A preliminary study of Belitung Malay

Abstract

This is a preliminary study of Belitung Malay (BM), a vernacular Malay dialect spoken on Belitung Island. Following an outline of the BM sociolinguistic situation, some structural features are described. Phonologically, BM exhibits features similar to those of Bangka Malay, such as the loss of Proto-Malay h and the presence of root final ʔ, which is absent in Proto-Malay. Most Proto-Malayic affixes are retained in BM, among which verbs with the applicative suffix -eʔ, a reflex of Proto-Malayic suffix -i, exhibit a wider domain of semantics, such as (simple) causative and benefactive, as well as locative; the former overlaps with verbs with another applicative BM suffix, -kan. In addition, BM has a definite clitic =ə. It has three types of transitive constructions: active, passive, and bare verb constructions, the last being used when an agent pronoun occurs before the verb.