Ambonese Malay
| Ambonese Malay | |
|---|---|
| Region | Moluccas |
|
Native speakers
|
(250,000 cited 1987) 1.4 million L2 speakers |
|
Malay creole
|
|
| Dialects | Papuan Malay? |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | ambo1250 |
Ambonese Malay is a Malay creole that has been apparent since the 17th century. It was first brought by traders from Western Indonesia, then developed when the Dutch Empire colonized the Maluku Islands. This was the first example of the transliteration of Malay into Roman script, and used as a tool of the missionaries in Eastern Indonesia. Malay has been taught in schools and churches in Ambon, and because of this, has become a lingua franca in Ambon and its surroundings.
Christian speakers use Ambonese Malay as their mother tongue, while Muslims speak it as second language as they have their own language. Muslims in Ambon island particularly live in several areas in Municipality of Ambon, dominant in Salahutu and Leihitu Peninsula. While in the Lease (/leɪ-a-seɪ/) islands, Christian Ambonese-speaking community is dominant in part of Haruku, Saparua and Nusa Laut islands. Ambonese Malay Creole has also become lingua franca in Buru, Seram, Geser-Gorom and south-western Maluku Islands, though with different accents.
Ambonese Malay is based on Malay with a great influences from both European languages (Dutch and Portuguese) as well as the vocabularies or grammatical structures of indigenous languages. It is famous for its melodious accent. Muslims and Christian speakers tend to make different choices in vocabulary. Papuan Malay, a Malay creole spoken on the Indonesian part of Papua is said to be derived from Ambon Malay or Manado Malay or a mixture of both.
Examples :
Ambonese word samples
In Ambonese Malay, personal pronouns typically have a full form, as well as another one or more shortened and/or variant forms. The pronouns vary in terms of number, that is singular and plural, as well as clusivity, such as exclusive forms, i.e. forms that exclude the addressee, and inclusive forms, i.e. forms that include the addressee. Such distinction is relatively typical of Austronesian languages. The following table provides a summary of all the pronouns found in Malay Ambon:
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Wikipedia