Kelantan-Pattani Malay

The language is often referred to in Thai as phasa Yawi (Thai: ภาษายาวี; IPA: [pʰāːsǎː jāːwīː]), which is a corruption of the Malay name for the modified Arabic alphabet for writing Malay, Jawi (Jawi: جاوي; IPA [ɟaˈwi]). It is also referred to in Thai as phasa Malayu Pattani (Thai: ภาษามลายูปัตตานี; IPA: [pʰāːsǎː mālāːjūː pàttāːnīː]) and similarly locally in Malay as bahasa Melayu Patani (Jawi: بهاس ملايو ڤطاني, Rumi: bahasa Melayu Patani, local pronunciation: [baˈsɔ ˈnːaju ˈtːaniŋ]). The language is often simply just called bahasa Patani in Pattani.

Kelantanese is known in Standard Malay as bahasa Kelantan, and in Kelantanese as baso Kelate. It is also known as baso Besut or Kecek Kelate-Besut in Besut and Setiu of Terengganu State.

One variant of Kelantan-Pattani Malay is the Reman variant, also known as bahasa Reman (according to the speakers of this area; the areas where this variant was spoken were under the Reman state of the Kingdom of Pattani that was abolished in 1902 in which the areas were Batu Kurau, inland Perak (Gerik, Pengkalan Hulu, Lenggong) and inland Kedah (Sik, Baling, Padang Terap)). The Reman viarants are known as various names such as bahasa Patani, bahasa Patani Kedah-Perak, basa Grik, Cakak Hulu, basa Kapong, basa Baling etc. It is also known as the Kedah Hulu dialect (in Kedah) and the Perak Hulu dialect (in Perak) but these two terms only apply to political and geographical factors rather than linguistic ones. This Reman variant has many dialects and subdialects across the areas where this variant is spoken.

Kelantanese Malay is written both in Latin and in the Jawi alphabet, a writing system based on the Arabic script. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the general population of Malay speakers in both Malaysia and Indonesia that now mainly use the Latin script, known in Malay as rumi (رومي), for daily communication. Today, Pattani Malay itself is generally not a written language, though it is sometimes written in informal settings. When writing is needed, an old-fashioned form of standard Malay is used rather than the local dialect. A phonetic rendering of Pattani Malay in the Thai alphabet has been introduced, but it has not been met with much success, due to the socio-religious significance of Jawi to Muslim Malays.

Southern Thailand has continued to be a region affected by two cultural spheres: the mainly Buddhist, Thai-speaking Siamese kingdoms and the mainly Muslim, Malay-speaking sultanates. The region was a warehouse of trade where merchants from Europe, India, Arabia, China, Siam, and other parts of the Malay world met. At first dominated by Hindu-Buddhist Indian influences, the great kingdom of Srivijaya would later fall in chaos. Islam was introduced by Arab and Indian traders in the 11th century and has been the dominant religion ever since, replacing the Buddhism and Hinduism that had held sway before. By the 14th century, the area became vassals to Ayutthaya, but the region was autonomous and never fully incorporated into the modern Thai nation-state until 1902. This political autonomy and isolation from the rest of the Malay world allowed for preservation of the Malay language and culture but also led to the divergence of the dialect.

Kelantan-Pattani Malay can be divided into three major variants and several dialects (and a few subdialects):

Kelantan: Coastal (Narathiwat, Besut dialects), Central / River, Dabong / Inland

Pattani: Yala, Saiburi, Bana Taning, Chenok / Chana, Nonthaburi / Bangkok

Reman: Grik, Sik, Baling, Padang Terap, Batu Kugho / Selama, Southern Yala

• The Reman variants of Kedah and Perak show some vocabulary influence from Perak Malay and Kedah Malay (e.g. mika ('you'), ang/hang ('you'), ciwi ('brag/show off'), etc.).

Creole/Pidgin: Samsam Malay (a mixed language of Thai and Pattani Malay spoken by those of mixed Thai-Malay ancestry)

Kelantanese is spoken in the Malaysian state of Kelantan, as well as in Besut and Setiu districts of Terengganu and the Perhentian Islands. It is also spoken in the Merapoh township, in the Lipis district of Pahang since this town borders the state of Kelantan.

Many people in the districts of Baling, Sik and Padang Terap in Kedah as well as the Hulu Perak district of Perak speak Kelantan-Patani language of Reman dialects, since most of the Malay people there are the descendants of Kelantanese migrants and Pattani refugees (in which whereby these regions were once parts of the Reman Kingdom of Pattani).

Pattani Malay is the main language of the Thai provinces Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani where ethnic Malays make up the majority of the population, it is also spoken in parts of Songkhla and Bangkok. It is less spoken in the province of Satun, where despite making up the majority, ethnic Malays generally speak Southern Thai and their Malay dialect is similar to Kedah Malay. It is also spoken in scattered villages as far north as Hat Yai. In the past, Malay was the main language as far north as the Isthmus of Kra, the traditional division between Central Thailand and Southern Thailand, based on the preponderance of etymologically Malay place names.

There are 21 consonants and 12 vowels in Pattani Malay.[2] The phonemes /r/ and /z/ only appear in some loanwords or proper names.

Kelantan-Pattani Malay is different enough from Standand Malay that it is often unintelligible to speakers of the standard language. Differences include some differences in vocabulary, and different sound correspondences. The influence of Southern Thai and the Kelantan-Pattani Malay in Pattani upon each other is great, and both have large numbers of loanwords from the other. The influence of the Thai language makes comprehension between the Pattani variety of Kelatan-Pattani Malay and Standard Malay a bit more difficult than comprehension between the Kelantanese variety of Kelantan-Pattani Malay and Standard Malay.

Gemination occurs for various purposes and in various forms in Kelatan-Pattani Malay. At the phonemic level, these geminations are transcribed as /CC/ but they are pronounced as [Cː] so /dd/ is pronounced as [dː].[8]

Kelantan-Pattani Malay has a set of stress rules that is quite different to that of Standard Malay.[9]