Kelantan-Pattani Malay

Kelantan-Pattani Malay, often referred to in Thailand as Yawi (in Thai) or Jawi (in Patani Malay), and in Kelantan as Baso Kelaté, is an Austronesian language and a Malayic / Malayan language spoken in the Malaysian state of Kelantan and the neighbouring southernmost provinces of Thailand. It is the primary spoken language of Thai Malays, but is also used as a lingua franca by ethnic Southern Thais in rural areas, Muslim and non-Muslim, and the samsam, a mostly Thai-speaking population of mixed Malay and Thai ancestry.

Kelantan–Pattani Malay is a highly divergent dialect of Malay because of the geographical isolation of the dialect from the rest of the Malay world by high mountains, deep rainforest and the Gulf of Thailand. In Thailand, it is influenced by Thai. Several varieties exist, but they are mutually comprehensible to the extent that native speakers of Pattani and Kelantanese often cannot differentiate each other.

Kelantanese–Pattani Malay is distinct enough that radio broadcasts in Standard Malay cannot be understood easily by native speakers of Kelantanese–Pattani Malay who are not taught the standard language, for example, those in Thailand. Unlike Malaysia where Standard Malay is compulsory in the school curriculum, no one is required to learn Standard Malay in Thailand, and so there is potentially less language influence from standard Malay but potentially more from Thai. It is different also from Kedah Malay and Terengganuan Malay, but both languages have close similarities with the Kelantanese-Pattani Malay language.

Names

The language is often referred to in Thai as Phasa Yawi (Thai: ภาษายาวี  [pʰāːsǎː jāːwīː]), which is a corruption of the Malay name for the modified Arabic alphabet for writing Malay, Jawi (Yawi: جاوي, Rumi: Jawi, IPA: [dʑaˈwi]). It is also referred to in Thai as Phasa Malayu Pattani (Thai: ภาษามลายูปัตตานี  [pʰāːsǎː mālāːjūː pàttāːnīː]) and similarly locally in Malay as Bahasa Malayu Patani (Jawi: بهاس ملايو ڤطاني, Rumi: Bahasa Melayu Patani, local pronunciation: [baˈsɔ ˈnːaju ˈtːaniŋ]). The dialect is often simply just called Bahasa Patani.

Kelantanese is known in Standard Malay as Bahasa Kelantan, and in Kelantanese as Baso Kelate.

Distribution

Pattani Malay is the main language of the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani where the Malay ethnic group is the dominant one. Also some part of Songkhla. It is less spoken in Satun, where even the ethnic Malays generally speak Southern Thai and Kedah Malay. It is also spoken in scattered villages as far north as Hat Yai. In the past, Malay was the main language as far north as the Isthmus of Kra, the traditional division between Central Thailand and Southern Thailand, based on the preponderance of etymologically Malay place names.

Kelantanese is spoken in the state of Kelantan, as well as in Besut and Setiu districts of Terengganu and the Perhentian Islands. Also in Merapoh district of Pahang. Many people in the districts of Baling, Sik and Padang Terap in Kedah as well as Grik and Hulu Perak districts of Perak speak Kelantanese dialects, since most of the Malay people there are the descendants of Kelantanese migrants and Pattani refugees.

Writing system

Kelantanese Malay has an older and a richer literary history than standard Malay. It is written in the Jawi alphabet, based on the Arabic script, which is where the name "Yawi/Jawi" for the language comes from. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the general population of Malay speakers in both Malaysia and Indonesia that now use the Latin script, known in Malay as rumi (رومي), for daily communication. Today, Pattani Malay itself is generally not a written language, though it is sometimes written in informal settings or eye dialect. When writing is needed, an old-fashioned variety of standard Malay is used rather than the local dialect. A phonetic rendering of Pattani Malay in the Thai alphabet has been introduced, but it has not met with much success, due to the socio-religious significance of Jawi to Muslim Malays, as well as because of numerous inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

History

Southern Thailand has continued to be a region affected by two cultural spheres: the mainly Buddhist, Thai-speaking Siamese kingdoms and the mainly Muslim, Malay-speaking sultanates. The region was a warehouse of trade where merchants from Europe, India, Arabia, China, Siam, and the other Malay world met. At first dominated by Hindu-Buddhist Indian influences, the great kingdom of Srivijaya would later fall in chaos. Islam was introduced by Arab and Indian traders in the 11th century and has been the dominant religion ever since, replacing the Buddhism and Hinduism that had held sway before. By the 14th century, the area became vassals to Ayutthaya, but the region was autonomous and never fully incorporated into the modern Thai nation-state till 1902. This political autonomy and isolation from the rest of the Malay world allowed for preservation of the Malay language and culture but also led to the divergence of the dialect.

Differences between Yawi and Standard Malay

Kelantanese is different enough from Standand Malay that it is often unintelligible to speakers of the standard language. Differences include different vocabulary, but also involve regular sound changes. The influence of Southern Thai and Pattani Malay upon each other is great, and both have large numbers of loanwords from the other. The influence of the Thai language is one factor that makes comprehension between Pattani Malay and Standard Malay difficult.

Pronunciation

• /a/ followed by a nasal consonant changes to /ɛː/

  ayam ايم‎ ('chicken') becomes ayē; makan ماکن‎ (to eat) becomes makē

• /a/ at the end of syllables changes to /ɔʔ/

  minta مينتا‎ ('to ask') becomes mito’

• /ah/ changes /ɔh/

  rumah رومه‎ ('house') becomes rumoh (pronounced /'ʀuːmɔh/)

• /a/ changes to /ɔ/

  bewa بيوا‎ becomes bewo

• /i/ nasalized and changes to /iŋ/

  sini سيني‎ ('here' or 'seat') becomes sining

• /ua/ changes to /ɔ/

  buaso بواسو‎ ('to become ordained') becomes bosō

• /aj/ becomes /aː/

  sungai سوڠاي‎ ('river' or 'canal') becomes sungā

• /aw/ becomes /a/

  pisau ڤيساو‎ ('knife') changes to pisā

• /ia/ before a nasal consonant changes to = /ijɛ/

  siam سيام‎ ('Siam') becomes siyē

• /ia/ changes to /ɛ/

  biasa بياسا‎ ('normal' or 'make use of') becomes besō

• /s/ and /f/ at the end of syllables changes to /h/

  malas مالس‎ ('lazy') changes to malah

• /m/ and /n/ at the end of syllables changes to /ŋ/

  hakim حاکيم‎ (judge) changes to hakéng (/hʌkeɪŋ/)

• /r/ changes to /ʀ/

  orang اورڠ‎ ('person') becomes oghē

• final consonants are often only pronounced as a glottal stop.

  bukit بوکيت‎ ('hill') becomes buké’ (bukeɪʔ)

• words are distinguished between lengthened initial consonant

  bule ('moon') vs. bːulɛ ('many months' or 'for months'); katok ('to strike', 'to hit') vs. kːatok ('frog'); siku ('elbow') vs. sːiku ('hand tool', from word 'sesiku')

References

• ประพนธ์ เรืองณรงค์. บุหงาปัตตานี: คติชนไทยมุสลิมชายแดนภาคใต้. กทม. มติชน. 2540
• Ishii, Yoneo. (1998). The Junk Trade from Southeast Asia: Translations from the Tôsen Fusesu-gaki 1674–1723. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 981-230-022-8.
• Cummings, Joe et al. (2005). Thailand Lonely Planet. ISBN 1-74059-697-8.
• Laver, John. (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.
• Smalley, William A. (1994). Linguistic Diversity and National Unity: Language Ecology in Thailand. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226762890.

Kelantan-Pattani Malay test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator