Language and Identity: A Reappraisal of Negeri Sembilan Malay Language
Main Article Content
Abstract
Negeri Sembilan, as one of the states in Malaysia, has been greatly influenced by the Minangkabau culture, in particular the Perpatih custom which led to the socalled misunderstanding that Negeri Sembilan Malay language (NSML) resembles or is similar to the Minangkabau language. This article aims to describe the distinctive phonological features of Negeri Sembilan language to mark its identity and therefore prove that it is free from the Minangkabau linguistic influence. This study utilises the Swadesh word list of 100 words to test pronunciation. Thirty informants were involved and they are speakers of the Negeri Sembilan Malay language and speakers of the Minangkabau language both in Malaysia and Sumatera. The research was conducted in Kuala Pilah, Rembau, and Beranang in Malaysia, while in Indonesia the data was collected in Paya Kumbuh, Bukit Tinggi, and Padang. Based on the 100 words tested, this study observed 17 pronunciation patterns in Negeri Sembilan language that are distinct from the Minangkabau language, specifically they are 10 vowel sounds patterns and 7 consonant sounds patterns. From these 17 patterns, 13 only occur in NSML and the remaining 4 patterns occur in both NSML and the Minangkabau language. Hence, it can be concluded that the Negeri Sembilan language has its own distinctive phonological identity, thus distinguishing it from the Minangkabau linguistic features.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Abdullah Siddik. 1975. Pengantar undang-undang adat di Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya.
Ajid Che Kob. 2002. Dialek Melayu Negeri Sembilan: Beberapa aspek linguistik. In Menelusuri jejak Melayu-Minangkabau, eds. Mochtar Naim, Zulqaiyyim, Hasanuddin and Gusdi Sastera, 145–157. Padang: Yayasan Citra Budaya Indonesia.
Amat Juhari Moain. 2002. Hubungan Melayu-Minangkabau dari sudut sejarah, bahasa, sastera, budaya, dan masyarakat. In Menelusuri jejak Melayu-Minangkabau, eds. Mochtar Naim, Zulqaiyyim, Hasanuddin and Gusdi Sastera, 19–43. Padang: Yayasan Citra Budaya Indonesia.
Arbak Othman. 1994. Fonologi dialek Negeri Sembilan: Satu teknik pengesanan kosa kata untuk tfksikografi [sic] standard. In Negeri Sembilan, gemuk dipupuk, segar bersiram: Adat merentas zaman, eds. A. Samad Idris, Norhalim Ibrahim Muhammad Tainu and N.S. Dharmala. Negeri Sembilan: Jawatankuasa Penyelidikan Budaya Negeri Sembilan.
Asmah Haji Omar. 1985. Susur galur Bahasa Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Chambers, J.K. and P. Trudgill. 1980. Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. 2003. The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Jong, J.P.E. 1952. Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan: Socio-political structure in Indonesia. The Haque: Martinus Nijhoff.
Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203697078
Fitzgerald, C.P. 1966. The concise history of East Asia. Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Book Asia Ltd.
Fromkin, V., R. Rodman and N. Hyams. 2007. An introduction to language. 8th ed. Boston: Thomson.
Hendon, R.S. 1966. The phonology and morphology of Ulu Muar Malay (Kuala Pilah District, Negeri Sembilan, Malaya). New Haven: Yale University.
Ibrahim Mustapa and Ibrahim Daud. 1990. Analisis dialek daerah Kuala Pilah daripada aspek fonologi. Jurnal Dewan Bahasa December: 975–982.
Idris Aman. 2014. Dialek sosial. In Variasi bahasa, eds. Idris Aman and Mohammed Azlan Mis, 39–55. Bangi, Selangor: Penerbit UKM.
Idris Aman, Mohammad Fadzeli Jaafar and Norsimah Mat Awal. 2015. Bahasa Negeri Sembilan: Keunikan, sikap dan kefahaman. Bangi, Selangor: Penerbit UKM.
Idris Aman, Norsimah Mat Awal, Mohammad Fadzeli Jaafar and Rikha Permata Sari. 2014. Dialek Negeri Sembilan, kebolehfahaman kata usang dan perubahan sosial. In Variasi bahasa, eds. Idris Aman and Mohammed Azlan Mis, 118––152. Bangi, Selangor: Penerbit UKM.
Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA) Malaysia. 2016. Portal rasmi JAKOA. http://www.jakoa.gov.my/ (accessed 6 January 2016).
Jamaludin Samsudin. 1999. Dialek Negeri Sembilan – satu pandangan. Warisan: Jurnal Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia Cawangan Negeri Sembilan 22: 46–57.
Kramsch, C. 1998. Language and cultural identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Labov, W. 1972. Sociolinguistics patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Le Page, R.B. and A. Tabouret-Keller. 1985. Act of identity: Creol-based approaches to ethnicity and language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leary, M.R. and J.P. Tangney. 2003. Handbook of self and identity. New York: Guilford Press.
Media Sandra Kasih. 2002. Sistem sapaan kekeluargaan bahasa Minangkabau dan bahasa Melayu Malaysia. In Menelusuri jejak Melayu-Minangkabau, eds. Mochtar Naim, Zulqaiyyim, Hasanuddin and Gusdi Sastera, 123–130. Padang: Yayasan Citra Budaya Indonesia.
Milroy, L. 1987. Language and social networks. 2nd ed. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Mohd Faiz Burhanuddin. 1998. Kajian dialek Negeri Sembilan. Warisan: Jurnal Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia Cawangan Negeri Sembilan 21: 54–67.
Mohd Pilus Yunus. 1978. Bahasa Negeri Sembilan dan dialek umum bahasa Melayu: Suatu perbandingan dari sudut fonologi. Dewan Bahasa, 8, 586–597.
Norsimah Mat Awal and Nur Liyana Zulkffle. 2011. Pendeskripsian makna kata kerja aktiviti dialek Negeri Sembilan. Simposium Kebudayaan Indonesia-Malaysia Ke12 (SKIM XII), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor. 29–30 November.
Norsimah Mat Awal, Idris Aman and Mohammad Fadzeli Jaafar. 2013. Attitude, understanding and identity of Negeri Sembilan Malay Dialect Speakers. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities 21(S): 99–118.
Norsimah Mat Awal, Mohammad Fadzeli Jaafar and Nur Liyana Zulkffle. 2014. Variasi semantik kata kerja perbuatan dalam dialek Negeri Sembilan. In Variasi bahasa, eds. Idris Aman and Mohammed Azlan Mins. Bangi, Selangor: Penerbit UKM.
Nordin Selat. 1982. Sistem sosial Adat Perpatih. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Publications & Distributions Sdn. Bhd.
Nothofer, B. 1988. A discussion of two Austronesian subgroups: Proto-Malay and protoMalayic. In Rekonstruksi dan cabang-cabang Bahasa Melayu induk, eds. Mohd. Thani Ahmad and Zaini Mohamed Zain, 34–58. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rahilah Omar and Nelmawarni. 2008. Negeri Sembilan: Rantau Minangkabau di Semenanjung Tanah Melayu. Historia: Journal of Historical Studies IX(2): 2–30.
Ramli Md. Saleh. 2002. Sintaksis dialek Negeri Sembilan. In Menelusuri jejak MelayuMinangkabau, eds. Mochtar Naim, Zulqaiyyim, Hasanuddin and Gusdi Sastera, 139–144. Padang: Yayasan Citra Budaya Indonesia.
Reniwati. 1990. Bahasa Minangkabau dan dialek Negeri Sembilan dalam perbandingan fonemis. Andalas: Jurnal Penelitian dan Pengabdian pada Masyarakat. No. 5 (September): 74–83.
. 2012. Bahasa Minangkabau dan dialek Negeri Sembilan: Satu tinjauan perbandingan linguistik historis komparatif. Wacana Etnik: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Humaniora 3(1): 71–86.
Reniwati and Ab. Razak Ab. Karim. 2015. Kata sapaan separa rasmi dalam masyarakat Minangkabau di Kabupaten 50 Kota dan daerah Rembau: Suatu kajian perbandingan. International Journal of the Malay World and Civilisation 3(2): 63–70.
Reniwati, Midawati and Noviatri. 2017. Lexical variations of Minangkabau language within West Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia: A dialectology study. Geografia Online Malaysia Journal of Society and Space 13(3): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.17576/geo-2017-1303-01
Sharifah Raihan Syed Jaafar. 2017. Pembentukan struktur suku kata dialek Melayu Kuala Pilah. Jurnal Bahasa 17(1): 61–83.
Sharman Abu. 1973. Satu tinjauan ringkas tentang bunyi-bunyi vokal dalam dialek Negeri Sembilan. Dewan Bahasa, December, 559–566.
. 1974. Sistem bunyi konsonan dalam dialek Negeri Sembilan. Dewan Bahasa, June, 277–286.
Tabouret-Keller, A. 1997. Language and identity. In The handbook of sociolinguistics, ed. F. Coulmas, 315–326. Oxford: Blackwell.
Trudgill, P. 1974. The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wardhaugh, R. and J.M. Fuller. 2015. An introduction to sociolinguistics. 7th ed. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.
Wikipedia. n.d. Swadesh list 1971. https://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Swadesh_list. (accessed 21 January 2015).
Winstedt, R.O. 1934. Negri Sembilan: The history, polity and beliefs of the nine states. JMBRAS 12(3) October: 35–111.
Yeop Johari Yaakob. 1984. Analisis fonem Bahasa Melayu dialek Negeri Sembilan. Dewan Bahasa, August, 506–528.
. 1986. Pemakaian kosa kata Bahasa Melayu dialek Negeri Sembilan dalam kehidupan masyarakat desa. Dewan Bahasa, September, 663–689.
. 1989. Dialek Melayu Negeri Sembilan: Beberapa pandangan daripada sudut budaya. Dewan Bahasa, January, 34–43.
. 1994. Dialek Negeri Sembilan: Satu lambang ciri budaya Negeri Sembilan. In Negeri Sembilan, gemuk dipupuk, segar bersiram: Adat merentas zaman, eds. A. Samad Idris, Norhalim Ibrahim Muhammad Tainu and N.S. Dharmala, 365–381. Negeri Sembilan: Jawatankuasa Penyelidikan Budaya Negeri Sembilan.
Yule, G. 1996. The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.