Ampenan Malay speaking area in the city of Mataram.
Ampenan Malay as the majority
Ampenan Malay as the minority
Other languages speaking areas
Ampenan Malay, also refers to Colloquial Indonesian of Ampenan,[2] is a dialect of Malay language spoken in the old town of Ampenan in the city of Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. This is the mother tongue and daily language of the Ampenan Malays, and the speakers are also multi-ethnic, such as Sasak, Chinese, Arabs, Bugis, Javanese, and others.[5] The main speech area covers the environments (lingkungan) of Melayu Bangsal, Melayu Tengah, and Melayu Timur.[6]
Ampenan Malay and Balinese Malay are quantitatively categorized as dialects of the same language with a similarity percentage level reaching 87%. In its development, Ampenan Malay tends to be influenced by Indonesian, while Balinese Malay has many internal innovations in a number of lexicons.[6] Although known as a variety of Malay, it is also considered to refer to the Colloquial Indonesian used in Ampenan which is locally known as bahasa Ampenan (lit.'Ampenan language').[2]
Language characteristics
Ampenan Malay has been the dominant language spoken in the old town of Ampenan for centuries, especially since the end of the 19th century.[7] The grammar and vocabulary are mostly of Malay origin, but are influenced by borrowings from other languages, especially Sasak, Arabic, Chinese, and Javanese.[8][9] Besides that, the Ampenan Malays can still speak Indonesian, with a little fluency in Sasak.[10][11] The following is an example of a conversation in Ampenan Malay:
A:mau kemana énté? (where are you goin?) B:ané mau réjaq juluq (I want to go home first) A:kemana énté réjaq? (where are you going back to?) B:ke bét (to the house)
It can be seen that the grammar and most of the vocabulary is based on Malay, but we can see the absorption of words from other languages, such as ané 'I', énté 'you', réjaq 'go home', bét 'house' from Arabic, as well as the word juluq 'first' from Sasak. The pronunciation of Ampenan Malay is influenced by Sasak pronunciation, but has a distinctive accent that is different from both Malay and Sasak.[12]
Usage
Ampenan Malay, which is sometimes called Lombok Malay, is the identity or character of the Ampenan Malays forms the local Malay culture and ideology as a form of expression by speakers to fulfill their needs as members of society. The Ampenan Malays as a minority ethnic group on Lombok Island enable speakers of the dominant ethnic group in this case the Sasak people to speak or at least understand or so as not to deny the existence of differences caused by differentiating factors, for example as a means of communication. Ampenan Malay is used as a regional language, the everyday language of Ampenan Malays, among the majority Sasak people.[13] According to I Wayan Bawa (1983), Ampenan Malay is spoken by 175 native speakers in Central Ampenan urban village. These native speakers are primarily Malays and Chinese, who are said to have originated from Palembang in Sumatra.[3] Different 2021 data includes both first- and second-language speakers of approximately 12,000 Ampenan Malay speakers, primarily in Central Ampenan urban village, but also in Bintaro and Banjar urban villages.
Since the opening of Ampenan Port at the end of the 19th century, Malay language has had an important position as an intermediary language in trade between ethnic groups from various regions of the archipelago.[14] The speakers are multi-ethnic, mainly Malays, Banjarese, Arabs, Bugis, but also Sasak, Balinese, Javanese, Chinese, and others.[7] Even though it is a Malay language, the speakers of Ampenan Malay are not actually Malays. According to Yusra (2012), the population of Ampenan consists of 71.07% Sasak, 16.23% Arabs, 11.63% the rest (consisting of Chinese, Bugis, Malay, Balinese, and Banjarese), and 1.07% other ethnic groups. Of this number, it is not known how many are Ampenan Malay speakers. However, it is certain that the Sasak people are the main population of speakers, besides using their native language, the Sasak language.[15]
Vocabulary
Ampenan Malay is divided into several speech varieties, according to the environments (lingkungan) where it is spoken, for example the vocabulary used in Melayu Bangsal is different from that used in Melayu Tengah.[13]
12Adelaar, A. (1996), "Bali and Lombok", in Wurm, S.A.; Mühlhäusler, P.; Tryon, D. (eds.), Malay: its history, role and spread 1996, Draft. Official version appeared in: Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton
↑Muhlis, Buyung S. (26 February 2025). "Di Ampenan, Burung Saja Berbahasa Melayu". mataramradio.com (in Indonesian). Mataram Radio. Archived from the original on 5 July 2025. Retrieved 27 November 2025.
12Wardhani, Aditya (2021). "The Vitality of the Malayu Language on the Island of Lombok"(PDF). Advances in Social Science, Education, and Humanities Research. Proceedings of the International Congress of Indonesian Linguistics Society (KIMLI 2021). 622. West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Language Office. Dordrecht: Atlantis Press: 297–303.
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