Sarawak Malay Language

B.Malaysia

"Vida...Kitak buat kamek bahagia!"

The romantic expression above is from a handsome character who is quick to adapt to his new life in Miri by trying out the Sarawak Malay dialect. Ooooh, lucky Vida. Would Vida answer" " Auk, darling..." or " Sik, darling..."?

Here's explanation to some of the keywords to help you understand the Sarawakian dialect:

kitak=you

kamek=me

ya=yes

tidak=not

So the handsome guy said: " Vida...You make me happy"

Malay people live along the Sarawak river speak this dialect. In the olden days, the white man Rajah Brooke was fond of employing Malays to play important roles in his government. Consequently, their dialect got spread out to the whole of Sarawak. Until it is able to compete with standard Malay for dominance, until the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka which is basically authority of the Malay language in Malaysia published a book entitled: " Sarawak Malay Word list".

Other aboriginal tribes like the use this dialect because it is easy to understand. For example, the Bidayuh people from the district of Selakau cannot understand the dialect of their fellow Bidayuh from Jagoi. Yeap, not able to understand their own sub dialects. They solve this communication problem by speaking the Sarawak Malay-lah!

Ibans also like to use this dialect so much so a new sub dialect is produced namely the Saaribas dialect which contains a lot of Iban loan words.

Yeap, different types of Sarawak Malay sub dialects are found in different places. The variation in Miri is obviously different from what they call the original version in Kuching. Miri is nearer to Brunei, so it is more influenced by the Bruneian language. Apparently there is another variation across the South China Sea that is the Tioman dialect. From what I know, this dialect is spoken in three villages but the number of speakers is declining because the younger generation prefer to switch to the more common Johor Malay there.

As I write this web page, I remember my Sarawakian friends. Some of these folks has rather peculiar names like...Balloon and Mango. Balloon has a friend called Panty whereas Mango has a friend in the jungle who christen his son Helicopter. I swear these are true stories.

Oh how I miss my Sarawakian gang. Would you help to pray that one day I would return to the land of the hornbills?

References

1. Keabadian cinta oleh Noor Abby

2. PELBBA 18: Pertemuan Linguistik Pusat Kajian Bahasa dan Budaya Atma Jaya oleh Yassir Nasanius, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya. Pusat Kajian Bahasa dan Budaya

3. Ensiklopedia Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Melayu, DBP

4. The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Languages and Literature, Volume editor Prof. Dato' Dr Asmah Haji Omar

Back to Bahasa Malaysia Map

Homepage