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Kedah Malay
Malay dialect of northwestern Malaysia and Thailand From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kedah Malay or Kedahan (Malay: bahasa Melayu Kedah; also known as Pelat Utara or Loghat Utara 'Northern Dialect') or as it is known in Thailand, Syburi Malay (Thai: ภาษามลายูไทรบุรี Phasa Malāyū Saiburī) is a Malayic language mainly spoken in the northwestern Malaysian states of Perlis, Kedah, Penang, and northern Perak and in the southern Thai provinces of Trang and Satun. The usage of Kedah Malay was historically prevalent in southwestern Thailand before being superseded by the Thai language. Enclaves of Kedah Malay can be found in Kawthaung District in Myanmar; Ranong and Krabi in upper southern Thailand; Jaring Halus, Langkat and Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia and up north in Bangkok, central Thailand, where most of the Kedah Malay speakers are descendants of historical settlers from Kedah.[2]
Dark Blue: Regions where Kedahan is currently spoken, Blue: Regions where Kedahan is historically spoken
Kedah Malay can be divided into several dialects, namely Coastal Kedah (Kedah Persisiran; which is the de facto prestige dialect of Kedah Malay), Northern Kedah (Kedah Utara), Perlis-Langkawi, Penang and some others outside Malaysia.[3] Speakers in Trang as well as Satun are heavily influenced by the Thai language. However in the district of Baling, they speak a different variant more closely related to Kelantan-Patani Malay than it is to Kedah Malay.[4]
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Phonology
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Consonants
Note(s):
- /ʁ/ corresponds to Standard Malay prevocalic and intervocalic /r/ whereby ramai (many) is pronounced as /ʁamaj/.[5]
- /ʕ/ corresponds to Standard Malay word-final /r/ so Standard Malay bakar /bakar/ (to burn) would be pronounced as /bakaʕ/ in Kedah Malay.[7][5]
- /r/ is only found in certain loanwords and onomatopoeic words such as arnab /arnap/ (rabbit) and brang /braŋ/ (sound of plate falling).[8]
- Velar nasal /ŋ/ does not occur following /i/ and instances of that in Standard Malay correspond to /n/ in Kedah Malay so Standard Malay kucing /kut͡ʃiŋ/ 'cat' and kuning /kuniŋ/ 'yellow' are pronounced /kut͡ʃin/ and /kunin/ in Kedah Malay (and even spelt accordingly in rare manuscript instances i.e. کوچين for the former[9]) though some argue that the final consonant is still underlyingly /ŋ/ as can be seen from the derived forms of these words such as kekuningan /kəkuniŋan/ 'yellowness' [kəkuniŋan] which retains the [ŋ].[10][11]
- Word-final Standard Malay /s/ corresponds to /h/ in Kedah Malay, so Standard Malay kurus /kurus/ 'thin' is pronounced /kuʁujh/ in Kedah Malay.[11][12][13]
- Word-final /l/ after /a/ and /u/ in Standard Malay corresponds to Kedah Malay /j/ so a word like tebal /təbal/ is pronounced /təbaj/ in Kedah Malay.
- In the Northern Kedah and Perlis-Langkawi dialects, the homorganic nasal-oral consonant clusters /mb, ŋɡ, nd/ can have its oral portion removed so lembu (cow), tunggu (to wait) and mandi (to bathe) can respectively be pronounced as either /ləmbu/ or /ləmu/, /tuŋɡu/ or /tuɡu/ and /mandi/ or /mani/.[14] In the case that the oral portion is retained, it is weakly pronounced in the Perlis-Langkawi dialect so /ləmbu/ (cow) would be realized as [ləmᵇu].[15]
Vowels
Monophthongs
Kedah Malay has eight monophthongs, unlike Standard Malay which has six with /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ not having phonemic status.[16][17][18]
Diphthongs
Kedah Malay has four diphthongs /aj, aw, oj, uj/ with /uj/ being the only one that does not exist in Standard Malay.[19][20]
Change of Standard Malay Vowel Clusters
In Kedah Malay, Standard Malay instances of vowel cluster correspond to usually a diphthong (e.g. Standard Malay baik (good) /ba.ik/ ≙ Kedah Malay /bajʔ/) or less commonly, a monophthong (e.g. Standard Malay biasa (normal) /bi.a.sa/ ≙ Kedah Malay /bɛ.sa/) in Kedah Malay.[21] The /i.a/ vowel cluster still occurs though in positions that correspond to Standard Malay word-final /ir/ (e.g. Standard Malay pasir (sand) /pa.sir/ ≙ Kedah Malay /pa.si.aʕ/.
Comparison with Standard Malay
Below is a table showing sound correspondences between Kedah Malay and Standard Malay.[22][23]
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