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The Malay Chetty creole language (also known as Malaccan Creole Malay, Malacca Malay Creole 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

• Final /r/ is omitted
  • benar /bənar/ ≙ 'true'
• /h/ is omitted in initial, final and mid positions except in a few words
  • hijau /hid͡ʒau/ ≙ 'green'
  • tahu /tahu/ ≙ 'to know'
  • darah /darah/ ≙ 'blood'

Monophthongisation

• Final /ai/ is reduced to half-closed front
  • pakai /pakai/ ≙ 'to wear'
• Final /au/ is reduced to half-closed back
  • pulau /pulau/ ≙ 'island'

Phoneme Deletion in Consonant Clusters in Trisyllabic Words

• Mid consonant cluster /mb/ is reduced to
  • sembilan /səmbilan/ ≙ 'nine'

Phoneme Insertion

• Glottal is inserted at word final position in words that end with /a, i, u/
  • bawa /bawa/ ≙ 'to bring'
  • cari /t͡ʃari/ ≙ 'to search'
  • garu /garu/ ≙ 'to scratch'

Vocabulary

References

Citations

1. Malay Chetty creole language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. ^ "Malaccan Malay Creole". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
3. Paulo 2018.
4. Mohamed 2009, pp. 58–59.
5. Mohamed 2009, p. 68.
6. Mohamed 2009, pp. 60–65.
7. Mohamed 2009, pp. 67–68.

Bibliography

• Paulo, Derrick A (21 October 2018). "Meet the Chetti Melaka, or Peranakan Indians, striving to save their vanishing culture". CNA. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
• Mohamed, Noriah (June 2009). "The Malay Chetty Creole Language of Malacca: A Historical and Linguistic Perspective". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 82 (1 (296)): 58–59. JSTOR 41493734. Retrieved 23 May 2021.

• Malay-based pidgins and creoles
• Languages of Malaysia