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Jakarta Field Station > Projects > Language Contact > Makassarese Malay
Makassarese MalayThe Malay community of Makassar, on the island of Sulawesi, is very old; records of it exist from the 15th century. Malay has also been used as a lingua franca in this important Indonesian entrepôt. Over the centuries, this Malay, which shows some similarities to Bazaar Malay, adopted many features of the local Makassarese language. This has been reinforced in recent decades, when inhabitants of the city started shifting to Malay/Indonesian as their first language. Many bilingual speakers possess basically one grammatical structure, and when speaking Malay/Indonesian, they simply 'graft' Malay morphemes onto the Makassarese structure, and produce them with Makassarese phonology. In the speech of some younger speakers, who do not speak Makassarese, this strong interference has now become a substratum.
Last modified: 3 June 2003 Location: makassarese_malay.php.html |