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 ("trade language") 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 particle.
  • Reduced forms of ini 'this' and itu 'that' (>ni, tu) 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.

For example,

  • Rumahku 'my house' becomes Aku punya rumah (lit. 'I have (that) house')
  • Aku pukul dia 'I hit him' becomes Aku kasi pukul dia (lit. 'I give a hit to him')
  • Ardi dipukul oleh Dani 'Ardi is hit by Dani' becomes Ardi kena pukul dek Dani

Peranakan-Baba 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

Balinese Malay or Loloan Malay is a dialect of Malay spoken in the island of Bali. It is also known as () 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 and , Jembrana Regency. The current language status is threatened.

According to I Wayan Bawa (1983), 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.

Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin

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 (as this only occur on Kupang Malay).
  • the perfective marker dan reduces to deng
  • the perfective marker pun reduces to pung
  • the perfective marker sudah reduces to su or so

Alor Malay is based on Kupang Malay; however, Alor Malay differs significantly from Kupang Malay, especially in its pronouns.

Ambonese Malay

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 :

  • : I
  • : you
  • : we
  • : ants (deviated from Dutch : )

Dili Malay

Dili Malay is a variety of trade Malay spoken in Dili, Timor Leste especially in the Kampung Alor area. According to experts, before becoming the mother tongue of a number of its speakers, this language was originally a pidgin language (Bloomfield, 1933; Hall, 1966). Then, in its development, this pidgin language became a creole language which was used in wider social interactions in society (Todd, 1974:50). Due to the long historical presence of the Portuguese in East Timor, several Dili Malay loanwords originate from Portuguese and Tetum, with little influences from other native languages.

Gorap

Gorap is a Malay-based creole language predominantly spoken by Gorap (Bobaneigo) ethnic group, indigenous to western and northern regions of the Indonesian island of Halmahera. It shares vocabulary with other Papuan languages and some of languages spoken in Sulawesi, such as Buginese and Cia-Cia. Roughly around 60 out of 200 attested words in this language were indicated sharing vocabulary with those languages.

Kupang Malay

Larantuka Malay

Manado Malay

Maumere Malay

Maumere Malay is a Malay-based creole on or even a pidgin spoken in Maumere, a small town on the north coast of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara. There is no clear classification of this language, but if we look at the linguistic characteristics and speech conditions, this language is included in the pidgin language, because the vocabulary and grammar are limited, and often taken from several different languages. This language is most commonly used in situations such as trade or when people speak different languages and do not understand each other.

Sula Malay

Sula Malay is a variety of Malay-based creole language which is generally used by multiethnic society in Sula Islands and Taliabu Island in the southwest part of North Maluku. The Sula Malay is heavily influenced by other languages, This can be found in loan words originating from Ambonese Malay and Dutch language can be found in Sula Malay. Some contraction vocabulary can also be found in this language, as is the case in North Moluccan Malay (Ternate Malay).

Ternate/North Moluccan Malay

Papuan Malay

References

Works cited

  • 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

Bibliography

  • Ethnologue: Malay-based creoles