IS SABAH MALAY
A REAL LANGUAGE?

By:
Jane Wong Kon Ling, Ph.D
Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning
Universiti Malaysia SabahINTRODUCTION
 The Main Question:

 Is Sabah Malay a Real Language or Not?

(Not questioning whether it is a language Vs aDialect).

 More Questions: What is a Real Language?
Who, what defines a language?

 What is Sabah Malay?

Realisation vs. Recognition
 Assumption vs. Fact
WHAT IS A REAL LANGUAGE?
 What Defines a language?

 There are many definition in dictionaries andlinguistics books.
 But in this paper, I will try to define Sabah
Malay as a language through: the complexity and systematic of Sabah Malay

linguistic structure as any language should have; the social and cultural functions of Sabah Malay toserve as central vehicles of group identity and prideand to have expressive power as any language does.

WHAT IS SABAH MALAY?
 Realisation vs. Recognition

 It has been noticed that there is a distinctive variety of

Malay spoken within the state of Sabah and a few areascloser to Sabah such as Labuan,the Federal State,Temburung, Brunei and Limbang,Sarawak (Collins, 1993)
 Yet, not much have been studied on this particular varietyof Malay spoken in Sabah as compared to other nativelanguages which are “more original, more primitive andmore exotic” to recheachers (Collins, 1995).
 Unlike the Malay dialect spoken in the neighbouring stateof Sarawak which is clearly known as Sarawak dialect,references have not been made to ‘Sabah dialect’ or ‘Sabah
Malay’ (Asmah Hj Omar, 1988)

WHAT IS SABAH MALAY?
 Realisation vs. Recognition

 There are not many Malay dialectology studies onSabah Malay done by scholars, linguists or Dewan
Bahasa dan Pustaka.
 Out of the 115 entries, in Kajian Bahasa-bahasa
Bumiputera di Sabah: Satu Renungan (Nathesan,1995), there are only 3 entries on Sabah Malay andanother 3 entries on studies of Malay language(Bahasa Melayu) in Sabah.
 There is no entry for Sabah Malay in any bibliographyof Malay dialectology (Collins 1988 & 1990).

WHAT IS SABAH MALAY?
 THE ASSUMPTIONS Status:

 Broken variety of Malay/poorly spoken
 Deviation/ poorly learnt
 Unclear

distinctiveness/Not much differencesfrom Standard Malay or Brunei Malay Function:
 Limited function/mainly in market places Belongs to no one or ethnic group/No L1

THE ASSUMPTIONS Lexical:

 Unique Particles/Critics


random, excessive use ‘bah’, ‘anu’ Syntax:

 Reverse Structure/ No Grammar Rulemakan sudah, besar sangat, mana ko?

 Phonological:

 It is the “a” variant, thus does not have [«] Many variations /No homogeneity

THE ASSUMPTIONS
Vowel Variation:i.

/ « /  [ a ], [ i ] & [ u ]ii. / e /iii. / o /iv.
/ O/ [i ]
 [u] [ a]‘four’ [«mpat] > [ampat]‘small’ [k«tSIl] > [kitSil]‘fat’ [g«mU?] > [gumuk]‘look’ [tengU?] > [tinguk]‘brain’ [ota?] > [utak]‘buffalo’[k«ùbau]> [karabau]

THE ASSUMPTIONS
Consonant Variation:ii. / k /  [ k ] ~ [ ? ]‘head’ [k«pal«] > [kapala]‘face’ [muka]> [muka?]‘brain’ [ota?] > [utak]‘tree’ [poko?] > [pukuk]‘grandmother’ [nene?] > [nini?] ~ [ninik]‘younger sibling’ [adI?] > [adi?] ~ [adik]
iv. / h /  [ h ] ~ [ O ] ~ [ ? ]‘nose’ [hiduN] >[iduN]‘shoulder’[bahu] >[bahu?] ~ [bau?]‘bad’ [dZahat] > [dZahat] ~ [dZaat]‘tongue’ [lidah] > [lidah] ~ [lida?] ~ [lida]‘land’ [tanah] > [tanah] ~ [tana?] ~ [tana]THE FACT Status : Sabah Malay is a Malay variant spoken in Sabah bymost Sabahans.
 It is based on Brunei Malay It differs from the Standard Malay, Brunei Malay,Kedayan Malay and Cocos Malay It is not a deviation, broken Malay or badly spokenMalay
 Actually, there is an entry of Sabah Malay in theEthnologue of the world languages with the three-digit
ISO code of “msi” (Wong, 2000).

THE FACT Function:

 Sabah Malay is not merely a bazaar Malay.

lingua franca > vernacular > L1

 The Malays in Sabah do speak their own mothertongues i.e. either Brunei Malay, Kedayan or Cocos
Malay as L1. They speak Std Malay L2 or L3, which
they have learned at school. Besides that, they alsospeak Sabah Malay to everyone else as L2.
(Wong 2000)

THE FACT Function:

 Study (Wong 2012) shows that:

Sabah Malay is L1
30.83% to parents, 36.13% to siblings



35% to spouses, 35% to children

Sabah Malay as Home language

 17th Ethnologue (preliminary study 2015) shows that

almost all ethnic groups there is decreasingly
worrying percentage their lgs spoken as L1 aschildren are increasingly speak Sabah Malay as L1.
 Sabah Malay is a language of identity, intimacy,familiarity, solidarity (Wong 2000)

THE FACTS Lexical:

 Sabah Malay displays phonological variation due tothe influence of indigenous lgs and lgs fromneighbouring countries.

 Mixed-lexicon
Base lg: ‘bubut’,‘tapuk’, ‘limpas’, ‘tempirang’,

Native lgs: ‘gaman’, ‘aramaitii’, ‘atukoi’English: ‘sikul’, ‘gostan’, ‘aisbok’Chinese: ‘ping’, ‘ngam’, ‘cinchai’THE FACTS
 Syntax: They can be ungrammatical. e.g. the use of ‘bah’. It is

not random. It does not replace ‘lah’

Ya lah = ya bah sakitlah = sakit bah *lah mari = bah mari Structure of the sentence is not random too

Bulih bah kalo ko *Kalo ko bulih bah*Bah boleh kalo ko*Boleh kalo ko BahTHE FACTS
 Phonological:

 Distinctive, predictable and regularphonological features of SM (Wong, 2012).

Trill [r] in /r/word-final:

Velar Stop [k] in /k/ word-final:‘big’ [b«saù] > [basar]‘sleep’ [tidoù] > [tidur]‘lips’ [bibi «] >[bibir]‘brain’ [ota?] > [utak]‘tree’ [poko?] > [pukuk]‘grandmother’ [nene?] > [nini?] ~ [ninik]‘yg/sibling’ [adI?] > [adi?] ~ [adik]

THE FACTS

h-deletion in all positions of /h/ or glottal stop[?]at word-final:‘nose’ [hiduN] >[iduN]‘shoulder’[bahu] >[bahu?] ~ [bau?]‘bad’ [dZahat] > [dZahat] ~ [dZaat]‘tongue’ [lidah] > [lidah] ~ [lida?] ~ [lida]‘land’ [tanah] > [tanah] ~ [tana?] ~ [tana]

insertion of glottal stop [?] or glottal fricative [h]in open syllable word-final position:‘head’ [k«pal«]>[kapala?]‘who’ [sijap«] > [sijapah] ~ [sijapa?]‘what’ [ap«] >[apah] ~ [apa?]

THE FACTS

Use of [a] in /«/‘four’ [«mpat] > [ampat]‘narrow’ [s«mpit] > [sampit]‘what’ [ap«] > [apa]

Use of [i] in /e/ word-initial & word-medial.



Use of [u] in /o/ word-initial & word-medial.

‘tail’ ekor [ekoù] > [ikor]‘look’ [tengU?] > [tinguk]‘brain’ [ota?] > [utak]‘knock’ [k«tuk> [katok]

THE FACT Phonological:

influenced by social factors (Wong 2012) Age: Variables («), (e), (o), (h), (k), (tS), (r)and (?) have strong correlation with age
variation
significant between 15-44 and 45-64
The younger age group use more of thestandard variants & older –non standard18

 Wong further argues that the differences areTHE FACT
 Social Stratification: variables (a), («), (e), significant between Lower Working Class(LWC) and Mid Middle Class (MMC).
 the higher the social class, the more thestandard variants are used and vice versa.

19(o), (h), (k), (r), (tS) and (?) have significant
correlation with S/S variation

THE FACT Ethnic Membership: variables («), (e), (h), The ethnic groups of Bugis (BGS) and Other

Bumiputera (BMP) use more of thestandard variants than other ethnic groups

20(k), (r) and (?) have social variations
based on ethnic membership.

THE FACT Gender: variables (a), («), (e) and (h) have Females use more of the standard variant in(e) word-initial (in Reading Passage Speech)and (h) word-medial (in Formal Speech).
 Males use more of the standard variants in(a) word-final and («) word-middle (both inFormal Speech and Casual Speech)

21a correlation with gender variation.

CONCLUSION
 So, is Sabah Malay a real language?

 Structurally, may it be in phonology or syntax,Sabah Malay displays a variation and complexity but
it is conditional and systematic. It has the same kindof expressive power as any language.
 Functionally, Sabah Malay has expanded fromlingua franca > L2 > L1. It performs the same socialand cultural functions as other languages, serving as
central vehicles of group identity and pride.

CONCLUSION Thus, Sabah Malay is a real language spoken byreal people.
 Linguistically it is a dialect of the Malay language.
 Sabah Malay reflects the speakers and theidentity of the people of Sabah.
 It is as diverse as the people--so mixed with otherinfluences coming into the language It is as adaptable as the people--so flexible with somany variations
 It is the language of the people of Sabah.

REFERENCES
Asmah Hj Omar (1988). Susur Galur Bahasa Melayu. 2nd Edition. Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Collins, T,J (1993). Penyelidikan Dialek Melayu di Malaysia: Isu Perspektif.
Jurnal Dewan Bahasa. 37 (7): 580-603.

Collins, T,J (1995). Pulau Borneo Sebagai Titik Tolak Pengajian Sejarah Bahasa
Melayu. Jurnal Dewan Bahasa. 39 (10):868-880.

Wong, Jane Kon Ling. 2000. The Sabah Malay Dialect: Phonological Structureand Social Functions. Kota Kinabalu:Pusat Penatraran Ilmu dan Bahasa UMS.

Wong, Jane Kon Ling. 2012. The Sabah Malay Dialect: PhonologicalDifferentiation in Social Context. Ph.D Thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Thank You!