Malay trade and creole languages

Common card · No. 298142

In addition to its classical and modern literary form, Malay had various regional dialects established after the rise of the Srivijaya empire in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the south East Asia Archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca ("trade language") that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay and in Malay Melayu Pasar. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Chinese, Indian, Arab, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders. Besides the general simplification that occurs with pidgins, the Malay lingua franca had several distinctive characteristics. One was that possessives were formed with punya 'its owner, to have'; another was that plural pronouns were formed with orang 'person'. The only Malayic affixes that remained productive were tər- and bər-. Other common features: Ada became a progressive particle. Reduced forms of ini 'this...

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