Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
Sri Lanka Malay is the vernacular language of the descendants of the Malay-Javanese diaspora of Sri Lanka. It is a restructured variety of Malay, which emerged from the prolonged contact between speakers of Malay varieties and speakers of Sinhala and Tamil varieties. The grammar shows a typological...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Book Chapter |
| Language: | English |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86275 |
| _version_ | 1848764802525036544 |
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| author | Ansaldo, Umberto |
| author2 | Lefebvre, Claire |
| author_facet | Lefebvre, Claire Ansaldo, Umberto |
| author_sort | Ansaldo, Umberto |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Sri Lanka Malay is the vernacular language of the descendants of the Malay-Javanese diaspora of Sri Lanka. It is a restructured variety of Malay, which emerged from the prolonged contact between speakers of Malay varieties and speakers of Sinhala and Tamil varieties. The grammar shows a typological shift from the Austronesian to the Lankan type, a shift that can be explained by the typological pressure that the adstrates Sinhala and Tamil – which are highly congruent – exercise in the trilingual environment. This paper discusses the prevalent grammatical patterns of Sri Lanka Malay in terms of frequency, typological congruence and trilingual admixture. I show that, for a complete understanding of Sri Lanka Malay grammar, we must approach it by taking into full consideration the typological matrix in which it has developed, which includes a Malay-based lexifier and two adstrates, namely Sinhala and Tamil. This argues against a view of Sri Lanka Malay as the product of a bilingual admixture. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:25:09Z |
| format | Book Chapter |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-86275 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:25:09Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-862752021-11-15T07:48:24Z Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates Ansaldo, Umberto Lefebvre, Claire Sri Lanka Malay is the vernacular language of the descendants of the Malay-Javanese diaspora of Sri Lanka. It is a restructured variety of Malay, which emerged from the prolonged contact between speakers of Malay varieties and speakers of Sinhala and Tamil varieties. The grammar shows a typological shift from the Austronesian to the Lankan type, a shift that can be explained by the typological pressure that the adstrates Sinhala and Tamil – which are highly congruent – exercise in the trilingual environment. This paper discusses the prevalent grammatical patterns of Sri Lanka Malay in terms of frequency, typological congruence and trilingual admixture. I show that, for a complete understanding of Sri Lanka Malay grammar, we must approach it by taking into full consideration the typological matrix in which it has developed, which includes a Malay-based lexifier and two adstrates, namely Sinhala and Tamil. This argues against a view of Sri Lanka Malay as the product of a bilingual admixture. 2011 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86275 10.1075/tsl.95.21ans English John Benjamins Publishing Company restricted |
| spellingShingle | Ansaldo, Umberto Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates |
| title | Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates |
| title_full | Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates |
| title_fullStr | Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates |
| title_short | Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates |
| title_sort | sri lanka malay and its lankan adstrates |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86275 |