Malay Trade and Creole Languages - Baba Malay

Baba Malay, once a diverse group of pidgins, is spoken in Malaysia but is now almost extinct. These are Malay varieties spoken by the Peranakan, Chinese descendants who live in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia since the 15th Century. Baba Malay is close to the trade pidgins which became creolized across the Malay Archipelago, producing the variety of Malay creoles seen today. A kind of Baba Malay, called Peranakan, is spoken among Chinese living in East Java. It is a mixture of Malay or Indonesian with local Javanese (East Javanese dialect) and Chinese elements (particularly Hokkien). This particular variety is found only in East Java, especially in Surabaya and surrounding areas. While other Chinese tend to speak the language varieties of the places in which they live (the Chinese of Central Java speak High or Standard Javanese in daily conversation even among themselves; in West Java, they tend to speak Sundanese), in Surabaya younger ethnic Chinese people tend to speak pure Javanese (Surabaya dialect) and learn Mandarin in courses.

Example (Spoken in Surabaya):

• Lu bo' gitu! : Don't act that way!
• Yak apa kabarnya si Eli? : How's Eli?
• Nti' kamu pigio ambek cecemu ae ya : Go with your sister, okay?
• Nih, makanen sa'adae : Please have a meal!
• Kamu cari'en bukune koko ndhek rumae Ling Ling : Search your brother's book in Ling Ling's house.