ISO 639-3 bew | Glottolog beta1252 | |
Native speakers approx. 5 million (2000 census) Language family Creole language, Austronesian languages, Malayo-Polynesian languages, Malayic languages | ||
Betawi Malay, also known as Jakartan Malay or Batavian Malay, is the spoken language of the Betawi people in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the native language of perhaps 5 million people; a precise number is difficult due to the vague use of the name.
Contents
Betawi is a Malay-based creole, and closely related to the Malay language. The Betawi language has large amounts of Hokkien Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, and Dutch loanwords. It replaced the earlier Portuguese-based creole of Batavia, Mardijker. The first-person pronoun gue (I or me) and second-person pronoun lu (you) and numerals such as cepek (a hundred), gopek (five hundred), and seceng (a thousand) are from Hokkien, whereas the words ente (you) and ane (me) are derived from Arabic. Cocos Malay, a Malay creole spoken in Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australia and Sabah, Malaysia is derived from an earlier form of Betawi Malay.
Today Betawi Malay is a popular informal language in Indonesia and used as the base of Indonesian slang and commonly spoken in Jakarta TV soap operas. The name Betawi stems from Batavia, the official name of Jakarta during the era of the Dutch East Indies.
Origins
Betawi developed as a Malay-based creole whose speakers were descendants of Chinese men and Balinese women in Batavia. These descendants converted to Islam and spoke a pidgin that was later creolized, and then decreolized incorporating many elements from Javanese and Sundanese (Uri Tadmor 2013).
Dialects
Betawian Malay is divided into two main dialects
Another Betawi Udik variant is called Betawi Ora, which was highly influenced by Javanese.
Betawi is still spoken by the older generation in some locations on the outskirts of Jakarta, such as Kampung Melayu, Pasar Rebo, Pondok Gede, Ulujami, and Jagakarsa.
There is a significant Chinese community which lives around Tangerang, called Cina Benteng, who have stopped speaking Chinese and now speak Betawian Malay.
Examples :