Wiki: Malay trade and creole languages

In addition to its classical and modern literary form, Malay had various regional dialects established after the rise of the Srivijaya in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the south East Asia Archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca ("trade language") that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay and in Malay Melayu Pasar. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Hokkien, Portuguese, and Dutch traders.

Besides the general simplification that occurs with pidgins, the Malay lingua franca had several distinctive characteristics. One was that possessives were formed with punya 'its owner, to have'; another was that plural pronouns were formed with orang 'person'. The only Malayic affixes that remained productive were tər- and bər-.

Other common features:

Ada became a progressive particle.
Reduced forms of ini 'this' and itu 'that' (> ni, tu) before a noun.
The verb pərgi 'go' was reduced, and became a preposition 'towards'.
Causative constructions were formed with kasi or bəri 'to give' or bikin or buat 'to make'.
A single preposition, often sama, was used for multiple functions, including direct and indirect object.

For example,

Rumahku 'my house' becomes Aku punya rumah (lit. 'I have (that) house')
Aku pukul dia 'I hit him' becomes Aku kasi pukul dia (lit. 'I give a hit to him')
Ardi dipukul oleh Dani 'Ardi is hit by Dani' becomes Ardi kena pukul dek Dani

Peranakan-Baba Malay

Baba Malay

Baba Malay is spoken by the in Malacca (in Malaysia) and Singapore. A typical contact language between Hokkien male settlers and local Malay women, it has "more Hokkien grammar and more Malay lexicon". As of 2014, there are 1,000 speakers in Malaysia and another 1,000 in Singapore. It is mostly spoken among the older populations. In 1986, Pakir estimated there were 5,000 speakers in Singapore. A Baba Indonesian variant is also spoken in East Java.

Example (spoken in Melaka-Singapore):

Dia suka datang sini sembang.: He likes to come here and gossip.
Keliap-keliap, dia naik angin.: Slightly provoked, he gets angry.
Gua tunggu dia sampai gua k'ee geram.: I waited for him until I got angry.
Oo-wa! Kinajeet, dia pasang kuat.: Wow! Today he dresses stylishly!

Baba Indonesian

A kind of Baba Malay, locally called Peranakan from the ethnonym, is spoken among Chinese-Indonesians living in various regions of Indonesia, most visibly in Surabaya and Medan. It is a mixture of three languages: Indonesian (national language), a local language and Chinese elements (ancestry/ethnic language, particularly for certain jargon or glossary such as family relations, business and commerce, and culinary fields). The most famous variety is found in East Java, especially in Surabaya and surrounding areas, called Basa Suroboyoan (Surabayan language), with a strong emphasis of low Javanese ( ngoko Javanese) and informal tone, which is not only spoken by Chinese-Indonesian in Surabaya, but also by non-Chinese-Indonesians when conversing with the former.

Example (spoken in Surabaya):

Kamu mbok ojok gitu!: Don't act that way!
Yak apa kabarnya si Eli?: How's Eli?
Ntik kamu pigio ambek cecemu ae ya.: Go with your sister, okay?
Nih, makanen sakadae.: Please have a meal!
Kamu cariken bukune koko ndhek rumahe Ling Ling.: Search your brother's book in Ling Ling's house.

Apart from East Javan Chinese-Indonesian, other Chinese-Indonesians tend to speak the language varieties of the places in which they live, such as the Central Javan Chinese-Indonesian can speak with formal/high Javanese ( krama Javanese) when necessary, while in daily conversation they will use Indonesia-Javanese-Chinese pidgin. West Javan Chinese-Indonesians tend to mix Sundanese in their vocabulary, and Medan (North Sumatran) Chinese-Indonesian have more Hokkien language mixed in.

Betawi Malay

Thousand Islands Malay

Malaccan Creole Malay

Sri Lanka Malay

Singapore Bazaar Malay

Singapore Bazaar Malay, also known as Bazaar Malay, Pasar Malay, or Market Malay, is a Malay-lexified pidgin, which is spoken in Singapore. Tamil and Hokkien contributed to the development of Bazaar Malay, with Hokkien being the dominant substrate language of Bazaar Malay, with Malay being the lexifier language. However, there are many input languages spoken by immigrants that also contributed to the development of Bazaar Malay, including languages spoken by Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, and Europeans. Singapore Bazaar Malay emerged along with the opening of Singapore's free trade port in 1819, to overcome barriers in communication and business transactions. Since Singapore has only four official languages (English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil), Singapore Bazaar Malay not only is a lingua franca in interethnic communication, it is also used in intra-group communication. Singapore Bazaar Malay is mostly spoken by elders and middle-aged workers today, but its language status is declining due to education policies and language campaigns with less than 10,000 speakers.

Bazaar Malay is used in a limited extent in Singapore and Malaysia, mostly among the older generation or people with no working knowledge of English. The most important reason that contributed to the decline of Bazaar Malay is that pidgin Malay has creolised and created several new languages. Another reason is due to language shift in both formal and informal contexts, Bazaar Malay in Singapore is gradually being replaced by English, with English and its creole Singlish being the lingua franca among the younger generations.

Sabah Malay

A creolised variant of standard Malay language, Sabah Malay is a local trade or Malay language-based creole language. There are a large number of native speakers in urban areas, mainly children who have it as first or second native language. There are also some speakers in the southernmost parts of the Philippines, particularly in the Sulu Archipelago as a trade language, also spoken in south Palawan. There are loanwords from Dusun language, Tausug language, Sama-Bajau languages, Chabacano, Brunei Malay, Indonesian, standard Malaysian as well as other ethnic native languages of Sabah & North Kalimantan.

Makassar Malay

Makassar Malay is a creole-based mixed language, which is built of Bazaar Malay lexicon, Makassarese inflections, and mixed Malay/Makassarese syntax.

It is now widely spoken as the first language in Makassar City and its surrounding areas, especially those who were born after 1980's. It has widely spread to the entire region in southern part of Sulawesi island, including in the provinces of Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Tenggara, and Sulawesi Barat as regional lingua franca or as second language due to contact or doing business with people from Makassar City.

Makassar Malay used as a default dialect or neutral language when communicating with people from other tribes or ethnicities whom do not share the same local language to the native local speakers in those three provinces. It appears that Makassar Malay also used as the first language of younger generation who live in the cities or regencies' capital across those three provinces.

Furthermore, apart from those three provinces in the southern part of Sulawesi island, Makassar Malay also used by people in some parts of Sulawesi Tengah Province, especially when communicating with people from those three provinces. It can also be used when communicating with people from other people from other provinces in Eastern Indonesia and in the province of East Kalimantan.

Balinese Malay

Balinese Malay or Loloan Malay is a dialect of Malay spoken in the island of Bali. It is also known as Omong Kampong ("village speak") by its speakers. Balinese Malay is the primary language of ethnic Malay who live in the northwestern part of the island, mainly in the districts of Melaya and Negara, Jembrana Regency. The current language status is threatened.

Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin

Eastern Indonesia Malay

The creoles of eastern Indonesia appear to have formed as Malays, using lingua franca Malay, established their monopoly on the spice trade before the European colonial era. They have a number of features in common:

ə becomes a, e, or assimilates to the following vowel
i, u lowered to e, o in some environments, especially when it is at the end of a syllable
there is a loss of final plosives p, t, k, and n the neutralisation of final nasals in part of the lexicon
the perfective marker juga reduces to ju or jo
the perfective marker lebih reduces to le
the perfective marker mau reduces to mo
the perfective marker mana reduces to ma ( as this only occur on Kupang Malay).
the perfective marker dan reduces to deng
the perfective marker pun reduces to pung
the perfective marker sudah reduces to su or so

For example:

makan becomes makang
pərgi becomes pigi or pi
tərkəjut becomes takajo
ləmbut becomes lombo
dapat becomes dapa
jangan becomes jang
pada becomes pa
lupa becomes lu

There is a loss of diphthongs:

the diphthong " au" become to "o"
the diphthong "ai" reduces to "e"
the letter " u" become "o"

There are many affixes that the pronunciation is simplified:

The prefix " mə(N)" reduces to " ma"
The prefix "bə(r)", reduces to "ba"
The prefix "tə(r)", reduces to "ta"
The prefix "kə", reduces to "ka"

For example:

The loss of middle "ə" and "h" in the last end of words:

tərbəlah becomes tabala
bərtəngkar becomes batengkar
mənangis becomes manangis
kəhidupan becomes kaidopan

Alor Malay

Alor Malay is spoken in the Alor archipelago. Speakers perceive Alor Malay to be a different register of standard Indonesian, but both of these are prestige varieties of the archipelago. Many people are able to understand standard Indonesian, but cannot speak it fluently and choose to use Alor Malay on a daily basis.

Alor Malay is based on Kupang Malay; however, Alor Malay differs significantly from Kupang Malay, especially in its pronouns.

Marion Klamer (2025). 9783944675602, Language Sciences Press. ISBN 9783944675602

Ambonese Malay

Banda Malay

Banda Malay is a distinct variant of Moluccan Malay, spoken in Banda Islands, Maluku Islands. Significantly different from Ambonese Malay and for Ambonese, Banda Malay tends to be perceived as sounding funny due to its unique features.

Example :

beta : I
pane : you
katorang : we
mir : ants (deviated from Dutch : mier)

Dili Malay

Dili Malay is a variety of trade Malay spoken in Dili, Timor Leste especially in the Kampung Alor area. According to experts, before becoming the mother tongue of a number of its speakers, this language was originally a pidgin language (Bloomfield, 1933; Hall, 1966). Then, in its development, this pidgin language became a creole language which was used in wider social interactions in society (Todd, 1974:50). Due to the long historical presence of the Portugal in East Timor, several Dili Malay loanwords originate from Portuguese and tetum language, with little influences from other native languages.

Gorap

Gorap is a Malay-based creole language predominantly spoken by Gorap ( Bobaneigo) ethnic group, indigenous to western and northern regions of the Indonesian island of Halmahera Island. It shares vocabulary with other Papuan languages and some of languages spoken in Sulawesi, such as Buginese and Cia-Cia language. Roughly around 60 out of 200 attested words in this language were indicated sharing vocabulary with those languages.

Maumere Malay is a Malay-based creole on or even a pidgin spoken in Maumere, a small town on the north coast of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara. There is no clear classification of this language, but if we look at the linguistic characteristics and speech conditions, this language is included in the pidgin language, because the vocabulary and grammar are limited, and often taken from several different languages. This language is most commonly used in situations such as trade or when people speak different languages and do not understand each other.

Sula Malay

Sula Malay is a variety of Malay-based creole language which is generally used by Multiculturalism in Sula Islands and Taliabu Island in the southwest part of North Maluku. The Sula Malay is heavily influenced by other languages, This can be found in loan words originating from Ambonese Malay and Dutch language can be found in Sula Malay. Some contraction vocabulary can also be found in this language, as is the case in North Moluccan Malay (Ternate Malay).

Ternate/North Moluccan Malay

Papuan Malay

Works cited

(2025). 9781881044291, Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University. ISBN 9781881044291
Paula R. Bos (2025). 9780203641903, RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 9780203641903
Sonny Lim (1988). 9780858833821, Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. ISBN 9780858833821
Hein Steinhauer (1991). 9780858834026, Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. . ISBN 9780858834026
Ruben Stoel (2025). 9789078328445, LOT, Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics. ISBN 9789078328445