Malaysia

Languages of Malaysia

2009-10-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Languages_of_Malaysia

Malay language

see http://apmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/10/malay-language.html

Bahasa Rojak

The term Bahasa Rojak (Malay for "mixed language") defines the Malaysian practice of code-switching among two or more languages on a Malay base.

History

Warning signs at Malaysian electrical substations still use six of the country's most common languages: (from top to bottom: Sign Language, Malay, English,Chinese (traditional), Tamil and Punjabi.

Rojak Language of Malaysia can be traced from the early Malacca of Parameswara at year 1402, an international port where more than 80 languages from a variety of cultures were spoken. Worldwide traders, settlers and original dwellers speaking multiple languages in a conversation was so common. According to the Encyclopedia of Malaysia (Languages and Literature), this was part of the contact languages, a pidgin, known in modern Malaysia as Rojak Language. The uniqueness of Rojak Language is in its code-switching style, a person who speaks Rojak Language may begin with Bahasa Malaysia and then continue with English, then mixed one or two words in Cantonese, garnished with Tamil and finished with Mandarin or some fashionable Japanese words. During Parameswara's time, when two groups of traders without a shared language met, they would speak any possible languages to get the best results in understanding each others, and the result may be a pidgin or Rojak. To understand the origin of Rojak Language of Malaysia, one may need to read the history of Malaysia especially the Malacca of Parameswara. In the early 1500s, Portuguese visitor Tome Pires found in Malacca "Moors from Cairo, Mecca, Aden, Abyssinians, men of Kilwa, Malindi, Ormuz, Parsis, Rumi [Turks living abroad], Turks, Turkomans, Christian Armenians, Gujaratis, men of Chaul, Dabhol, Goa, of the kingdom of Deccan, Malabars and Klings, merchants from Orissa, Ceylon, Bengal, Arakan, Pegu, Siamese, men of Kedah, Malays, men of Penang, Patani, Cambodia, Champa, Cochin China, Chinese, men from Liu Kiu [Formosa] and Brunei, Luzonese, men of Tamjompura, Laue, Bangka, Lingga (and in this area 1000 more Islands are known), from the Moluccas, Banda, Bima, Timor, Madura, Java, Sunda, Palembang, Jambi, Tongkal, Indragiri, Kappatta, Menangkabau, Siak, Arcat, Aru, Bata, from the country of the Tomjano, Pase, Pedir, from the Maldives." These peoples come to Malacca with junks, pangajavas and ships, and by 1511, Malacca had a population of 50,000 people, including a resident trade community that spoke 84 languages.

Malaysian English

Malaysian English (MyE), formally known as Malaysian Standard English (MySE), is a form of English used and spoken in Malaysia as a second language. Malaysian English should not be confused with Malaysian Colloquial English which is famously known as Manglish or Street English, a portmanteau of the word Malay and English.

Varieties of English in Malaysia

According to The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Languages & Literature, p 61, English in Malaysia has been categorized into three levels: the acrolect, mesolect and basilect. The acrolect is near-native, and not many Malaysians fall into this category - only those educated in core English-speaking countries from early schooling up to university may be found to speak the acrolect variety, so only tiny percentage of Malaysians are proficient in it. As with other similar situations, a continuum exists between these three varieties and speakers may code-switchbetween them depending on context.

Most academics, professionals and other English-educated Malaysians, speak mesolect English. Malaysian English belongs to mesolect, and it is Malaysian English that is used in daily interaction.

However, in truth most Malaysians on the street speak Manglish on a daily basis. Therefore this means Manglish is actually short for Malaysian English. Manglish can be spoken almost using completely English words alone just that they are used differently. Imported words are actually minimal except for just a a handful of common non-English nouns and verbs in Malaysia. Manglish or Malaysian English is therefore a matter of style of usage.

There are indeed colloquial words not common outside of Malaysia but that does not render them a part of English. They are used colloquially as substitutes in other languages in Malaysia as well.

At other times, using Malay grammar on English words, speaking English using Chinese grammar, or mixing grammar and words that don't belong together can be done quite spontaneously and be quite amusing. Hence, it would not be accurate to list down all words and meanings and package them as a new form of language as is sometimes done by authors to have enough content for a coffee table book.

Malaysian English and British English

In the first half of the 20th century, Malaysian English was exactly similar to British English (BrE) (albeit spoken with a Malaysian accent). However in the post-colonial era (after 1957), the influx of American TV programmes has influenced the usage of Malaysian English. There is no official language board, council or organisation to ensure the correct and standard usage of Malaysian English, because after independence, Malay replaced English as the official language. The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate continues, however, to set and mark the GCE O-Level English Language "1119" paper which is a compulsory subject for the Malaysian Certificate of Education (the English Language paper set by the Malaysian Ministry of Education is the same as the English Language "1119" paper for GCE O-Level).

Unofficially, however, NST English (named after the New Straits Times, the oldest English language daily in Malaysia) is often used as the reference point for Malaysian English.^{[citation needed]}

Manglish

Manglish (or sometimes Malglish or Mangled English) is an English based creole spoken in Malaysia and it is a portmanteau of the word Malay and English (also possibly Mandarin and English).

The vocabulary of Manglish consists of words originating from English, Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, and to a lesser extent various other European languages, while Manglish syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese. Also, elements of American and Australian slang have come through from imported television series.

The Malaysian Manglish is sometimes known as Rojak or Bahasa Rojak, but it differs from the Rojak language by the usage of English as the base language. The East Coast versions (Kelantan and Terengganu) of Manglish may differ greatly, as their accent of Malay and the jargon are particularly alien to regular Malaysian (West Coast) speakers. Such is shown evidently in the film 'Baik Punya Cilok' where a character spoke in an authentic Terengganu Manglish.

see more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manglish

Malaysian Mandarin

Malaysian Mandarin (Chinese: 马来西亚華語) is Mandarin (Putonghua) of China but very much different in tone. The difference can be as similar as British English and Malaysian English. Malaysian Mandarin and Singaporean Mandarin are very close, the language was widely used in films created by Singaporean movie director Jack Neo.

Malaysian Mandarin speakers seldom translate local terms or names to Mandarin when they speak. They would prefer to say, for instance, the street name "Jalan Bukit Kepong" to better communicate with local Malaysians, whereas a citizen of China would most probably pronounce it as "Re-lan Wu-ji Jia-tong" to communicate with Chinese citizens.

see more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_Mandarin

Tamil language

Tamil (தமிழ் tamiḻ; IPA: [t̪əmɨɻ]) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It hasofficial status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunionas well as emigrant communities around the world.^[1] It is the administrative language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and the first Indian language to be declared as a classical language by the government of India in 2004.

Tamil literature has existed for over two thousand years.^[7] The earliest epigraphic records found date from around the third centuryBCE.^[8] The earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated from the 300 BCE – 300 CE.^[9]^[10] Inscriptions in Tamil Language from 1st century BCE and 2nd century CE have been discovered in Egypt and Thailand.^[11]^[12] The first two ancient manuscripts from India,^[13]^[14] to be acknowledged and registered by UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 & 2005 were in Tamil.^[15] More than 55% of the epigraphical inscriptions – about 55,000 – found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in the Tamil language.^[16] According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies

Classification

Main article: Dravidian languages

Tamil belongs to southern branch of the Dravidian languages, a family of around twenty-six languages native to the Indian subcontinent.^[18] It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family, which alongside Tamil proper, also includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups^[19] such as the Irula, and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue).

The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam. Until about the ninth century, Malayalam was a dialect of Tamil^[20] Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam evidence a pre-historic split of the western dialect,^[21] the process of separation into distinct language, Malayalam was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century

Geographic distribution

Distribution of Tamil speakers in South India and Sri Lanka (1961).

Tamil is the first language of the majority in Tamil Nadu, India and Northern Province, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. The language is spoken by small groups of minorities in other parts of these two countries such as Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in case of India and Colombo,the hill country, in case of Sri Lanka.

There are currently sizable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Réunion, South Africa,Indonesia^[59], Thailand^[60], Burma, and Vietnam. Many in Guyana, Fiji, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins,^[61] but only a small number speak the language. Groups of more recent migrants from Sri Lanka and India exist in Canada (especially Toronto), USA, Australia, manyMiddle Eastern countries, and most of the western European countries.

Writing system

Main article: Tamil script

Punjabi language

Punjabi or Panjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ in Gurmukhi script, پنجابی in Shahmukhi script, Pañjābī in transliteration) is an Indo-Aryan languagespoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region (in Pakistan and north western India).
According to the Ethnologue 2005 estimate^[1], there are 88 million native speakers of the Punjabi language, which makes it approximately the 11th most widely spoken language in the world. According to the 2008 Census of Pakistan^[4], there are 76,335,300 native speakers of (Various Dialects) Punjabi in Pakistan and according to the Census of India, there are 29,102,477 (Eastern Dialects) Punjabi speakers in India^[5].
Punjabi language has many different dialects, spoken in the different sub-regions of greater Punjab. The Majhi dialect is Punjabi'sprestige dialect, and is spoken in the historical region of Majha,^[6] which spans East-central districts of Pakistani Punjab and theIndian State of Punjab.
Along with Lahnda and Western Pahari languages, Punjabi is unusual among modern Indo-European languages in being a tonal language.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]
The Language Punjabi today generally refers to "Eastern Punjabi" based on the Majhi ,Malwi and Doabi dialects.

History
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language like many other modern languages of South Asia. The Punjabi language is a descendant ofSauraseni Prakrit, which was the chief language of medieval northern India^[11]^[12]^[13]
Punjabi emerged as an independent language in the 11th century from the Sauraseni Apabhramsa.^[14] The literary tradition in Punjabi started with Fariduddin Ganjshakar (Baba Farid)(1173-1266), many ancient Sufi mystics and later Guru Nanak Dev ji, the first Guru of the Sikhism. The early Punjabi literature was principally spiritual in nature and has had a very rich oral tradition. The poetry written by Sufi saints has been the folklore of the Punjab and is still sung with great love in any part of Punjab.
Between 1600 and 1850, Muslim Sufi, Sikh and Hindu writers composed many works in Punjabi. The most famous Punjabi Sufi poet was Baba Bulleh Shah (1680 – 1757), wrote in the Kafi style. Bulleh Shah practiced the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shah Hussain (1538 – 1599), Sultan Bahu (1629 – 1691), and Shah Sharaf (1640 – 1724). His lifespan also overlapped with the legendary Punjabi poet Waris Shah (1722 – 1798), of Heer Ranjha fame. Waris Shah's rendition of the tragic love story of Heer Ranjha is among the most popular medieval Punjabi works. Other popular tragic love stories are Sohni Mahiwal, Mirza Sahiba and Sassi Punnun. Shah Mohammad's Jangnama is another fine piece of poetry that gives an eyewitness account of the First Anglo-Sikh War that took place after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
The linguist George Abraham Grierson in his multivolume Linguistic Survey of India (1904-1928) used the word "Punjabi" to refer to several languages spoken in the Punjab region: the term "Western Punjabi" (ISO 639-3 pnb) covered dialects (now designated separate languages) spoken to the west of Montgomery and Gujranwala districts, while "Eastern Punjabi" referred to what is now simply called Punjabi (ISO 639-3 pan)^[15] After Saraiki, Pothohari and Hindko (earlier categorized as "Western Punjabi") got the status of separate languages, the percentage of Punjabi speakers in Pakistan decreased from 59% to 44%.
[edit]Association with the Sikhs
Punjabi is not the predominant language of the Sikh scriptures (which are written in several dialects, though in Gurmukhi script).^[16] A few portions of Guru Granth Sahib use the Punjabi dialects, but the book is interspersed with several other languages including old Hindi languages (such as Brajbhasha and Khariboli), Sanskrit and Persian.^[17] Guru Gobind Singh, the last Guru of the Sikhs composed Chandi di Var in Punjabi, although most of his works are composed in other languages like Braj bhasha and Persian.
However, in the 20th century, the Punjabi-speaking Sikhs started attaching importance to the Punjabi written in the Gurmukhi script as a symbol of their distinct identity.^[16] The Punjabi identity was affected by the communal sentiments in the 20th century. Bhai Vir Singh, a major figure in the movement for the revival of Punjabi literary tradition, started insisting that the Punjabi language was the exclusive preserve of the Sikhs.^[18] After the partition of India, the Punjab region was divided between Pakistan and India. Although the Punjab people formed the biggest linguistic group in Pakistan, Urdu was declared the national language of Pakistan, and Punjabi did not get any official status. The Indian Punjab, which then also included what are now Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, became Hindi-majority.
In the 1960s, the Shiromani Akali Dal proposed "Punjabi Suba", a state for Punjabi speakers in India. Paul R. Brass, the Professor Emeritus of Political Science and South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, opines that the Sikh leader Fateh Singh tactically stressed the linguistic basis of the demand, while downplaying the religious basis for the demand—a state where the distinct Sikh identity could be preserved.^[16] The movement for a Punjabi Suba led to trifurcation of Indian Punjab into three states: Punjab (India), Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

The Punjabi Diaspora
Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where Punjabis have emigrated in large numbers, such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom (where it is the second most commonly used language^[21]) and Canada, where in recent times Punjabi has grown fast and has now become the fourth most spoken language.^[22]. Punjabi is the 2nd most common language in the UK after English and the 4th most common spoken language in Canada after English, French and Chinese.
[edit]List in order of native speakers
Rank Country First language
1 Pakistan 76,335,300
2 Republic of India 29,109,672
3 United Kingdom 2,300,000
4 Canada 800,000
5 United Arab Emirates 720,000
6 United States 640,000
7 Saudi Arabia 620,000
8 Hong Kong 260,000
9 Malaysia 185,000
10 South Africa 140,000
11 Myanmar 120,000
12 France 90,000
13 Italy 80,000
14 Thailand 75,000
15 Japan 75,000
16 Mauritius 70,000
17 Singapore 70,000
18 Oman 68,000
19 Libya 65,000
20 Bahrain 60,000
21 Kenya 55,000
22 Australia 50,000
23 Tanzania 45,000
24 Kuwait 40,000
25 Germany 35,000

Rank	Country	First language
1	Pakistan	76,335,300
2	Republic of India	29,109,672
3	United Kingdom	2,300,000
4	Canada	800,000
5	United Arab Emirates	720,000
6	United States	640,000
7	Saudi Arabia	620,000
8	Hong Kong	260,000
9	Malaysia	185,000
10	South Africa	140,000
11	Myanmar	120,000
12	France	90,000
13	Italy	80,000
14	Thailand	75,000
15	Japan	75,000
16	Mauritius	70,000
17	Singapore	70,000
18	Oman	68,000
19	Libya	65,000
20	Bahrain	60,000
21	Kenya	55,000
22	Australia	50,000
23	Tanzania	45,000
24	Kuwait	40,000
25	Germany	35,000

Javanese language

Javanese language (Javanese: básá Jáwá, Indonesian: bahasa Jawa) is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java. It is the native language of more than 75,500,000 people.

The Javanese language is part of the Austronesian family, and is therefore related to Indonesian and other Malay varieties. Many speakers of Javanese also speak Indonesian for official and commercial purposes and to communicate with non-Javanese Indonesians.

Outside Indonesia, there are large communities of Javanese-speaking people in the neighbouring countries such as East Timor, Malaysia,Singapore, Australia, and also Hong Kong and Taiwan. In addition there are also Javanese-speaking people in Suriname, the Netherlands, andNew Caledonia. The Javanese speakers in Malaysia are especially found in the states of Selangor and Johor. For distribution in other parts, as far as Suriname, see Demographic distribution of Javanese speakers below.

Introduction

This is a Map of where Javanese is spoken. Dark green is where it is spoken as a major language. Light green is where it is a minority language.

Javanese belongs to the Sundic sub-branch of the Western Malayo-Polynesian (also called Hesperonesian) branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subfamily of the Austronesian super family. It is a close linguistic relative of Malay, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, and to a lesser extent, of various Sumatranand Borneo languages, including Malagasy and Filipino.

Javanese is spoken in Central and East Java, as well as on the north coast of West Java. In Madura, Bali, Lombok and the Sunda region of West Java, Javanese is also used as a literary language. It was the court language in Palembang, South Sumatra, until their palace was sacked by the Dutch in the late 18th century.

Javanese can be regarded as one of the classical languages of the world, with a vast literature spanning more than 12 centuries. Scholars divide the development of Javanese language in four different stages:

Old Javanese, from the 9th century
Middle Javanese, from the 13th century
New Javanese, from the 16th century
Modern Javanese, from 20th century (this classification is not used universally)

Javanese is written with the Javanese script (a descendant of the Brahmi script of India), Arabo-Javanese script, Arabic script (modified for Javanese) and Latin script.^[1]

Although not currently an official language anywhere, Javanese is the Austronesian language with the largest number of native speakers. It is spoken or understood by approximately 80 million people. At least 45% of the total population of Indonesia are of Javanese descent or live in an area where Javanese is the dominant language. Four out of five Indonesian presidents since 1945 are of Javanese descent. It is therefore not surprising that Javanese has a deep impact on the development of Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia, which is a modern dialect of Malay.

There are three main dialects of Modern Javanese: Central Javanese, Eastern Javanese and Western Javanese. There is a dialect continuum from Banten in the extreme west of Java toBanyuwangi, in the foremost eastern corner of the island. All Javanese dialects are more or less mutually intelligible.

Minangkabau language

The Minangkabau language (autonym: Baso Minang(kabau); Indonesian: Bahasa Minangkabau) is an Austronesian language, spoken by theMinangkabau-people of West Sumatra, in the western part of Riau and in several cities throughout Indonesia by migrated Minangkabau, who often trade or have a restaurant. It is also spoken in a part of Malaysia.

Due to great grammatical similarities between the Minangkabau language and Malay, there is some controversy regarding the relationship between the two. Some see Minangkabau as a dialect of Malay, while others think of Minangkabau as a proper (Malay) language.

Malaysia

Besides West Sumatra and western Riau, Minangkabau is also spoken in Malaysia, by some descendants of migrants from the Minang-speaking region in Sumatra (Tanah Minang, or Land of the Minang). Significant numbers of the early migrants settled in what is now the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan, which is kown as "Baso Nogoghi" The language is also a lingua franca along the western coastal region of the province of North Sumatra, and is even used in parts of Aceh, where the language is called Aneuk Jamee.

Dialects

The Minangkabau language has several dialects, sometimes differing between nearby villages (e.g. separated by a river). In everyday communication between Minangkabau people of different regions, the Padang-dialect (Baso Padang or Baso Urang Awak "our (people's) language") is often used and has become a kind of standard.

Southern Thai language

Southern Thai or Dambro (Thai: ภาษาไทยใต้, IPA: pʰaːsaː tʰajɗaj; Thai: ภาษาตามโปร, IPA: pʰaːsaː ɗaːmbro) is a Tai language spoken in the 14changwat of Southern Thailand as well as by small communities in the northernmost Malaysian states. It is spoken by roughly five million people, and as a second language by the 1.5 million speakers of Pattani Malay and other ethnic groups such as the local Thai Chinese communities,Negritos, and other tribal groups. Most speakers are also fluent or understand the standard Thai language.

Distribution

In Thailand, speakers of Southern Thai can be found from as far north as Prachuap Khiri Khan Province all the way down to the border withMalaysia. Small numbers of speakers can be found in the Malaysian border states, especially Kelantan, Penang, Perlis, Kedah, and Perak. It is the primary language of Thai people as well as ethnically Malay people on both sides of the Thai-Malaysian border, who often use it as a second language. Although numerous regional variations exist and there is no one standard, the language is most distinct near the Malaysian border, but all varieties remain mutually intelligible to each other. For economic reasons, many speakers of Southern Thai have moved to Bangkok and other Thai cities or to the Middle East, where many speakers share Islam as a professed religion.

History

Malay kingdoms ruled much of the Malay Peninsula, such as the Pattani Kingdom and Tambralinga, but most of the area fell under the rule of Srivijaya. The area was heavily influenced by the culture of Indian traders, and numerous Buddhist and Hindu shrines attest to the diffusion of culture. The collapse of Srivijaya was filled by the growth of the Kingdom of Nakhon Sri Thammaraj, which subsequently became a vassal of Sukhothai. The area has been a frontier between the northern Tai peoples and the southern Malay peoples as well as between Buddhism and Islam. The tensions fuelled by brutal Thaification policies, suppression of local culture, and general poverty has lead to the current South Thailand insurgency.

Cantonese (Yue)

Yue (Chinese: 粵語, Cantonese: Jyut6 jyu5 / Yuht Yúh, Mandarin: Yuè Yǔ^[3]) is a primary branch of the Chinese language comprising a number of dialects spoken in southern China mainly in the provinces of Guandong and Guangxi, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, and in various overseas communities. The English name "Cantonese" is sometimes taken to refer to the dialect of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau, which has emerged as the prestige variety of Cantonese.

The issue of whether Yue should be regarded as a language in its own right or as a dialect of a Chinese language depends on conceptions of what a language is. Like the other primary branches of Chinese, Yue is considered to be a dialect of a single Chinese language for ethnic and cultural reasons, but is also considered a language in its own right because it is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese.

The exact number of Yue speakers is unknown due to a lack of statistics and census data. The areas with the highest concentration of speakers are Guangdong and parts of Guangxi in southern mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau; with Cantonese- and Taishanese-speaking minorities in Southeast Asia, Canada, and the United States.^[4]

Use outside China

Historically, the majority of the overseas Chinese have originated from just two provinces; Fujian and Guangdong. This has resulted in the overseas Chinese having a far higher proportion of Fujian and Guangdong languages/dialect speakers than Chinese speakers in China as a whole. More recent emigration from Fujian and Hong Kong have continued this trend.

The largest number of Cantonese speakers outside mainland China and Hong Kong are in south east Asia; however, speakers of Min dialects are predominate among the overseas Chinese in south east Asia.^{[citation needed]} The Cantonese spoken in Singapore and Malaysia is also known to have borrowed substantially from Malay and other languages.

20th century

In the Cantonese-speaking region of mainland China, Mandarin is used for official functions in recent years, while Cantonese is used in daily life.

In Hong Kong, Cantonese is the dominant language and is used everywhere, including education, the government, media and business dealings.

Nowadays, Mandarin being the medium of education on the mainland, many youngsters in the Cantonese speaking region in mainland China do not know specific historical and scientific vocabularies in Cantonese but do know social, cultural, entertainment, commercial, trading, and all other vocabularies^{[citation needed]}. Cantonese is widely spoken and learned by overseas Chinese of Guangdong and Hong Kong origin.

The popularity of Cantonese-language media and entertainment from Hong Kong has led to a wide and frequent exposure of Cantonese to large portions of China and the rest of Asia.Cantopop and the Hong Kong film industry are prominent examples of modern Cantonese language media.

The Yue language includes several dialects, some of which are only partially mutually intelligible. In the classification of J.M. Campbell,^[10] they are:

Cantonese proper, Guangfu (廣府粵語) or Yuehai (粵海粵語), which includes the language of Guangzhou and the surrounding areas of Zhongshan, Wuzhou, and Foshan, as well asHong Kong and Macau;
Sìyì (四邑粵語 Seiyap), exemplified by the Taishan dialect (台山粵語), also known as Taishanese, which was ubiquitous in American Chinatowns before ca 1970;
Gaoyang (高陽粵語), spoken in Yangjiang;
Wuhua (吳化粵語 Ngfaa), spoken mainly in western Guangdong;
Goulou (勾漏粵語 Ngaulau), spoken in western Guangdong and eastern Guangxi, which includes the dialect of Yulin, Guangxi;
Yongxun (邕潯粵語 Jungcam), spoken mainly in Guangxi and its capital Nanning;
Qinlian (欽廉粵語 Jamlim), spoken in southern Guangxi, which includes the Beihai dialect;
Danzhou (儋州話), which includes the dialect of Changjiang
Haihua (海話), the dialect of Lianjiang

Formerly Pinghua (廣西平話), spoken in central Guangxi, was considered Yue, but it was designated a separate primary branch of Chinese by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the 1980s,^[11] a classification generally followed in the west.

The Canton/Guangzhou dialect of Yuehai is the prestige dialect and social standard of Yue, and historically the word "Cantonese" has referred specifically to this dialect.

Standard Mandarin is the medium of instruction in the state education system in Mainland China but in Chinese schools in Hong Kong and Macau, Yue is the oral language of instruction. It is used extensively in Yue-speaking households, Yue-language media (Hong Kong films, television serials, and Cantopop), isolation from the other regions of China, local identity, and the non-Mandarin speaking Yue diaspora in Hong Kong and abroad give the language a unique identity. Most wuxia 武俠 films from Canton are filmed originally in Yue and then dubbed or subtitled in Mandarin, English, or both.

[edit]Canton dialect

Main article: Canton dialect

The Canton–Hong Kong dialect is the prestige dialect of Guangdong province, and the de facto official language of Hong Kong. It is the most widely spoken dialect of Yue, spoken in Canton (Guangzhou), Hong Kong, and Macau, and is the lingua franca of not only Guangdong province, but of overseas Cantonese emigrants, though in many areas abroad it is numerically second to the Taishanese dialect of Yue. It forms the basis of Standard Cantonese.

Penang Hokkien

Penang Hokkien is a local variant of Hokkien spoken in Penang, Malaysia. It is the lingua franca in Penang as well as other northern states of Malaysia surrounding it, and is characterised by the pronunciation of words according to the Zhangzhou (漳州) dialect, together with widespread use of Malay and English borrowed words. It is predominantly a spoken dialect: it is rarely written in Chinese characters, and there is no standard romanisation. This article uses the Missionary Romanisation or Pe̍h-ōe-jī (白話字) which is common in Taiwan.

Minnan is one of the sub-languages of the Chinese language and is mainly spoken in southern Fujian, Taiwan, Hainan and parts of Guangdong, with the main standard dialects being Hokkien, Teochew and Hainanese. It is also spoken by many overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Penang Hokkien is based on the dialect of Hokkien spoken in the Zhangzhou (漳州 Hokkien: Chiang¹-chiu¹) prefecture of Fujian. It is said that it most closely resembles the dialect spoken in the district of Haicang (海滄) in Longhai (龍海 Hokkien: Liong⁵-hai²) county and in the districts of Jiaomei (角美) and Xinglin (杏林) in neighbouring Xiamen prefecture. In Southeast Asia, similar dialects are spoken in the states bordering Penang, and in Medan. In contrast, in southern Malaysia and Singapore, many Hokkien speakers speak a dialect based on the Amoy standard. However, despite a few vocabulary and pronunciation differences, the dialect should be considered the same in Penang and Singapore as it is mutually intelligible.

Fuzhou dialect

Fuzhou dialect (福州話, Foochow Romanized: Hók-ciŭ-uâ (help·info)), also known as Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese,Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it Bàng-uâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. In Singapore and Malaysia, the language is known as Hokchiu, which is the Min Dong pronunciation of Fuzhou.

Although traditionally called a dialect, Fuzhou dialect is actually a separate language according to linguistic standards, because it is not mutually intelligible with other Min languages, let alone other Chinese languages. Therefore, whether Fuzhou dialect is a dialect or a language is highly disputable.

Centered in Fuzhou City, Fuzhou dialect mainly covers eleven cities and counties, viz.: Fuzhou (福州), Pingnan (屏南), Gutian (古田), Luoyuan(羅源), Minqing (閩清), Lianjiang (連江, Matsu included), Minhou (閩侯), Changle (長樂), Yongtai (永泰), Fuqing (福清) and Pingtan (平潭). Fuzhou dialect is also the second local language in northern and middle Fujian cities and counties, like Nanping (南平), Shaowu (邵武),Shunchang (順昌), Sanming (三明) and Youxi (尤溪).

Fuzhou dialect is also widely spoken in some regions abroad, especially in Southeastern Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. The city of Sibu in Malaysia is called "New Fuzhou" due to the influx of immigrants there in the early 1900s. Similarly, the language has spread to the USA, UK and Japan as a result of immigration in recent decades.

History

[edit]Formation

The authoritative Foochow rime book Qī Lín Bāyīn

After Han China's occupation of Minyue (閩越) in 110 BC, Han people began populating in what is Fujian Province today. Having lost their nationalities, the aboriginal Minyue people, a branch of Yue peoples (百越), were gradually assimilated into Chinese culture.^[1] The Ancient Wu andAncient Chu language brought by the mass influx of Han immigrants from Northern area gradually mixed with the local Minyue language and finally developed into the Ancient Min language, from which Fuzhou dialect evolved.^[2]

Fuzhou dialect came into being during the period somewhere between late Tang Dynasty and "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms"^[3], and has been considered by most as a Chinese dialectever since. However, it is also worth noting that its substratum is constituted by large quantities of well-preserved Minyue vocabulary. In this sense, Fuzhou dialect is a de facto mixed languageof Ancient Chinese and Minyue language.^{[citation needed]}

The famous book Qī Lín Bāyīn (戚林八音, Foochow Romanized: Chék Lìng Báik-ĭng), which was compiled in the 17th century, is the first and the most full-scale rime book that provides a systematic guide to character reading for people speaking or learning Fuzhou dialect. It once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Chinese phonology.

Writing system

[edit]Chinese characters

Foochow Bible in Chinese Characters, published by China Bible House in 1940.

Most of the characters of Fuzhou dialect stem from Ancient Chinese and can therefore be written in Chinese characters. Many books published in Qing Dynasty have been written in this traditional way, such as the famous Mǐndū Biéjì (閩都別記, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dŭ Biék-gé). However, Chinese characters as the writing system for Fuzhou dialect do have many shortcomings.

Firstly, a great number of characters are unique to Fuzhou dialect, so that they can only be written in informal ways. For instance, the character "mâ̤", a negative word, has no common form. Some write it as "賣" or "袂", both of which share with it an identical pronunciation but has a totally irrelevant meaning; and others prefer to use a newly-created character combining "勿" and "會", but this character is not included in most fonts.

Secondly, Fuzhou dialect has been excluded from the educational system for many decades. As a result, many if not all take for granted that Fuzhou dialect does not have a formal writing system and when they have to write it, they tend to misuse characters with a similar Mandarin Chineseenunciation. For example, "會使 (â̤ sāi)", meaning "okay", are frequently written as "阿塞" because they are uttered almost in the same way.

[edit]Foochow Romanized

Bible in Foochow Romanized, published by British and Foreign Bible Society in 1908.

Main article: Foochow Romanized

Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (平話字, BUC for short) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (福州話羅馬字), is a romanized orthography for Fuzhou dialect adopted in the middle of 19th century by American and English missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized several decades later. Foochow Romanized was mainly used inside of Church circles, and was taught in some Mission Schools in Fuzhou

Coastal Kadazan language

The Coastal Kadazan^[1] language is a Austronesian language primarily spoken in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the primary language spoken by theKadazan ethnic group.

The language has adopted many loanwords, particularly from other North Borneo indigenous languages and also Malay.

The use of the language has been declining due to the use of Malay by the Malaysian federal government and by the use of English by British missionaries. The state of Sabah has introduced policies to prevent this decline, which is also happening to other native Sabahan languages. This included the policy of using Kadazan and other indigenous languages in public schools. Efforts have also been done to allow the language to become official in the state.

Iban language

The Iban language is spoken by the Iban, a branch of the Dayak ethnic group formerly known as "Sea Dayak" who live in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Barat and in Brunei. It belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family, and is related to Malay, more closely to Sarawakian Malay. The Iban language is also a subject tested in PMR and SPM, the Malaysian public examination for Form 3 and Form 5 students respectively. Students comment that questions from these exams mostly cover the classic Iban language, making them a daunting task for many who are more fluent in the contemporary tongue. The language is mostly taught to students in rural areas with a majority Iban population, including Baleh (Kapit), Betong, Saratok, Lubok Antu and Pelagus (Kapit).

Malay language

2009-10-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

Malay is a group of languages closely related to each other to the point of mutual intelligibility but that linguists consider to be separate languages.^{[citation needed]} They are grouped into a group called "Local Malay", part of a larger group called "Malayan" within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.^[5]^[6]^[7] The various forms of Malay are spoken in Brunei, Indonesia (where the national language, Indonesian, is a variety of it), Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and southern Thailand.^[8]

Malay is an official language of Brunei and Malaysia, and one of the official languages in Singapore. The national language of Indonesia is Indonesian, formally referred to as Bahasa Indonesia which literally translates as "Indonesian language". It is also called Bahasa Nasional(National Language) and Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu (Unifying Language) in Indonesia. Indonesian is also used in East Timor, a consequence of more than 20 years of Indonesian administration and is now a "working language" of that country. In Malaysia, the language is now officially known as Bahasa Malaysia ("Malaysian language"), though constitutionally it is called Bahasa Melayu. Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand refer to the language as Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language").

Origin

There are many hypotheses as to where the Malay language originated. One of these is that it came from Sumatra island. The oldest written documents in Malay, dated from the end of the 7th century AD, were found on Bangka Island, off the southeastern coast of Sumatra and inPalembang in southern Sumatra. "Malayu" was the name of an old kingdom located in Jambi province in eastern Sumatra. It was known in ancient Chinese texts as "Mo-lo-yo" and mentioned in the Nagarakertagama, an old Javanese epic written in 1365, as one of the "tributary states" of the Majapahit kingdom in eastern Java.

The use of Malay throughout insular and peninsular Southeast Asia is linked to the rise of Muslim kingdoms and the spread of Islam, itself a consequence of growing regional trade.

Indonesia pronounced a variety of Malay its official language when it gained independence, calling it Bahasa Indonesia. However, the language had already been used as the lingua franca throughout the archipelago since the 15th century. Since 1928, nationalists and young people throughout the Indonesian archipelago declared it to be Indonesia's only official language, as proclaimed in the Sumpah Pemuda "Youth Vow." Thus Indonesia was the first country to designate it as an official language. In several parts of Indonesia, in Sumatra and Borneo Islands, Malay is spoken as local dialect of Malay ethnic.^{[citation needed]}

In Malaysia, the term Bahasa Malaysia, which was introduced by the National Language Act of 1967, was in use until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to "Bahasa Melayu," used in the Malay version of the Federal Constitution. According to Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, Bahasa Melayu is the official language of Malaysia. "Bahasa Kebangsaan" (National Language) was also used at one point during the 1970s. However, at present day, Malaysians prefer to identify their national language as Bahasa Malaysia once again.^{[citation needed]} Similar to Malaysia in the mid 1990's, "Bahasa Melayu" was defined as Brunei's official language in the country's 1959 Constitution.

Indonesian and Malay are separated by some centuries of different vocabulary development, partly due to the influence of different colonial languages; Dutch in the case of Indonesia, formerly the Dutch East Indies and English in the case of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, which were formerly under British rule.

Some Malay dialects, however, show only limited mutual intelligibility with the standard language; for example, Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some fellow Malay speakers to understand, while Indonesian contains a lot of words unique to it that are unfamiliar to speakers of Malay.

The language spoken by the Peranakan (Straits Chinese, a hybrid of Chinese settlers from the Ming Dynasty and local Malays) is a unique patois of Malay and the Chinese Hokkiendialect, which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca in Malaysia, and the Indonesian Archipelago.

History

Main article: Old Malay

The history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods: Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, Late Modern Malay, and modern Malay.

Old Malay is unintelligible to a speaker of modern Malay. It was heavily influenced by Sanskrit, the lingua franca of Hinduism and Buddhism. The earliest known inscription in the Old Malay language was found in Sumatra, written in Pallava script^[9] and dates back to 7th century - known as Kedukan Bukit Inscription, it was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November, 1920, at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang, a tributary of the River Musi. It is a small stone of 45 by 80 cm.

The Malay language came into widespread use as the trade language of the Sultanate of Malacca (1402 – 1511). During this period, the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature. The development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Persian and Hindi or Sanskrit vocabularies. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognizable to speakers of modern Malay.

Writing system

Main article: Malay alphabet

Malay is normally written using Latin alphabet called Rumi, although a modified Arabic script called Jawi also exists. Rumi is official in Malaysia and Singapore, and Indonesian has a different official orthography also using the Latin script. Rumi and Jawi are co-official in Brunei. Efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve Jawi script and to revive its use amongst Malays in Malaysia, and students taking Malay language examination in Malaysia have the option of answering questions using Jawi script. The Latin alphabet, however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes.

Historically, Malay has been written using various scripts. Before the introduction of Arabic script in the Malay region, Malay was written using Pallava, Kawi and Rencong script and these are still in use today by the Champa Malay in Vietnam and Cambodia. Old Malay was written using Pallava and Kawi script, as evident from several inscription stones in the Malay region. Starting from the era of kingdom of Pasai and throughout the golden age of the Sultanate of Malacca, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region. Starting from the 17th century, under Dutch and British influence, Jawi was gradually replaced by the Rumi script. ^[10]

Extent of use and dialects

Main article: Varieties of Malay

馬來王室

2009-05-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

read http://www2.orientaldaily.com.my/gread/2vbg02Uq0s709fr40jNQ5uJp113e52Oc and http://www2.orientaldaily.com.my/gread/GNS/2ack0Cxu0uMO92Ry0Mgv58311G394IPN

馬來王室制度，至今仍「屹立」在我國的森美蘭、柔佛、霹靂、雪蘭莪等9個馬來州屬。

Maxis

2008-07-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

one of the premier mobile operator

Facebook | My Photos - JB in transition 10 June 2008

2008-06-11T03:22:00.000-07:00

Facebook | My Photos - JB in transition 10 June 2008: "http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4521&l=87aad&id=1051337523"

Malaysia's national car manufacturer Proton

2008-05-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

The launch of its multi-purpose vehicles in early 2009 would see Proton expanding its product portfolio.

second richest man in Malaysia: T. Ananda Krishnan, 70

2008-05-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

T. Ananda Krishnan, 70, whose family originates from Jaffna, a Tamil of Sri Lankan origin , runs the telecom firm Maxis, occupies the 16th place in the list of 40 wealthiest in the Southeast Asian country published by the Forbes magazine.

Krishnan is the wealthiest person with a Tamil background ahead of Shiv Nadar, who is the 10th richest man in India.

Maxis became a private firm in a leveraged buyout in 2007 and has 74 percent stake in India's telecom operator Aircel.

find out Malaysia richest man and other Tamil rich men from: http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/48cba686fe041718/id/363327/cs/1/

malaysia

2008-05-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

The country is among the world's biggest producers of computer disk drives, palm oil, rubber and timber. It has a state-controlled car maker, Proton, and tourism has considerable room for expansion.

Main exports: Electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas, chemicals, palm oil, wood and wood products, rubber, textiles

more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1304569.stm

Malaysia bustles with cultural, religious diversity

2008-04-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

The list of things to see and do in Malaysia is long. Nature lovers can see wild monkeys and exotic birds in jungle areas. Tropical fish and coral formations are a delightful spectacle for snorkelers and divers in the clear waters off the East Coast's Perentian Island and the National Marine Park at Redang. The best beaches are on the West Coast islands of Langkawi and Pangkor.

read more at http://www.ajc.com/travel/content/travel/otherdestinations/int_stories/2008/04/03/TRmalaysia_0406.html

malaysiakini 當今大馬

2008-03-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

當今大馬深度报导有影响力的新闻和论点
MALAYSIAKINInews and views that matter
ENGLISH B.MALAYSIA (FREE) 中文版 தமிழ்
the only site with four languages.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/
http://www.malaysiakini.com/bm/
http://www.malaysiakini.com/cn/
http://www.malaysiaindru.com/

PKR flag

2008-02-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

UMNO Flag

2008-02-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

election fever.

DAP election operation centre

2008-02-19T02:05:00.000-08:00

MCA election operation centre

2008-02-19T02:04:00.000-08:00

Malaysia Truly Asia

2008-02-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

another version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSqI9_pmqOc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-HahCHPX6w&feature=related

Eco-Tourism

Sands of Serenity

2008-02-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

Development Masterplans

2008-01-30T03:26:00.000-08:00

Sabah Development Corridor 18 years

Eastern Coast Economic Corridor (ECER) 12 years,

Northern Corridor Economic Region 18 years

Iskandar Development Region

next Sarawak

read it at my separate blog entries, Sabah and Sarawak will be under East Malaysia

construction industry in 2008

2008-01-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

Bank Negara forecasting a 6.3% growth. Building and transportation-related jobs were abundant.

RM200 billion in government development allocation under 9MP, RM63.76 billion had been spent and a total of 29,957 projects approved under the 9MP.

Ipoh-Padang Besar double-tracking railway project has been awarded to Gamuda Bhd and MMC Corp Bhd.

The building of the second Penang Bridge and double-tracking project linking Seremban and Gemas.

RM8 billion Kuala Lumpur-Singapore bullet train project proposed by YTL Corporation Bhd.

Pahang-Selangor water transfer project, likely in the second half of 2008. dam construction, piping and pump works, tunneling works.

University Teknologi Mara’s new campus, RM520 million Putrajaya government offices, secured by Sunway Holdings Inc.

Melati Ehsan Bhd, Mudajaya Bhd, Pintaras Jaya Bhd and Protasco Jaya Bhd, which would see stable and recurring income from government concessions.

The regional economic corridors, particularly the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Iskandar Development Region (IDR) and Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), expected to generate RM656.6 billion of investment over the next 13 to 18 years, and RM8 billion allocated for 2008.

The IDR has already seen players such as UEM World Bhd secure major projects, with smaller players such as Putrajaya Perdana Bhd tipped to clinch projects in the corridor from Aldar Properties PJSC of Abu Dhabi.

Large and medium cap players contending for ECER projects are Ahmad Zaki (oil and gas related infrastructure works), IJM group and Loh & Loh (water-related infrastructure jobs) and TSR Capital Bhd.

Ahmad Zaki, TSR Capital and TCR Synergy Bhd, viaing for the northern region.

Hock Seng Lee Bhd and Naim Cendera Holdings Bhd are expected to rise to prominence with the impending launch of the Sabah and Sarawak (Sarawak Regional Corridor of Development) corridors.

source:
http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_3861a846-cb73c03a-39060b00-4b390d07
BNP Paribas Capital (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (BNP Paribas), OSK Research’s Jeremy Goh, Aseambankers Equity Research.

VIRTUAL MALAYSIA - The Official e-Tourism Portal for The Ministry of Tourism

2008-01-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

the site:

http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/our_malaysia/

Malaysia

Malaysia has fervently embraced modern technology - it boasts two of the world's tallest skyscrapers and a huge "cyber" center for computer businesses. But it still has some of the world's most remote jungle (in Sabah and Sarawak), one of Southeast Asia's most vibrant old ports (Georgetown) and an atmospheric colonial hill station (the Cameron Highlands). Even in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, which bristles with ambitious new building projects, you can still find exotic markets and plenty of local color. As a result, travelers to Malaysia can easily ratchet up or down the levels of adventure and comfort they want to experience.

Geography
The South China Sea divides Malaysia roughly in half. Peninsular Malaysian, the western half, is home to two-thirds of the country's 18 million inhabitants. The less developed states of Sabah and Sarawak make up the eastern half, which occupies the northern third of Borneo. In both areas, coastal lowlands give way to mountainous interiors. Tropical vegetation abounds. The rain forests are believed to be the oldest in the world. The nation includes dozens of small islands.

Area
329,847 sq km
Population
26,888,000 Million (2006 est.)

Major Industries
Industries;Peninsular Malaysia - rubber and oil palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing industry, electronics, tin mining and smelting, logging and processing timber; Sabah - logging, petroleum production; Sarawak - agriculture processing, petroleum production and refining, logging

Agriculture product;Peninsular Malaysia - rubber, palm oil, cocoa, rice; Sabah - subsistence crops, rubber, timber, coconuts, rice; Sarawak - rubber, pepper; timber

the national banner

2007-12-01T15:43:00.000-08:00