Malay trade and creole languages

Betawi Malay

Betawi, also known as Batavian, Jakartanese, Betawi Malay, Batavian Malay, or Jakarta Malay, is the spoken language of the Betawi people in and around Jakarta, Indonesia. The name "Betawi" stems from Batavia, the official name of Jakarta during the era of the Dutch East Indies. A precise number of speakers is difficult to determine due to the vague use of the name.

Linguistically, the traditional dialects as spoken for in-group communication within the Betawi community differ quite significantly from Colloquial Jakarta Indonesian, the vernacular Indonesian variety used as a lingua franca among the diverse urbanites in Greater Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia. In modern-day Jakarta and the surrounding area, Betawi and Indonesian are often used in a continuum, with traditional varieties as the basilect and Standard Indonesian as the acrolect. Colloquial Jakarta Indonesian, which sits in the middle, incorporate significant influence not only from Betawi, but also from other languages brought by migrants to Jakarta. According to Uri Tadmor, there is no clear border distinguishing Colloquial Jakarta Indonesian from Betawi language.

Thousand Islands Malay

The Orang Pulo language (Logat Orang Pulo), alternatively known as Melayu Campuran (Mixed Malay) or Melayu Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands Malay), is a Malay-based creole spoken by the Orang Pulo (lit. 'People of Island') inhabiting the Thousand Islands off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia. This language emerged from a mixture of many languages in Indonesia, particularly Buginese and Malay.

Malaccan Creole Malay

The Malay Chetty creole language (also known as Malaccan Creole Malay, Malaccan Malay Creole and Chitties/Chetties Malay) is a Malay-based creole spoken by the Chetties (also known as Indian Peranakans), a distinctive group of Tamil people found mainly in Malacca in Malaysia and Singapore, who have adopted Chinese and Malay cultural practices whilst also retaining their Hindu heritage.

Sri Lanka Malay

Sri Lankan Malay ( ), also known as Sri Lankan Creole Malay, Bahasa Melayu, Ja basawa, or Java moli, is a Malay-based creole language spoken in Sri Lanka, formed as a mixture of Sinhala and Shonam (Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil), with Malay being the major lexifier. It is traditionally spoken by the Sri Lankan Malays, Javanese Sri Lankans, and among some Sinhalese in the Southern Province. Today, the number of speakers of the language have dwindled slightly but it has continued to be spoken notably in the Hambantota District of Southern Sri Lanka, which has traditionally been home to many Sri Lankan Malays.

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 (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.

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 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

Balinese Malay or Loloan Malay is a dialect of Malay spoken in the island of Bali. It is also known as Omong Kampong (lit. '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 Kecamatan Melaya and Kecamatan Negara, 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

Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin is a pidgin that sprang up in Broome, Western Australia in the early 20th century to facilitate communication between the various groups working in the pearling industry there—Japanese, Malays, Torres Strait Islanders, Koepangers, Hakka Chinese, Filipinos, Sri Lankans of Sinhalese and Tamil descent, a small number of Koreans, and local Indigenous Australians, mainly of the Bardi people but also Nyulnyul, Jabirr Jabirr, Jukun, Yawuru and Karajarri people. The name derives from the boats used for pearling, known as pearling luggers.

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

For example:

• 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

There is a loss of diphthongs:

• the diphthong "au" become to "o"
• the diphthong "ai" reduces to "e"
• the letter" u" become "o"

There are many affixes that the pronunciation is simplified:

• The prefix "mə(N)" reduces to "ma"
• The prefix "bə(r)", reduces to "ba"
• The prefix "tə(r)", reduces to "ta"
• The prefix "kə", reduces to "ka"

For example:

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

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.

Ambonese Malay

Ambonese Malay or simply Ambonese is a Malay-based creole language spoken on Ambon Island in the Maluku Islands of Eastern Indonesia. It was first brought by traders from Western Indonesia, then developed when the Dutch Empire colonised the Maluku Islands and was used as a tool by missionaries in Eastern Indonesia. Malay has been taught in schools and churches in Ambon, and because of this it has become a lingua franca in Ambon and its surroundings.

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 (deviated from Dutch : mier)

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

Kupang Malay or Kupang language is a Malay-based creole language spoken in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, which is on the west end of Timor Island. Kupang Malay is presently used as a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communication, and it also has native speakers.

Larantuka Malay

Larantuka Malay (bahasa Nagi, Melayu Larantuka), also known as Nagi, is a Malay-based creole language spoken in the eastern part of Flores in Indonesia, especially in Larantuka. It is a derivative of Malay which is thought to originate from Malacca. It is a language with unspecified linguistic affiliation. According to 2007 data, this language is spoken by 20,000 speakers, mainly the people of East Flores. Larantuka Malay is the mother tongue of the Nagi people. Then it also functions as a second language for several nearby communities.

Manado Malay

Manado Malay, Manadonese, or simply the Manado language, is a creole language spoken in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province in Indonesia, and the surrounding area. The local name of the language is bahasa Manado, and the name Minahasa Malay is also used, after the main ethnic group speaking the language. Since Manado Malay is used primarily for spoken communication, there is no standard orthography.

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

North Moluccan Malay (also known as Ternate Malay) is a Malay-based creole language spoken on Ternate, Tidore, Morotai, Halmahera, and Sula Islands in North Maluku for intergroup communications. The local name of the language is bahasa Pasar (literally 'market language'), and the name Ternate Malay is also used, after the main ethnic group speaking the language. It is commonly written using Indonesian orthography. One of its varieties is Sula Malay, which was formed with the influence of Ambonese Malay.

Papuan Malay

Papuan Malay or Irian Malay is a Malay-based creole language spoken in the Indonesian part of New Guinea. It emerged as a contact language among tribes in Indonesian New Guinea (now Papua, Central Papua, Highland Papua, South Papua, West Papua, and Southwest Papua) for trading and daily communication. Nowadays, it has a growing number of native speakers. In more recent times, the vernacular of Indonesian Papuans has been influenced by Standard Indonesian, the national standard dialect. It is spoken in Indonesian New Guinea alongside 274 other languages and functions as a lingua franca.