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Kupang Malay or simply the Kupang language is a Malay-based creole language spoken in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, which is on the west end of Timor Island. Kupang Malay is presently used as a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communication, and it also has native speakers.

It is based on archaic Malay mixed mostly with Dutch, Portuguese, and other local languages. It is similar to Ambonese Malay with several differences in vocabulary and accent. Its grammatical system resembles other Eastern Indonesian Malay creoles.

Kupang Malay originated sometime before the 17th century. Kupang Malay has Rotinese influence.

Phonology

Like Indonesian, words in Kupang Malay are usually stressed on the penultimate syllable. Some words are stressed on the final syllable as they would be in their source languages. This results in some contrastive stress.

Vowels

The vowels of Kupang Malay are shown in the chart below.

Unlike in Indonesian, there is no schwa in Kupang Malay.

The "ia ,"ie, "io",and iu,reduces to iya, iye, iyo, iyu or nua, oa, os becomes nuwa, woa, wos.

Consonants

The consonants of Kupang Malay are shown in the chart below.

Kupang Malay has intervocalic glottal stops in some words from which originate from other local languages or Arabic.

• The lack of foreign letters e.g. "z","v",and"q"

For example;

• Zaman → Saman
• Video → Fideo
• Qatar → Katar

Pronouns

The pronouns in Kupang Malay differ from Indonesian as shown in the table below.

Morphology

Reduplication is frequent. Reduplication can express several things such as: variety, similarity, repetition, non-urgency, and aimlessness.

Grammar

The word order of Kupang Malay is mixed Malay and the Helong language.

Possessives are formed by placing a possessive particle, pung after the possessor and before the possessed item.

beta

1S

pung

POSS

ruma

house

beta pung ruma

1S POSS house

'my house'

External links

"Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) - East Timor (ET) Vernacular Language Dictionaries (Kamus)". Archived from the original on 9 May 2020.

References

1. ^ Kupang Malay at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. ^ Jacob, June; Grimes, Barbara Dix (2006). "Developing a role for Kupang Malay: the contemporary politics of an eastern Indonesian creole". Paper Presented by June Jacob at the Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics Held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines.
3. ^ Paauw, Scott H. (2009). The Malay contact varieties of Eastern Indonesia: A typological comparison. State University of New York at Buffalo.
4. ^ Steinhauer, Hein (1983). "Notes on the Malay of Kupang (Timor)" (PDF). Studies in Malay dialects: 42-64.

• Malay-based pidgins and creoles
• Languages of Indonesia
• Malay dialects