Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (IA mobot31753002412044).pdf/161

 mother-tongue of the majority of the Chinese women and children in the Straits Settlements, and of a considerable and increasing number in the Federated Malay States. It is the language of the homes of the Straits-born Chinese—the most highly educated and the most influential section of the Chinese community in the British possessions, and therefore it is the language in which the women and children of this important class can most readily and most successfully be educated. The pure Malay language, as the Malays themselves speak it, the Babas will never learn, for they despise it, calling it Malayu hutan—the language of the jungle. Their dialect—Baba Malay—they look upon as the language of the refined and wealthy class of Malay-speaking Chinese. That being the case it is hopeless to try and force upon them what others consider to be "Classical Malay," however much superior it may be from the view-point of the scholar and the historian. Baba Malay is the language of the man of the street; it is a strong and virile tongue, more easily acquired than the pure Malay, and sufficiently expressive for all ordinary purposes; moreover it has a remarkable capacity for borrowing and assimilating such words as it needs from other languages. It is sure to live. When the principles of its grammatical construction are better understood, when those who speak it are able also to read and write it correctly, and when it has a literature of its own, Baba Malay will prove itself to be an adequate medium for conveying thought and for imparting instruction.

Malacca, being the oldest foreign settlement in Malaysia, is the most favourable place to study the history of Chinese immi- gration to this part of the world, and the origin of the dialect which they now speak. It is now nearly 400 years since Europeans first made their appearance at Malacca, but the Chinese were there some time before that. Bukit China, the burial ground of the Chinese from time immemorial, was so called before the time when the Malay history "Sjarah Malayu" was written, which is more than 300 years ago. The first immigrants were probably from Amoy, for nearly all the words of Chinese origin which have come into the Malay language approach more closely to the sounds of the Hok-kien than to those of any other dialect, and the Babas of all the old families claim to be Hok-kiens. There is also very little doubt that the Chinese who came to this part of the world in the early days were exclusively males, that they married Malay women, but brought up their children as Chinese. Even to the present day the marriage customs of the Baba Chinese approximate more closely to those of the Malays than to those of the natives of China, but intermarriage between the Babas and the Malays has entirely ceased, and probably for hundreds of years past the Babas have married exclusively amongst their own people.