Sarawak Malay
Sarawak Malay is a Malayic language native to the State of Sarawak. It is a common language used by natives of Sarawak and also as the important mother tongue for the Sarawakian Malay people.
The Sarawakian Malay language also bears strong similarities with the West Kalimantan Malay language around Sanggau, Sintang and Sekadau in the northern part of the West Kalimantan province of Indonesia.
Dialects
According to Asmah Haji Omar, Sarawak Malay can be divided into three dialects, the Kuching dialect spoken in Kuching and Kota Samarahan, the Saribas dialect spoken in Saribas, and the Sibu dialect spoken in Sibu. In Miri and Limbang, a variety of Malay closer to Brunei Malay is spoken.Phonology
Consonants
The consonantal inventory of Sarawak Malay consists of 19 phonemes as seen in the table below.Note:
- Sarawak Malay corresponds to in Standard Malay so goreng would be pronounced as, not as in Standard Malay.
- * Unlike in many Peninsular Malaysian dialects which contain the same sound, is not silent in word-final position so the R in words like bakar and tohor is pronounced.
- * In the Sibu dialect, is uvular instead of velar.
- Word-initial in Standard Malay in words like halus and hampas is dropped in Sarawak Malay so they are pronounced as alus and ampas instead. There are some exceptions such as hormat though they are usually loanwords.
- Word-final in some words is pronounced as a velar stop rather than as a glottal stop as in Malaysian Standard Malay, so words like landak and ngajak are pronounced as and rather than as and.
- Some words in Standard Malay that end open-finally or end in a have a glottal stop added with the former and replacing the consonant with the latter. This can be seen words such as lamak and aik which are cognate to Standard Malay lama and air and mean the same thing.
- Standard Malay Word-final or corresponds to Sarawak Malay or so Standard Malay kuning corresponds to kunin in Sarawak Malay.
Vowels
Monophthongs
Sarawak Malay has the same vowel inventory as Standard Malay,. However, the distribution of these vowels is a little different.| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Close-Mid | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open-Mid | |||
| Open |
Note:
- Word-final as in ada and raja is pronounced as in the Kuching dialect but as in the Saribas dialect. This means the two words would be pronounced as and in the Kuching dialect and as and in the Saribas dialect.
- The vowels can be realized either as close-mid or as open-mid.
- The Standard Malay diphthongs correspond to in Sarawak Malay so the Standard Malay words pandai and pulau correspond to Sarawak Malay and.
Diphthongs
Sarawak Malay only has one diphthong,, found in words like paloi .Morphology
Sarawak Malay has an agent focus or active prefix, ng- which corresponds to the Standard Malay prefix, meng-. When attached to a stem, if the stem starts with a consonant, the prefix assimilates to the consonant in place of articulation, and the original initial consonant of the stem is deleted. If the stem starts with a vowel, the prefix is just attached with no other changes. The affixation process is shown in the table below:| Initial Consonant | Assimilated Prefix | Example Stem | Result of Affixation | Standard Malay Equivalent |
| putus | mutus | memutus | ||
| beli | meli | membeli | ||
| tolak | nolak | menolak | ||
| dengar | nengar | mendengar | ||
| sangkut | nyangkut | menyangkut | ||
| cuba | nyuba | mencuba | ||
| julok | nyulok | menjolok | ||
| amal | ngamal | mengamal | ||
| kata | ngata | mengata | ||
| gosok | ngosok | menggosok |
Vocabulary
Sarawak Malay has a rich vocabulary of which many words, while also found in Standard Malay, have completely different meanings.| Word | Meaning in Sarawak Malay | Meaning in Standard Malay |
| agak | 'to meet' | 'to guess' |
| kelakar | 'to talk' | 'funny' |
| tangga | 'to look' | 'stairs' |
| tikam | 'to throw' | 'to stab' |
| tetak | 'to laugh' | 'to cut' |
| marak | 'to waste' | 'to refract' |
The numbers of Sarawak Malay differ a bit from their Standard Malay counterparts.
| Sarawak Malay | Standard Malay | English translation |
| satu | satu | 'one' |
| duak | dua | 'two' |
| tiga | tiga | 'three' |
| empat | empat | 'four' |
| limak | lima | 'five' |
| nam | enam | 'six' |
| tujoh | tujuh | 'seven' |
| lapan | lapan | 'eight' |
| semilan | sembilan | 'nine' |
| sepuloh | sepuluh | 'ten' |
The pronouns too differ quite significantly, with the first and second person pronouns both being related to the first person plural pronouns of Standard Malay.
| Sarawak Malay | Standard Malay | English translation |
| kamek | saya / aku | 'I' / 'me' |
| kamek empun | saya / aku punya | 'my' / 'mine' |
| kamek orang | kita/kami | 'we' |
| kitak | kau / kamu / awak | 'you' |
| kitak empun | kau / kamu / awak punya | 'your' / 'yours' |
| kitak orang | kamu / awak semua | 'you' |
| nya | dia | 'he' / 'she' / 'it' |
| nya empun | dia punya | 'his' / 'her' / 'hers' |
| sidak nya empun | mereka punya | 'theirs' |
| sidak nya kedirik | mereka sendiri | 'themselves' |
Below is a non-exhaustive list of lexical differences between Standard Malay and Sarawak Malay.
| Standard Malay | Sarawak Malay | English translation |
| anjing | asuk | 'dog' |
| ayam / manuk | manok | 'chicken' |
| baring | gurin | 'to lie down' |
| bodoh | paloi | 'stupid' |
| berlari | berekot | 'to run' |
| garang | gaok | 'angry' |
| hijau | gadong / ijo | 'green' |
| kapal terbang | belon | 'aeroplane' |
| kecil | kecik / salus | 'small' |
| kucing | pusak | 'cat' |
| jalan raya | jeraya | 'road' |
| juga | juak | 'also' |
| sombong | lawa | 'arrogant' |
| kenapa | kenak | 'why' |
| kenyang | kedak | 'full' |
| mahu | maok | 'to want' |
| merah jambu | kalas | 'pink' |
| pisau | ladin ''dandin / pisok | 'knife' |
| sekarang / kini | kinek | 'now' |
| singgah | berambeh | 'to go to' |
| tembikai | semangka | 'watermelon' |
| tak / tidak | si / sik | 'negative marker' |
| tipu | bulak | 'to lie' |
| ya / haah | aok | 'yes' |
| lihat / tengok | tangga | 'to see' |
| berkira | cokot | 'picky' |
Many of the words used in Sarawak Malay nowadays were borrowed from many languages such as English. Some English words that have been borrowed and have undergone significant pronunciation changes are as follows:
| English loanword | Original English form |
| eksen | 'action' |
| bol | 'ball' |
| kaler | 'colour' |
| kapet | 'carpet' |
| pancet | 'punctured' |
| henpon | 'handphone' |
| moto | 'motor' |
| prempan | 'frying pan' |
| uren | 'orange' |
| raun'' | 'round' |
Colloquial and contemporary usage
Contemporary usage of Sarawak Malay includes contemporary Malay words or incorporated from other languages, spoken by the urban speech community, which may not be familiar to the older generation. E.g.: SMS language. E.g.:| English | Sarawak Malay | SMS Text |
| you | kitak | ktk |
| me | kamek | kmk |
| no | sik | x |
| message | mesej | msg |
| nothing | sikda | xda |
| why | kenak | knk |