| Tansi | |
|---|---|
| Tansi Creole | |
| Bahasa Tansi | |
| Native to | West Sumatra (Sawahlunto) |
| Region | Indonesia |
| Ethnicity | Tansi people |
Native speakers | few native speakers left |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Tansi language (Bahasa Tansi), also known as Tansi Creole, is a creole or mixed language spoken by a community known as the Tansi people, in Sawahlunto, a former mining town previously under Dutch colonial rule. [1] [2] The Tansi people developed through the use of forced labour from a range of ethnic communities, of which Javanese prisoners were the majority. [1] The community's name comes from the word tansi meaning 'barracks where the labourers lived'. [1]
Tansi language began as a polygenetic pidgin language, combining the languages of Minangkabau, Javanese, Chinese, Madurese, Sundanese, Balinese, Buginese, and Batak, with basic Malay and Dutch. [3] [4]
The Tansi people have developed a performance practice called Tonel, which relies heavily on the Tansi language. [1] Tonel performances incorporate "mimicry and mockery; hybridization; and parody and satire". [1] [5] In the Tonel performances, women reclaimed their identities by acting as main characters in significant roles rather than being used in the colonial period as objects of desire. [1] Within the performances, speakers of the Tansi language illustrate both practices of decreolization towards the source languages of Minangkabau and Javanese, and recreolization illustrating Tansi people solidarity. [1]
The mining city where the Tansi language originated, Ombilin Coal Mine, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. [1] The language itself was also recognized by UNESCO as part of the region's intangible cultural heritage. [4]