Malay trade and creole languages

Baba Malay or Peranakan Malay, once a diverse group of pidgins, is spoken in Melaka but is now almost extinct. These are Malay varieties spoken by the Peranakan, descendants of Chinese settlers who have lived in Melaka since the 15th Century.[9] Baba Malay is close to the trade pidgins which became creolised across the Malay Archipelago, producing the variety of Malay creoles seen today. A kind of Baba Malay, called Peranakan, is spoken among Chinese living in East Java. It is a mixture of Malay or Indonesian with local Javanese (East Javanese dialect) and Chinese elements (particularly Hokkien). This particular variety is found only in East Java, especially in Surabaya and surrounding areas. While other Chinese tend to speak the language varieties of the places in which they live (the Chinese of Central Java speak High or Standard Javanese in daily conversation even among themselves; in West Java, they tend to speak Sundanese), in Surabaya younger ethnic Chinese people tend to speak pure Javanese (Surabaya dialect) and learn Mandarin in courses.

There are currently fewer 1,000 Baba Malay speakers in Melaka, and fewer than 1,000 Baba Malay speakers in Singapore.[10] Baba Malay is mostly spoken among the older populations.[11]

Example (spoken in Surabaya):

• 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.

Example (spoken in Melaka-Singapore):[12]

• 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 till I got angry.
• Oo-wa! Kinajeet, dia pasang kuat.: Wow! Today he dresses stylishly!

Betawi Malay, also known as Jakarta or Java Malay, is a creolised-Malay which is spoken in Jakarta (the modern name for Betawi) and its surroundings. Betawian or Omong Betawi is based on Bazaar Malay (Melayu Pasar) but influenced by various languages such as Javanese, Sundanese (the area is surrounded by Sundanese speaking area), Chinese (especially Hokkien), Portuguese, Dutch, Balinese and others. Betawian creole began to be used after 1750 in Batavia, and replaced Portuguese creole as the lingua franca.[13]

Betawian Malay was also influenced by Chinese-style Malay spoken by the Chinese settlers who had come earlier.

It has now become a very popular language particularly amongst the younger generations in Indonesia due largely to its use on television (such as sinetron or sitcom).

Betawi Malay was the ancestor of Cocos Malay.

Spoken since the 16th century by descendants of Tamil merchants of the Malacca Straits. It may be historically related to Sri Lanka Creole Malay. The current language status is moribund, due to inter-marriage and out-migration. There has been language shift towards Malay instead.[15]

The Sri Lankan Creole Malay language is a unique mixture of the Sinhala language and the Tamil language with Malay. Sri Lanka Malay (SLM) is a restructured vernacular of Malay base spoken by at least five different communities in Sri Lanka which has evolved to be significantly divergent from other varieties of Malay due to intimate contact with the dominant languages of Sinhala and Tamil. The Sri Lankan Malays, whose ancestry include labourers brought by the Dutch and British, as well as soldiers in the Dutch garrison, now constitute 0.3% of the population, numbering some 46,000. It is spoken by the Sri Lankan Malay community in Sri Lanka as well as among some Sinhalese in Hambantota.[16][17]

Singapore Bazaar Malay, also known as Bazaar Malay, Pasar Malay, or Market Malay, is a Malay-lexified pidgin, which is spoken in Singapore.[3] 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.[18] 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 (English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil), 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.[3]

A pidgin used in the pearl industry in West Australia.

A pidginised variant of standard Malay, Sabah Malay is a local trade language.[22] There are a large number of native speakers in urban areas, mainly children who have a second native language. There are also some speakers in the southernmost parts of the Philippines, particularly in the Sulu Archipelago as a trade language.

Makassar Malay is a creole-based mixed language, which is build of Bazaar Malay lexicon, Makassarese inflections, and mixed Malay/Makassarese syntax.[25][26]

It is widely spoken as a second language in Makassar,[27] but increasingly also as a first language in the younger generation.[26]

Balinese Malay is a dialect of Malay spoken in the island of Bali. It is also known as Omong Kampung ("village speak") 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.[29] The current language status is threatened.[30]

The creoles of eastern Indonesia[31] appear to have formed as Malays and Javanese, 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 lower to e, o in some environments
• there is a loss of final plosives p, t, k, and the neutralisation of final nasals in part of the lexicon
• the perfective marker sudah reduces to su or so[1]

For example,[2]

• makan becomes makang
• pergi becomes pigi or pi
• terkejut becomes takajo
• lembut becomes lombo
• dapat becomes dapa

Bacan (next) is perhaps the most archaic, and appears to be closely related to Brunei Malay (which is not a creole).

• Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin
• Javindo language
• Petjo language

• Lim, Sonny (1988). "Baba Malay: the language of the 'Straits-born' Chinese". In Steinhauer, H. (ed.). Papers in Western Austronesian Linguistics No. 3. Pacific Linguistics Series A - No.78. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. pp. 1–61. doi:10.15144/PL-A78. hdl:1885/145107. ISBN 0-85883-382-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• A Baba Malay Dictionary by William Gwee Thian Hock
• Malay creole boy, Hottentot Square Cape Town; Malay boy of Cape Town [picture] / George French Angas delt. et lithog.
• The Malay Chetty Creole Language Of Malacca A Historical And Linguistic Perspective

• Ethnologue: Malay-based creoles

Makassar Malay test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

Kupang Malay test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator