Academic literature on the topic 'Malay language Dialects Malaysia Melaka (State)'

Studies on the endangered of the minority dialects in Malaysia are increasingly focused. Similarly, the Malay Patani dialect spoken by the Malay Patani community experiencing some of the problems related to confrontation due to cross-collision of language and culture as well as the influence of foreign language. This situation has been found to interfere with their original dialect. So, research on the Malay dialects of Patani is important to look at the current state of their society now and in the future. The objective of the study is to describe the typology of Malay dialect in Sik, Kedah. The theory used in this study is Sasse’s (1992) model which proposes the Theoretical Model of Language Death. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are also used to obtain data through field research methods that involve questionnaire techniques, recordings, and observations. The findings shown that there are three important factors in determining the preservation of a language or dialect, namely parental factors, residence factors and language ability factors. All three of these factors have the potential to determine the language’s native language. In addition, they have also been able to demonstrate the high ethnocentric and enthusiastic nature of their mother tongue. This situasion is evident that the Malay Patani is still safe despite the language clashes.

The Melaka Chetti Indians are a small community of ‘peranakan’ (Malay meaning ‘locally born’) people in Malaysia. The Melaka Chettis are descendants of traders from the Indian subcontinent who married local women, mostly during the time of the Melaka Malay Empire from the 1400s to 1500s. The Melaka Chettis adopted the local lingua franca ‘bahasa Melayu’ or Malay as their first language together with the ‘adat’ (Malay meaning ‘customs’) of the Malay people, their traditional mannerisms and also their literary prowess. Not only did the Melaka Chettis successfully adopted the literary traditions of the Malay people, they also adapted these arts forms to become part of their own unique hybrid identities based on their worldviews and lived experiences within the Malay Peninsula or more famously known as the Golden Chersonese / Khersonese. Based on our one year plus fieldwork in ‘Kampung Chetti’ or Chetti Village in the state of Melaka, Malaysia where we carried out extensive oral history interviews and several focus group discussion sessions, in this empirical paper we share and critically analyse some traditional Malay pantuns that we collected from this community, and present them as notable contributions to the Malay literary canon.

Ketuanan Melayu” is a conception of Malay political hegemony in Malaysia. The terminology was firstly introduced by a member of Parliament of Malaysia from the United Malay National Organization, namely Dato’ Abdullah Ahmad, in a speech offered at the Institute of Intenational Affairs, Singapura, Agustus 30, 1986. The speech was originally aimed at countering the negative propaganda proposed by the Malaysian Indian and the Malaysian Chinese, who accused that the special socio-political privileges given to the indigenous Malaysian peoples in the Malaysia’s Constitution (partaicularly in article 153) and the affirmative discriminative New Economic Policy of 1971 have been a servere strategy to condemn the Indian and Chinese Malaysians. On the other hand, the Malays in Malaysia traced the idea of Malay political hegemony from the political situation in the period of Malay kingdom of Melaka in the 15th century. They considered the period of Melaka as the golden age of Malay political sovereignty in Selat Melaka. When Melaka was occupied by the Portuegese in the 16th century, and followed by the Dutch in the 17-18th centuries, the political sovereignty of the Malays in the Malaysian Peninsula was carried on by the newly subsequent Malay kingdoms, such as Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, and others. In this article, I proposed that what is now called Malay political hegemony could be compared to what was called beschikkingsrecht in Dutch language, in the colonial period of Indonesia. This terminology was introduced by an adat law scholar, van Vollenhoven, in 1905, referring to the sovereignty of the native peoples in Malay Archipelago over their land and political state. Lastly I find the debate on the Malay political hegemony in Malaysia recently, whether between the natives versus the immigrants, or between the ruling Malays versus the opposition Malays, are pertaining with 6 articles in the Constitution and Act of Malaysian Armforce of 1972. This set of rules is knownly called Wasiat Raja-raja Melayu (The Wasiat of the Malay Sultans). Therefore, I conclude, the Malay political hegemony is constitutionalized, thus it is unnecessary for the Malays to boasting it anymore. The real problems of the Malay political hegemony now in Malaysia rests on the way it has been implemented by the Malaysian government.

Background and Purpose: Dialectical studies scrutinised the closeness, kinship or genealogy of dialects derived from a language. Previous scholars divide Malay dialects in Peninsular Malaysia into four main clusters. The first cluster are the Johor-Melaka-Selangor and Central Perak. The second cluster is a group that spreads from the Patani region covering the Patani-Kelantan-Terengganu dialect. The third is the Negeri Sembilan cluster, and the fourth is the Kedah dialect. Generally, the Kedah dialect is divided into seven groups, covering Kedah (including Langkawi), Perlis, Penang and northern Perak Taiping. This study aims to investigate the Malay dialect variants in Langkawi Island via the Historical Linguistics approach and qualitative comparison research design. Methodology: This study utilised the qualitative research method. A total of 23 native speakers of Langkawi Malay dialect participated in this study. These informants were selected using NORM (an acronym for non-mobile, older, rural and males). Data collection mainly used several techniques such as interviews, recordings, and observations. The data were analysed based on the scope of comparative linguistics. Findings: The findings show that there are five characteristics of separated innovation between the Kuah and Air Hangat variants in one group and the Kedawang variant in other groups. Furthermore, there are nine innovations that separate the Langkawi Malay dialect from the Proto Malayik language. This study indicates that the Kedawang variant is an earlier variant apart from the Kuah and Air Hangat variants. Contributions: In addition to further strengthen the research on the various dialects spoken in Malaysia, this study attempts to highlight the complete description of the Kedah dialect varieties. This study also contributes to the science of Malay language variants and Malay Dialectology studies. Keywords: Historical linguistics, reconstruction, innovation, Langkawi Island, Malay dialect. Cite as: Ab. Hamid, N., Shahidi, A. H., Aman, R., Ramli, N., Zakaria, Z., & Iswary, E. (2022). Malay dialect variants in Langkawi: A diachronic perspective analysis. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 142-167. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp142-167

Setiap negeri di Malaysia kita mempunyai dialek-dialek yang tersendiri seperti dialek Kedah, dialek Terengganu, dialek Kelantan, dialek Perak dan sebagainya. Kepelbagaian dialek yang terdapat di Malaysia ini dianggap mempunyai keunikannya tersendiri malahan kelainan dialek ini telah diterima umum dalam kalangan masyarakat setempat serta masyarakat luar kerana penggunaan bahasa Melayu yang telah ditutur dengan pelbagai variasi dan bentuk sejak dahulu lagi. Penelitian yang dijalankan ini adalah untuk mengetahui tahap kefahaman sepuluh orang pekerja di Unit Rangka Jabatan Perangkaan Negeri Selangor terhadap dialek Kedah yang dipertuturkan oleh sebahagian daripada pekerja di unit tersebut. Metodologi kajian yang digunakan adalah melalui borang kaji selidik dan diberikan kepada responden yang majoritinya bukan berasal dari Kedah. Skop kajian ini hanya memberi fokus terhadap takrifan dialek Kedah secara umum serta perbezaannya dengan bahasa Melayu rasmi berdasarkan aspek-aspek linguistik dari segi sebutan, penggunaan ayat, pembentukan kata, dan juga maksud ayat. Hasil penelitian membuktikan bahawa terdapat perbezaan yang ketara tentang kefahaman responden terhadap variasi penggunaan dialek Kedah di unit tersebut. Generally, the Malaysian community is aware that our country has a diversity of dialects for each state. Each state has its own dialect such as dialects of Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, Perak and so on. The dialect diversity of Malaysia has its own uniqueness and besides, these dialect varieties have been generally accepted among the local and outside communities because the Malay language has been practiced through various forms and interactions since long time ago. This research is conducted to determine the level of understanding among ten workers in Unit Rangka Jabatan Perangkaan Negeri Selangor towards Kedah dialect which has been spoken by some of the employees in the Unit. The methodology used is through questionnaires which were given to the respondents where majority of the respondents chosen are not from Kedah. The scope of this study only focuses on the basic definition of Kedah dialect which varies with Malay standard language based on linguistic aspects in terms of pronunciation, usage of sentences, word formation, and also the meaning of the verse. Research shows that there are significant differences on the level of understanding among respondents towards various usage of Kedah dialect in the Unit.