Cocos Malay

Last updated
Cocos Islands Malay
Basa Pulu Cocos/Basa Pulu Keling
Native to Australia, Malaysia
Region Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Sabah
Ethnicity4,000 in Malaysia (2000) [1]
Native speakers
(1,100 in Australia cited 1987–2012) [1]
Creole
Latin (Malay alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 coa
Glottolog coco1260
ELP Cocos Islands Malay

Cocos Malay is a post-creolized variety of Malay, spoken by the Cocos Malays of Home Island, Christmas Island, and those originally from the Cocos Islands currently living in Sabah. [1]

Contents

Cocos Malay derives from the Malay trade languages of the 19th century, specifically the Betawi language. [2] Malay is offered as a second language in schools, and Indonesian has prestige status; both are influencing the language, bringing it more in line with standard Malay. [3] There is also a growing influence of English, considering the Islands having been an Australian territory and globalization drifting modern terms into the daily parlance. In 2009, Cocos Malay students were prohibited from using their own language and failure to comply resulted in punishment in the form of "speaking tickets" which meant that they were required to carry out cleaning duties in school. [4] However, this form of language restriction ended by 2011. [5]

Characteristics

It has the following characteristics:

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels Table [7]
Front Central Back
High iu
Mid eəo
Low a

Consonants

Consonants Table [7]
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosive &
affricate
p     b        d  k     g    (ʔ)
Nasal      m     n    ɲ     ŋ
Fricative s         ʁ    (h)2
Approximant      w    j
Lateral
approximant
    l

There are three ways in which Cocos Malay differs from Standard Malay and Indonesian: [7]

  1. The uvular [ʁ] which always occurs intervocalically is present in Coco Malay but not in Standard Malay or Indonesian.
  2. Certain consonants, [f v ʃ z], which occur in Standard Malay are not present in Cocos Malay.
  3. With regard to the [h] amongst the three languages, the [h] in Cocos Malay is often dropped, especially in word-initial position. Examples include:
Standard MalayCocos MalayEnglish Gloss
[ˈhisap˺][ˈisap˺]'suck'
[ˈhuta̪ n][ˈuta̪ n]'forest'
[ˈhiduŋ][ˈiduŋ]'nose'
[ˈhaus][ˈaus]'thirsty'

Further Reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cocos (Keeling) Islands</span> External territory of Australia

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands, officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and relatively close to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The territory's dual name reflects that the islands have historically been known as either the Cocos Islands or the Keeling Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malay language</span> Austronesian language of Southeast Asia

Malay is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines and Thailand. Altogether, it is spoken by 290 million people across Maritime Southeast Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced velar nasal</span> Consonantal sound

The voiced velar nasal, also known as agma, from the Greek word for 'fragment', is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ng in English sing as well as n before velar consonants as in English and ink. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ŋ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N. The IPA symbol ⟨ŋ⟩ is similar to ⟨ɳ⟩, the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem, and to ⟨ɲ⟩, the symbol for the palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem. Both the IPA symbol and the sound are commonly called 'eng' or 'engma'.

The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolarplosives are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosives is ⟨t⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t. The voiceless dental plosive can be distinguished with the underbridge diacritic, ⟨⟩ and the postalveolar with a retraction line, ⟨⟩, and the Extensions to the IPA have a double underline diacritic which can be used to explicitly specify an alveolar pronunciation, ⟨⟩.

The voiced bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨b⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b. The voiced bilabial stop occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letter ⟨b⟩ in obey (obeI).

The voiced alveolar, dental and postalveolarplosives are types of consonantal sounds used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosives is ⟨d⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d.

The voiced alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in numerous spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is ⟨n⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n.

The voiced bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound which has been observed to occur in about 96% of spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨m⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is m. The bilabial nasal occurs in English, and it is the sound represented by "m" in map and rum. Very few languages are known to lack this sound. A small number of languages have been observed to lack independent nasal phonemes altogether, such as Quileute, Makah, and Central Rotokas.

The close-mid front unrounded vowel, or high-mid front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨e⟩.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Close-mid central unrounded vowel</span> Vowel sound in some languages

The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɘ⟩. This is a mirrored letter e and should not be confused with the schwa ⟨ə⟩, which is a turned e. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed ⟨ë⟩. Certain older sources transcribe this vowel ⟨ɤ̈⟩.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-mid back rounded vowel</span> Vowel sound

The open-mid back rounded vowel, or low-mid back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɔ⟩. The IPA symbol is a turned letter c and both the symbol and the sound are commonly called "open-o". The name open-o represents the sound, in that it is like the sound represented by ⟨o⟩, the close-mid back rounded vowel, except it is more open. It also represents the symbol, which can be remembered as an o which has been "opened" by removing part of the closed circular shape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betawi language</span> Language spoken in Indonesia

Betawi, also known as Betawi Malay, Jakartan Malay, or Batavian Malay is the spoken language of the Betawi people in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the native language of perhaps 5 million people; a precise number is difficult to determine due to the vague use of the name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shire of Cocos (Keeling) Islands</span> Local government area in Australia

The Shire of Cocos (Keeling) Islands is a local government area which manages local affairs on the Australian external territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The island is grouped with Western Australia but is administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities and an Administrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands</span>

Islam in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands is the majority religion. As of the 2016 census, 75% of the population were Muslim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cocos Malays</span> Ethnic group in Asia

Cocos Malays are a community that form the predominant group of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which is now a part of Australia. Today, most of the Cocos Malay can be found in the eastern coast of Sabah, Malaysia, because of diaspora originating from the 1950s during the British colonial period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Keeling</span> Island in Indian Ocean

North Keeling is a small, uninhabited coral atoll, approximately 1.2 square kilometres (0.46 sq mi) in area, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of Horsburgh Island. It is the northernmost atoll and island of the Australian territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. It consists of just one C-shaped island, a nearly closed atoll ring with a small opening into the lagoon, about 50 metres (160 ft) wide, on the east side. The lagoon is about 0.5 square kilometres (0.19 sq mi) in area. The island is home to the only surviving population of the endemic, and endangered, Cocos buff-banded rail, as well as large breeding colonies of seabirds. Since 1995, North Keeling Island and the surrounding sea to 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) from shore have been within the Pulu Keeling National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunei Malay</span> Language spoken in parts of Southeast Asia

The Brunei Malay language, or Kedayan is the most widely spoken language in Brunei and a lingua franca in some parts of Sarawak and Sabah, such as Labuan, Limbang, Lawas, Sipitang and Papar. Though Standard Malay is promoted as the official national language of Brunei, Brunei Malay is socially dominant and it is currently replacing the minority languages of Brunei, including the Dusun and Tutong languages. It is quite divergent from Standard Malay to the point where it is almost mutually unintelligible with it. Although the idea that Brunei Malay might be classified as a creole language has been discredited, it does bear considerable similarities to East Indonesian Malay-based creole languages.

This article explains the phonology of Malay and Indonesian based on the pronunciation of Standard Malay, which is the official language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesian which is the official language of Indonesia and a working language in Timor Leste. Bruneian Standard Malay and Malaysian Standard Malay follow the Johor-Riau Pronunciation, while Singaporean Standard Malay and Indonesian follow the Baku Pronunciation.

Amarasi is a Central Malayo-Polynesian language of West Timor, and is spoken by the Amarasi. The Amarasi language has about 80,000 native speakers, with four main dialects called Ro'is, Kotos, Tais Nonof, and Ketun, though many differences exist between individual villages. It uses Subject-Object-Verb grammar structure. Speakers are interspersed with those of Helong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands</span>

Although it is an Australian External Territory, the culture of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands has extensive influences from Malaysia and Indonesia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cocos Islands Malay at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Wurm, Mühlhäusler, & Tryon, Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, 1996:686
  3. Ansaldo, 2006. "Cocos (Keeling) Islands: Language Situation". In Keith Brown, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2 ed.). Elsevier. ISBN   0-08-044299-4.
  4. Bunce, Pauline (2012). Out of Sight, Out of Mind… and Out of Line: Language Education in the Australian Indian Ocean Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Multilingual Matters. pp. 37–59. ISBN   978-1-84769-749-3.
  5. Welsh, Alistair (2015). "Cocos Malay language since integration with Australia". Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures. 9 (1).
  6. Alexander Adelaar, 1996. "Malay in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands 1996".
  7. 1 2 3 Soderberg, Craig D. (2014). "Cocos Malay". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 44 (1): 103–107. doi: 10.1017/S0025100313000364 .