banda Malay
Banda Malay is a distinct variant of Moluccan Malay, spoken in Banda Islands, Maluku. Significantly different from Ambonese Malay and for Ambonese, Banda Malay tends to be perceived as sounding funny due to its unique features.Example :
- beta : I
- pane : you
- katorang : we
- mir : ants