Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration

Language variation is conveyed through its regional or social dimension. In line with that proposition, this paper discusses the social variation of Malay language spoken in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia focussing on their accents. As part of the Malay language society, the Malays of Kuching have th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Idris Aman, Rosniah Mustaffa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pernerbitan UKM 2009
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2303/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2303/1/Vol.9_issue1_%285%29.pdf
_version_ 1848809821958045696
author Idris Aman,
Rosniah Mustaffa,
author_facet Idris Aman,
Rosniah Mustaffa,
author_sort Idris Aman,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Language variation is conveyed through its regional or social dimension. In line with that proposition, this paper discusses the social variation of Malay language spoken in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia focussing on their accents. As part of the Malay language society, the Malays of Kuching have their own accent which is different from other Malay accents or the standard national accent. This paper analyzes the status of national standard accent and non-standard accent among the Malay informants in the city of Kuching. The discussion is based on a sociological urban dialectology research. For the analysis, five phonological variables are chosen. They are open-ended vowels (a), such as kita ‘we’, close-ended (i), such bilik ‘room’, close-ended (u), such as masuk ‘enter’, initial (r) or (r)1, such as rumah ‘home’, and final (r) or (r)2, such as pasar ‘market’. Issues on accents are studied through four different degree of formality of speech styles, namely reading word list style (WLS), reading passage style (PS), conversational style (CS) and story-telling style (STS). Three social contextual variables - socio-economic status, sex, and age groups of the informants will be considered in the analysis. The use of national standard accent compared with the non-standard accent will be linked to issues of identity and integration
first_indexed 2025-11-14T23:20:43Z
format Article
id oai:generic.eprints.org:2303
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T23:20:43Z
publishDate 2009
publisher Pernerbitan UKM
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:23032016-12-14T06:31:13Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2303/ Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration Idris Aman, Rosniah Mustaffa, Language variation is conveyed through its regional or social dimension. In line with that proposition, this paper discusses the social variation of Malay language spoken in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia focussing on their accents. As part of the Malay language society, the Malays of Kuching have their own accent which is different from other Malay accents or the standard national accent. This paper analyzes the status of national standard accent and non-standard accent among the Malay informants in the city of Kuching. The discussion is based on a sociological urban dialectology research. For the analysis, five phonological variables are chosen. They are open-ended vowels (a), such as kita ‘we’, close-ended (i), such bilik ‘room’, close-ended (u), such as masuk ‘enter’, initial (r) or (r)1, such as rumah ‘home’, and final (r) or (r)2, such as pasar ‘market’. Issues on accents are studied through four different degree of formality of speech styles, namely reading word list style (WLS), reading passage style (PS), conversational style (CS) and story-telling style (STS). Three social contextual variables - socio-economic status, sex, and age groups of the informants will be considered in the analysis. The use of national standard accent compared with the non-standard accent will be linked to issues of identity and integration Pernerbitan UKM 2009 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2303/1/Vol.9_issue1_%285%29.pdf Idris Aman, and Rosniah Mustaffa, (2009) Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 9 (1). pp. 63-76. ISSN 1675-8021 http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema
spellingShingle Idris Aman,
Rosniah Mustaffa,
Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration
title Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration
title_full Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration
title_fullStr Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration
title_full_unstemmed Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration
title_short Social variation Of malay language In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia:A study on accent, identity and integration
title_sort social variation of malay language in kuching, sarawak, malaysia:a study on accent, identity and integration
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2303/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2303/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2303/1/Vol.9_issue1_%285%29.pdf