Kedah Malay

Kedah Malay
Kedah Malay
بهاس ملايو قدح; ภาษามลายูไทรบุรี
Pelat Utagha ; Bahasa Melayu Kedah, Bahasa Melayu Utara
Native to	Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia
Region	Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Perlis, northern Perak (Kerian, Manjung, Larut, Matang and Selama), Trang, Satun, Ranong, Tanintharyi, Langkat, Aceh
Ethnicity	Kedahan Malays; Thai Malays; Burmese Malays; Jaring Halus Malays
Native speakers	2.6 million (2004)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (disputed) Malayic Kedah Malay; ; ; ;
Dialects	Coastal Kedah; Northern Kedah; Perlis-Langkawi; Penang; Satun; Jaring Halus;
Writing system	Latin script, Arabic script, Thai script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	meo
Glottolog	keda1251
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

A young man speaks Kedah Malay

Kedah Malay or Kedahan (Malay: bahasa Melayu Kedah; also known as Pelat Utara or Loghat Utara 'Northern Dialect') or as it is known in Thailand, Syburi Malay (Thai: ภาษามลายูไทรบุรี Phasa Malāyū Saiburī) is a Malayic language mainly spoken in the northwestern Malaysian states of Perlis, Kedah, Penang, and northern Perak and in the southern Thai provinces of Trang and Satun. The usage of Kedah Malay was historically prevalent in southwestern Thailand before being superseded by the Thai language. Enclaves of Kedah Malay can be found in Kawthaung District in Myanmar; Ranong and Krabi in upper southern Thailand; Jaring Halus, Langkat and Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia and up north in Bangkok, central Thailand, where most of the Kedah Malay speakers are descendants of historical settlers from Kedah.

Kedah Malay can be divided into several dialects, namely Coastal Kedah (Kedah Persisiran; which is the de facto prestige dialect of Kedah Malay), Northern Kedah (Kedah Utara), Perlis-Langkawi, Penang and some others outside Malaysia. Speakers in Trang as well as Satun are heavily influenced by the Thai language. However in the district of Baling, they speak a different variant more closely related to Kelantan-Patani Malay than it is to Kedah Malay.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Dorsal	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t d	t͡ʃ d͡ʒ	k ɡ	q~χ	ʔ
Fricative		s			ʁ	h
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Trill		(r)
Approximant		l	j	w

Note(s):

/ʁ/ corresponds to Standard Malay prevocalic and intervocalic /r/ whereby ramai (many) is pronounced as /ʁamaj/.
- In the Tanjung subdialect of the Pulau Pinang dialect of Kedah Malay, /ʁ/ is pronounced as [ɣ] or [r] so the aforementioned word would be pronounced as [ɣamaj] or [ramaj] instead.
- [ʕ] is an allophone of /ʁ/ and corresponds to Standard Malay word-final /r/ so Standard Malay bakar /bakar/ (to burn) would be pronounced as [bakaʕ] in Kedah Malay.
/q~χ/ corresponds to /kər~kr/ in Standard Malay and can be found in words such as qija [qəd͡ʒa] "to work" and qeyang dot [qəjaŋ dot] "java plum", though it may be obsolete in other dialects
/r/ is only found in certain loanwords and onomatopoeic words such as arnab /arnap/ (rabbit) and brang /braŋ/ (sound of plate falling).
Velar nasal /ŋ/ does not occur following /i/ and instances of that in Standard Malay correspond to /n/ in Kedah Malay so Standard Malay kucing /kut͡ʃiŋ/ 'cat' and kuning /kuniŋ/ 'yellow' are pronounced /kut͡ʃin/ and /kunin/ in Kedah Malay (and even spelt accordingly in rare manuscript instances i.e. کوچين for the former) though some argue that the final consonant is still underlyingly /ŋ/ as can be seen from the derived forms of these words such as kekuningan /kəkuniŋan/ 'yellowness' [kəkuniŋan] which retains the [ŋ].
Word-final Standard Malay /s/ corresponds to /h/ in Kedah Malay, so Standard Malay kurus /kurus/ 'thin' is pronounced /kuʁujh/ in Kedah Malay.
Word-final /l/ after /a/ and /u/ in Standard Malay corresponds to Kedah Malay /j/ so a word like tebal /təbal/ is pronounced /təbaj/ in Kedah Malay.
In the Northern Kedah and Perlis-Langkawi dialects, the homorganic nasal-oral consonant clusters /mb, ŋɡ, nd/ can have its oral portion removed so lembu (cow), tunggu (to wait) and mandi (to bathe) can respectively be pronounced as either /ləmbu/ or /ləmu/, /tuŋɡu/ or /tuŋu/ and /mandi/ or /mani/. In the case that the oral portion is retained, it is weakly pronounced in the Perlis-Langkawi dialect so /ləmbu/ (cow) would be realized as [ləmᵇu].

Vowels

Monophthongs

Kedah Malay has eight monophthongs, unlike Standard Malay which has six with /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ not having phonemic status.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-Mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Open-Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Diphthongs

Kedah Malay has four diphthongs /aj, aw, oj, uj/ with /uj/ being the only one that does not exist in Standard Malay.

Coda	/j/	/w/
/a/	/aj/	/aw/
/o/	/oj/
/u/	/uj/

Change of Standard Malay Vowel Clusters

In Kedah Malay, Standard Malay instances of vowel clusters correspond to usually a diphthong (e.g. Standard Malay baik (good) /ba.ik/ ≙ Kedah Malay /bajʔ/) or less commonly, a monophthong (e.g. Standard Malay biasa (normal) /bi.a.sa/ ≙ Kedah Malay /bɛ.sa/) in Kedah Malay. The /i.a/ vowel cluster still occurs though in positions that correspond to Standard Malay word-final /ir/ (e.g. Standard Malay pasir (sand) /pa.sir/ ≙ Kedah Malay /pa.si.aʕ/.

Comparison with Standard Malay

Below is a table showing sound correspondences between Kedah Malay and Standard Malay.

Standard Malay Sound	Kedah Malay Correspondence	Example (Standard Malay ≙ Kedah Malay)
/-al/	/-aj/	tebal /təbal/ 'thick'	≙	/təbaj/
/-ul/	/-oj/	pukul /pukul/ 'to hit'		/pukoj/
/-il/	/-e/	katil /katil/ 'bed'		/kate/
/-el/	/-ɛ/	comel /t͡ʃomel/ 'cute'		/t͡ʃɔmɛ/
/-a.ul/	/-oj/ (Coastal Kedah) /-aj/ (Northern Kedah)	gaul /ɡa.ul/ 'to mix'		/ɡoj/ (Coastal Kedah) /ɡaj/ (Northern Kedah)
/-as/	/-ajh/	malas /malas/ 'lazy'		/malajh/
/-us/	/-ujh/ /-ojh/ (Perlis-Langkawi)	bagus /baɡus/ 'good'		/baɡujh/ /baɡojh/ (Perlis-Langkawi)
/-is/	/-eh/	tapis /tapis/ 'to filter'		/tapeh/
/-oh/	/-ɔ/	bodoh /bodoh/ 'stupid'		/bɔdɔ/
/-ar/	/-aʕ/	lapar /lapar/ 'hungry'		/lapaʕ/
/-ur/	/-ɔʕ/ /-u.aʕ/ (Perlis-Langkawi)	bubur /bubur/ 'porridge'		/bu.bɔʕ/ /bu.bu.aʕ/ (Perlis-Langkawi)
/-ur/	/-ɔʕ/ /-ɔ.aʕ/ (Perlis-Langkawi)	tohor /tohor/ 'shallow'		/tɔ.hɔʕ/ /tɔ.hɔ.aʕ/ (Perlis-Langkawi)
/-ir/	/-i.aʕ/	hampir /ham.pir/ 'nearly'		/ham.pi.aʕ/
/-a.ir/	/-a.jaʕ/	air /a.ir/ 'water'		/a.jaʕ/
/-ut/	/-u.əʔ/ (Perlis-Langkawi)	lutut /lutut/ 'knee'		/lu.tu.əʔ/ (Perlis-Langkawi)
/i.a/	/ja/	biar /bi.ar/		/bjaʕ/
	/ɛ/	biasa /bi.a.sa/ 'normal'		/bɛ.sa/
	/a/	siapa /si.a.pa/ 'who'		/sa.pa/
/u.a/	/wa/	buah /bu.ah/		/bwah/
/u.a/	/ɔ/	kuala /ku.a.la/ 'estuary'		/kɔ.la/
/a.i/	/aj/	baik /ba.ik/ 'good'		/bajʔ/
/a.hi/	/aj/	dahi /da.hi/ 'forehead'		/daj/
/-a.u/	/aw/	bau /ba.u/ 'smell'		/baw/
/-a.hu/	/aw/	mahu /ma.hu/ 'to want'		/maw/
/-a.u-/	/aw/ /aj/ (Northern Kedah)	daun /da.un/ 'leaf'		/dawn/ /dajn/ (Northern Kedah)
/-a.hu-/	/aw/ /aj/ (Northern Kedah)	tahun /ta.hun/ 'year'		/tawn/ /tajn/ (Northern Kedah)

Vocabulary

Pronouns
Kedah Malay	Standard Malay	English Translation
hang	awak/kamu/kau	'you' (singular)
hangpå/hampå	kalian	'you' (plural)
cek/aku	saya/aku	'I'
cek	saya	'I' (young to old)
cek	kamu	'you' (old to young)
depå/lepå	mereka	'they'
sépå (In a few certain areas) / kitorang	kami	'we' (exclusive)

Question Words
Kedah Malay	Standard Malay	English Translation
sapadiå, sapå	siapa/siapakah	'who'
apå,på,padiå,natangpå	apa/apakah	'what'
bilå,mengkalå	bila/bilakah	'when'
genå, lagumanå	bagaimana/bagaimanakah	'how'
manå	mana	'where'
pasaipå,sepå,awat, buatpå, sebabpå	mengapa	'why'
bapå	berapa	'how much'

Basic Words
Kedah Malay	Standard Malay	English Translation
camcå	sudu	'spoon'
habaq	cakap	'talk'
mai	datang, mari	'come'
mau	nak	'want'
payah	susah	'difficult'
lå, lani	sekarang	'now'
lagu	macam	'sort'
cabai	cili/lada	'chilli'
hakap	tamak	'greedy'
pi	pergi	'go'
sat	sebentar, sekejap	'one second'
mengkalā	bila, apabila	'when'
ketegaq	degil, keras kepala	'stubborn'
geghék,beskat	basikal	'bicycle'
mertun	tukul	'hammer'
lempaq	baling	'throw'
ghabat,ghagaih	memanjat	'climb'
ligan	kejar	'chase'
loqlaq	tak senonoh	'indecent'
ketit	gigit kecil	'bite softly'
tokak	gigit	'bite'
belemoih	comot	'messy'
cemuih	bosan	'bored'

References

Citations

↑ Kedah Malay at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2017, p. 38.
↑ See Malayan languages for a comparison between Kedah Persisiran and Penang dialects.
↑ Mohd Noor Aswad 2019.
1 2 Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 237–238.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 245.
↑ Shahidi A. H. 2009, pp. 309–311.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 238–239.
↑ Gallop, Annabel Teh (Dec 21, 2015). "A Malay manuscript artist unveiled: Datuk Muda Muhammad of Perlis". Asian and African Studies. The British Library. Retrieved Feb 23, 2024.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 235.
1 2 Ajid Che Kob 1997, pp. 40–42.
↑ Shahidi A. H. 2009, pp. 310–311.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 236–237.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 241–242.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 242.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 232.
↑ Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf et al. 2021, pp. 78–80.
↑ Shahidi A. H. 2009, pp. 305–308.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 233.
↑ Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf et al. 2021, pp. 81–82.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 233–234.
↑ Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 233–245.
↑ Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf et al. 2021, pp. 68–69.
1 2 Strife 2007.
↑ Fazal Mohamed Mohamed Sultan & Nurulafiqah Suhaimi 2012, p. 490.

Bibliography

Fazal Mohamed Mohamed Sultan; Nurulafiqah Suhaimi (2012). "Kata Soal Dalam Dialek Kedah" [WH Questions in Kedah Dialect]. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies (in Malay). 12 (2): 475–493.
Nurul Shahida Jamil; Maslida Yusof (2015). "Analisis Deiksis Dialek Kedah". GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies (in Malay). 15 (1): 163–187. doi:10.17576/GEMA-2015-1501-10.
Shahidi A. H. (2009). "Alternasi Dalam Fonologi Subdialek Kedah Utara". Jurnal Bahasa (in Malay). 9 (2): 302–325.
Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf; Stefanie Pillai; W. A. Wan Aslynn; Roshidah binti Hassan (2021). "Vowel Production in Standard Malay and Kedah Malay Spoken in Malaysia". Linguistics International Journal. 15 (1): 65–93. Archived from the original on 2024-05-29. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
Asmah Haji Omar (2017). "Language in Kedah in Late 19th Century-Language Situation in a Malay State in Late 19th Century". Malaysian Journal of Languages and Linguistics. 6 (2): 36–47. doi:10.24200/mjll.vol6iss2pp36-47.
Ajid Che Kob (1997). "Word Final Nasal in Malay Dialects". In Odé, Cecilia; Stokhof, Wim (eds.). Proceedings of Seventh International Conference on Austronesian. Amsterdam: Rodopi. pp. 35–43. ISBN 9789042002531.
Mohd Noor Aswad (2 November 2019). "Getting to know the unique Baling dialect". New Straits Times. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
Strife, Fiq (2 November 2007). "Kamus Dialek Melayu-Kedah" [Kedah Malay Dialect Dictionary]. Dunia Melayu Kedah (in Malay). Retrieved 22 May 2021.
Asmah Haji Omar (2015). Susur Galur Bahasa Melayu [Genealogy of Malay] (in Malay) (2nd ed.). Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (published 23 October 2015). pp. 227–263. ISBN 9789836298263.

External links

Kedahan-Standard Malay Online dictionary

[e18-1] Kedah Malay at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar201738-2] Asmah Haji Omar 2017, p. 38.

[3] See Malayan languages for a comparison between Kedah Persisiran and Penang dialects.

[FOOTNOTEMohd_Noor_Aswad2019-4] Mohd Noor Aswad 2019.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015237–238-5] 1 2 Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 237–238.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015245-6] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 245.

[FOOTNOTEShahidi_A._H.2009309–311-7] Shahidi A. H. 2009, pp. 309–311.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015238–239-8] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 238–239.

[9] Gallop, Annabel Teh (Dec 21, 2015). "A Malay manuscript artist unveiled: Datuk Muda Muhammad of Perlis". Asian and African Studies. The British Library. Retrieved Feb 23, 2024.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015235-10] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 235.

[FOOTNOTEAjid_Che_Kob199740–42-11] 1 2 Ajid Che Kob 1997, pp. 40–42.

[FOOTNOTEShahidi_A._H.2009310–311-12] Shahidi A. H. 2009, pp. 310–311.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015236–237-13] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 236–237.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015241–242-14] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 241–242.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015242-15] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 242.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015232-16] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 232.

[FOOTNOTEYunisrina_Qismullah_YusufStefanie_PillaiW._A._Wan_AslynnRoshidah_binti_Hassan202178–80-17] Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf et al. 2021, pp. 78–80.

[FOOTNOTEShahidi_A._H.2009305–308-18] Shahidi A. H. 2009, pp. 305–308.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015233-19] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, p. 233.

[FOOTNOTEYunisrina_Qismullah_YusufStefanie_PillaiW._A._Wan_AslynnRoshidah_binti_Hassan202181–82-20] Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf et al. 2021, pp. 81–82.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015233–234-21] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 233–234.

[FOOTNOTEAsmah_Haji_Omar2015233–245-22] Asmah Haji Omar 2015, pp. 233–245.

[FOOTNOTEYunisrina_Qismullah_YusufStefanie_PillaiW._A._Wan_AslynnRoshidah_binti_Hassan202168–69-23] Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf et al. 2021, pp. 68–69.

[FOOTNOTEStrife2007-24] 1 2 Strife 2007.

[FOOTNOTEFazal_Mohamed_Mohamed_SultanNurulafiqah_Suhaimi2012490-25] Fazal Mohamed Mohamed Sultan & Nurulafiqah Suhaimi 2012, p. 490.

Kedah Malay
بهاس ملايو قدح ภาษามลายูไทรบุรี
Pelat Utagha Bahasa Melayu Kedah, Bahasa Melayu Utara
Native to	Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia
Region	Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Perlis, northern Perak (Kerian, Manjung, Larut, Matang and Selama), Trang, Satun, Ranong, Tanintharyi, Langkat, Aceh
Ethnicity	Kedahan Malays Thai Malays Burmese Malays Jaring Halus Malays
Native speakers	2.6 million (2004)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (disputed) Malayic Kedah Malay
Dialects	Coastal Kedah Northern Kedah Perlis-Langkawi Penang Satun Jaring Halus
Writing system	Latin script, Arabic script, Thai script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`meo`
Glottolog	`keda1251`
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.