Baba Malay | |
---|---|
Native to | Singapore, Malaysia (Melaka and Penang) |
Ethnicity | 250,000 (1986) |
Native speakers
|
(12,000 cited 1986–2006) |
Malay-based creole
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | baba1267 |
Peranakan | |
---|---|
Baba Indonesian | |
Region | Java |
Native speakers
|
(20,000 cited 1981) |
Malay-based creole
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | pera1256 |
Malaccan Creole Malay | |
---|---|
Chitties Creole Malay | |
Native to | Malaysia |
Ethnicity | 300 (no date) |
Native speakers
|
|
Malay-based creole
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | mala1482 |
Sabah Malay | |
---|---|
Region | Sabah, Sulu Archipelago, Labuan |
Native speakers
|
3 million L2 speakers (2013) |
Malay–based pidgin
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | saba1263 |
Macassar Malay | |
---|---|
Region | Makassar, South Sulawesi |
Native speakers
|
None Second language: 1.9 million (2000) |
Mixed Malay–Macassarese
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | maka1305 |
Balinese Malay | |
---|---|
Region | Bali |
Native speakers
|
25,000 (2000 census) |
Malay-based creole
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | bali1279 |
Bacanese Malay | |
---|---|
Region | Bacan, North Maluku |
Native speakers
|
6 (2012) |
Brunei Malay-based creole?
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | baca1243 |
Gorap | |
---|---|
Region | Morotai Island, central Halmahera |
Native speakers
|
(1,000 cited 1992) |
Malay-based creole
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | gora1261 |
Kupang Malay | |
---|---|
Region | Kupang, West Timor |
Native speakers
|
200,000 (1997) 100,000 L2 speakers (no date) |
Malay-based creole
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | kupa1239 |
Bandanese Malay | |
---|---|
Banda Malay | |
Region | Banda Islands |
Native speakers
|
3,700 (2000) |
Malay-based creole
|
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | band1353 |
In addition to its classical and literary form, Malay has various regional dialects established before the rise of the Malaccan Sultanate. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the Malay archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Chinese, 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'; another was that plural pronouns were formed with orang 'person'. The only Malayic affixes that remained productive were tər- and bər-.
Other features:
For example,
Bazaar Malay is still used to a limited extent in Singapore and Malaysia. The most important consequence, however, has been that pidgin Malay creolised and created several new languages.
Baba Malay or Peranakan Malay, once a diverse group of pidgins, is spoken in Malaysia but is now almost extinct. These are Malay varieties spoken by the Peranakan, descendants of Chinese settlers who have lived in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia since the 15th Century. 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.