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Sarawak Malay (Standard Malay: Bahasa Melayu Sarawak or Bahasa Sarawak, Jawi: بهاس ملايو سراوق, Sarawak Malay: Kelakar Sarawak) is a Malayic language native to the State of Sarawak. It is a common language used by natives of Sarawak. This variant is related to Bruneian Malay, spoken in the districts of Limbang and Lawas (Sarawak) and bears strong similarities with Sanggau, Sintang and Sekadau Malay spoken in the northern part of the West Kalimantan province in Indonesia.^{[citation needed]} There is some debate on whether it is a vernacular variety of Malay or a separate language altogether.[1] It is more similar to Ibanic languages compared to the Malay dialects of Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula, and is different enough from standard Malay that speakers outside of Sarawak are often unable to understand it without prior study.^{[citation needed]}.

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Sarawak Malay
Kelakar Sarawak
Native to	Sarawak
Native speakers	900,000 - 1,200,000
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (disputed) Malayic Sarawak Malay
Dialects	Kuching Saribas Sibu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	zlm-sar
Glottolog	None

Dialects

According to Asmah Haji Omar (1993), Sarawak Malay can be divided into three dialects which are:[2]

• Kuching
• Saribas
• Sibu

Features

Sarawak Malay has features that are unfound in Standard Malay:[2]

• Sarawak Malay has only one diphthong which is /oj/ unlike Standard Malay which has three which are /oj, aj, aw/.
• The diphthongs /aj, aw/ in Standard Malay correspond to monophthongs /e, o/ in Sarawak Malay so pandai /pandaj/ and pulau /pulaw/ in Standard Malay are [pan.de] and [pu.lo] in Sarawak Malay.
• Verbs conjugated in the "agent focus" sense (e.g. biar > membiar) conjugate differently in Sarawak Malay:
  • In Sarawak Malay, the initial consonant in a syllable coda of the conjugated form of the word (e.g. the initial middle 'm' in memberi) in Standard Malay is the initial consonant in Sarawak Malay mencari [məɲ.t͡ʃa.ri] is nyari [ɲ̩a.ɣi] because the 'n' in mencari is a [ɲ]. This is also found in how memberi [məm.bə.ri] is meri [mə.ɣi] in Sarawak Malay because of the middle 'm' in memberi.
• In the Kuching dialect and the Sibu dialect, open-ended final /a/ is an [a] just like in Standard Malay but in the Saribas dialect, it is instead an [o] so ada /ada/ is [a.da] in the Kuching and SIbu dialects and in Standard Malay but is pronounced as [a.do] in the Saribas dialect.
• In Sarawak Malay, /r/ is an uvular or velar fricative ([ʁ] and [ɣ] respectively), unlike in Standard Malay where it is an alveolar trill [r].

Vocabulary

Sarawak Malay has a rich vocabulary of which many words, while also found in Standard Malay, have completely different meanings.[3]

Difference in meaning

Word	Meaning in Sarawak Malay	Meaning in Standard Malay
agak	'to meet'	'to guess'
kelakar	'to talk'	'funny'
tangga	'to look'	'stairs'
tikam	'to throw'	'to stab'
tetak	'to laugh'	'to cut'
marak	'to waste'	'to refract'

The numbers of Sarawak Malay differ a bit from their Standard Malay counterparts.[4]

Numbers

Sarawak Malay	Standard Malay	English translation
satu	satu	'one'
duak	dua	'two'
tiga	tiga	'three'
empat	empat	'four'
limak	lima	'five'
nam	enam	'six'
tujoh	tujuh	'seven'
lapan	lapan	'eight'
semilan	sembilan	'nine'
sepuloh	sepuluh	'ten'

The pronouns too differ quite significantly.[5]

Personal pronouns

Sarawak Malay	Standard Malay	English translation
kamek	saya/aku	'I/me'
kamek empun	saya/aku punya	'my/mine'
kamek orang	kita/kami	'we'
kitak	kau/kamu/awak	'you' (informal, singular)
kitak empun	kau/kamu/awak punya	'your/yours'
kitak orang	kamu semua	'you' (plural)
nya	dia	'he/she/it'
nya empun	dia punya	'his/her/hers'
sidak nya empun	mereka punya	'theirs'
sidak nya kedirik	mereka sendiri	'themselves'

Below is a non-exhaustive list of lexical differences between Standard Malay and Sarawak Malay.^{[citation needed]}

Standard Malay	Sarawak Malay	English translation
baring	gurin	'to lie down'
bodoh	paloi	'stupid'
berlari	berekot	'to run'
garang	gaok	'angry'
hijau	gadong, ijo	'green' (colour)
kapal terbang	belon	'aeroplane'
kecil	kecik/salus	'small'
juga	juak	'also'
sombong	lawa	'arrogant'
kenapa	kenak	'why'
kenyang	kedak	'full' (eating)
mahu	maok	'to want'
merah jambu	kalas	'pink'
sekarang/kini	kinek	'now'
singgah	berambeh	'to go to'
tembikai	semangka	'watermelon'
tak/tidak	si/sik	'negative marker'
tipu	bulak	'to lie'
ya/ha'ah	aok	'yes'
lihat/tengok	tangga	'to see'
berkira	cokot	'picky'

Many of the words used in Sarawak Malay nowadays were borrowed from many languages such as English. Some English words that have been borrowed and have undergone significant pronunciation changes are as follows:

English loanword	Original English form
eksen	'action'
bol	'ball'
kaler	'colour'
kapet	'carpet'
pancet	'punctured'
henpon	'handphone'
moto	'motor'
prempan	'frying pan'
uren	'orange'
raun	'round'

Word formation

The word formation rules of Sarawak Malay are very different from those of the standard Malay language. Without prior exposure, most West Malaysians have trouble following Sarawakian conversations. Sabahan is also different from Sarawak Malay, however they do share some lexicon, such as the word Bah, which is used to stress a sentence. E.g.: Don't do like that - "Iboh polah kedak ya bah." It is similar in use to "lah" in Singlish and in West Malaysia. E.g.: Don't do like that 'lah'. Some words in Sarawakian Malay have a similar pronunciation of ai as ei, as in some districts of Perak: serai > serei, kedai > kedei. Some Sarawakian Malay verbs have a final glottal stop after a vowel or in place of final /r/: kena > kenak, air > aik, beri > berik. like in the Aboriginal Malay languages of West Malaysia.

Many words in Sarawak Malay diverge from the original pronunciation and some are totally different. E.g.:

English	Bahasa Malaysia	Bahasa Sarawak[6]
Sweeping	Menyapu	Nyapu
Coconut	Kelapa / Nyiur	Nyior[7]
More	Lagi	lagik/ Agik/Gik
Road	Jalan Raya	Jeraya
Clever	Pandai	Pandei
Teach	Mengajar	Ngaja
Yes	Ya	aok
Cat	Kucing	Pusak
Dog	Anjing / Asu (less used)	Asuk
Chicken	Ayam / Manuk (archaic)	Manok
Knife	Pisau	ladin (Malay/Melanau) Dandin/ pisok

Colloquial and contemporary usage

Contemporary usage of Bahasa Sarawak includes contemporary Malay words or incorporated from other languages, spoken by the urban speech community, which may not be familiar to the older generation. E.g.: SMS language. E.g.:

English	Bahasa Sarawak	SMS Text
You	Kitak	ktk
me	Kamek	kmk
No	Sik	x
Message	Mesej	msg
Nothing	Sikda	xda
why	kenak	knk

References

External links

• Kaipuleohone has an archived notes on Sarawak Malay

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