Malay Chetty creole language explained

Malay Chetty creole
Familycolor:Creole
Also Known As:Malaccan Creole Malay
Malacca Malay Creole
Chitties/Chetties Creole
States:Malaysia
Ethnicity:Chitty people
Glotto3:mala1482
Glottorefname3:Malaccan Creole Malay
Fam1:Malay-based creole
Iso3:ccm
Notice:IPA
Region:Malacca
Speakers:300

The Malay Chetty creole language (also known as Malaccan Creole Malay, Malacca Malay Creole[1] and Chitties/Chetties Malay) is a Malay-based creole spoken by the Chetties (also known as Indian Peranakans), a distinctive group of Tamil people found mainly in Malacca in Malaysia and Singapore, who have adopted Chinese and Malay cultural practices whilst also retaining their Hindu heritage.

Spoken since the 16th century by descendants of Tamil merchants of the Malacca Straits, Malay Chetty creole may be historically related to Sri Lanka Creole Malay. The current language status is moribund, due to inter-marriage and out-migration. There has been a language shift towards Malay instead.

Malay Chetty creole is a mix of Malay, Tamil and English, although the latter's presence in the creole is not as prominent compared to the first two languages. Because of the strong influence of Malay, Malay Chetty creole is not very different from other Malay dialects, especially the Middle Malacca Malay dialect. Nonetheless, it does have its own unique features.

Malay Chetty creole shares many features with Baba Malay, suggesting that they may have come from the same source language that is Bazaar Malay.

Phonology

Comparison with Standard Malay

Deletion of the Phonemes r and h

Monophthongisation

Phoneme Deletion in Consonant Clusters in Trisyllabic Words

Phoneme Insertion

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Comparison!Standard Malay!Malay Chetty creole!English Translation
'sweets'
'adopted child'
'auntie'/'female sibling of mother'
'say'
'light'
'land'/'lowland'
'ink'
'sin'
'stutter'
'you'
'you' (plural)
'uncle'
'auntie'
'cup'
'midwife'
'breathe'
'today'
'go'

References

Citations

  1. Web site: Malaccan Malay Creole. 2021-04-29. Ethnologue. en.

Bibliography