| Bahasa Tansi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | West Sumatra |
| Region | Indonesia |
| Ethnicity | Orang Tansi |
Creole
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Bahasa Tansi (also known as Tansi Creole) is a creole language spoken by the ethnic community of Orang Tansi, in Sawahlunto, a former mining town previously under Dutch colonial rule. [1] [2] The Orang Tansi community 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]
Bahasa Tansi began as a polygenetic pidgin language, combining the Indigenous language of Minangkabau, Javanese, Chinese, Madurese, Sundanese, Balinese, Baugis, and Batak, with basic Malay and Dutch. [3] [4]
The Orang Tansi ethnic community have developed a performance practice called Tonel, which relies heavily on the Bahasa Tansi creole 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 Bahasa Tansi illustrate both practices of decreolization towards the source languages of Minangkabau and Javanese, and recreolization illustrating Orang Tansi community solidarity. [1]
The mining city where Bahasa Tansi 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]