Page:Baba Malay. An Introduction to the Language of the Straits-born Chinese.pdf/6

54 BABA MALAY. cases have altered the pronunciation so much that the word is al- most unrecognisable ; and (4) to a great extent they use the Chinese idiom rather than the Malay, putting their sentences together in a way which is quite different from the colloquial language of the Malays. We will consider these different points one by one.

(1) Words of Chinese origin.

In dealing with the question of the Chinese wofds used by the Babas it must first be remarked that their pronunciation of such words is Malay rather than Chinese. ‘The Hok-kien Chinese in the pronunciation of their words use seven very clearly defined “tones,” and the meaning of a word depends entirely upon the tone of voice in which it is pronounced. Of the use of these tones the Babas for the most part know absolutely nothing, and if they ever pronounce a Chinese word correctly as far as the tone is concerned, it is by accident rather than by design. I am referr- ing of course to those Chinese words which have become in- corporated with the Baba Malay language; many of the Babas can speak Hok-kien Chinese with some fluency, and when doing s0 must of necessity use the tones, though usually very imperfectly, yet when speaking Malay they use Chinese words without attempt- ing to give the correct tones, and in some cases Chinese words have been so much corrupted that it is difficult to recognise their deriv- ation. This we will illustrate later on.

The Chinese words which are most frequently used in Baba Malay are undoubtedly the pronouns goa, “1,” and lu, “you.” Tn speaking among themselves the Babas never use the Malay pro- nouns aku and argkau, but curiously enough for the pronouns 0 the 8rd person singular and 1st person plural they invariably use the Malay dia and rita, and never use the Chinese equivalents. It is well known that in polite conversation the Malays ayoid the use of pronouns as far as possible, whereas the Chinese use pro- nouns with much greater freedom; in this respect the Babas con- form to Malay usage. Children would never think of using the pronoun /w to their parents, and in conversation with their seniors the greatest care is taken to use the proper form of address, so that all the little children know the proper titles to be given to all their relations; it is a remarkable thing, however, that these relationships are expressed by Chinese and not by Malay words, exceptions to this rule being the words for mother (mak) and younger brother or sister (adek) and elder brother (abarg). ‘The Chinese words for the various relationships have in most cases the prefix 7 which is used by the Chinese in addressing relatives, but this is corrupted sometimes to n or m by the Babas: for in- stance for father the Babas do not use the ordinary Hok-kien word pé or ldu-pé, hut the more unusual word tia-tia in the form ’ntia; for grandfather, kory has become ’rykory; elder sister, t6a-chi has become tachi; father’s elder brother, peh, is *mpek; father’s younger Jour. Straits Branch