Kupang Malay or simply the Kupang language is a Malay-based creole language spoken in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, which is on the west end of Timor Island. Kupang Malay is presently used as a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communication, and it also has native speakers.[2]

Kupang Malay
Melayu Kupang
Native toIndonesia
RegionKupang, West Timor
Native speakers
L1: 200,000 (2015)[1]
L2: 150,000 (2015)[1]
Malay-based creole
  • Eastern Indonesian Malay
    • Kupang Malay
Language codes
ISO 639-3mkn
Glottologkupa1239

It is based on archaic Malay mixed mostly with Dutch, Portuguese, and other local languages. It is similar to Ambonese Malay with several differences in vocabulary and accent. Its grammatical system resembles other Eastern Indonesian Malay creoles.

Kupang Malay originated sometime before the 17th century.[3] Kupang Malay has Rotinese influence.[4]

Phonology

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Like Indonesian, words in Kupang Malay are usually stressed on the penultimate syllable.[2] Some words are stressed on the final syllable as they would be in their source languages. This results in some contrastive stress.

Examples of minimal pairs[2]: 3 
Kupang Malay gloss
barat west
barát heavy
parang machete
paráng war

Vowels

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The vowels of Kupang Malay are shown in the chart below.

Monophthong phonemes[3]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Unlike in Indonesian, there is no schwa in Kupang Malay.[2]

Examples of words without schwa[2]: 3 
Indonesian Kupang Malay English Gloss
səlamat salamat 'greetings, safe'
kəliling kaliling, kuliling 'go around'
səbentar sabantar 'a moment'
pərut parú 'stomach'

The "ia ,"ie, "io",and iu,reduces to iya, iye, iyo, iyu or nua, oa, os becomes nuwa, woa, wos.

Consonants

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The consonants of Kupang Malay are shown in the chart below.

Consonant phonemes[3]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t c k ʔ
voiced b d ɟ ɡ
Fricative f s h
Approximant l j w
Trill r

Kupang Malay has intervocalic glottal stops in some words from which originate from other local languages or Arabic.[2]

  • The lack of foreign letters e.g. "z","v",and"q"

For example;

  • ZamanSaman
  • VideoFideo
  • QatarKatar

Pronouns

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The pronouns in Kupang Malay differ from Indonesian as shown in the table below.

Pronouns[2]: 6 
Pronouns Indonesian Kupang Malay
First person singular
First person plural (inclusive)
First person plural (exclusive)
aku, saya
kita
kami
beta
katong
batong
Second person singular
Second person plural
kamu, engkau
kalian
lu
basong
Third person singular
Third person plural
dia
mereka
dia
dong

Morphology

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Reduplication is frequent. Reduplication can express several things such as: variety, similarity, repetition, non-urgency, and aimlessness.[4]

Grammar

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The word order of Kupang Malay is mixed Malay and the Helong language.

English Indonesian Kupang Malay
Kupang city Kota Kupang Kupang kota
Indonesia has already become to most populated country. Indonesia sudah menjadi negara yang teramai Indonesiya su manjadi yang tarame

Possessives are formed by placing a possessive particle, pung after the possessor and before the possessed item.

beta

1S

pung

POSS

ruma[2]: 3 

house

beta pung ruma[2]: 3 

1S POSS house

'my house'

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"Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) - East Timor (ET) Vernacular Language Dictionaries (Kamus)". Archived from the original on 9 May 2020.

References

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  1. ^ a b Kupang Malay at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)  
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Jacob, June; Grimes, Barbara Dix (2006). "Developing a role for Kupang Malay: the contemporary politics of an eastern Indonesian creole". Paper Presented by June Jacob at the Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics Held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines.
  3. ^ a b c Paauw, Scott H. (2009). The Malay contact varieties of Eastern Indonesia: A typological comparison. State University of New York at Buffalo.
  4. ^ a b Steinhauer, Hein (1983). "Notes on the Malay of Kupang (Timor)" (PDF). Studies in Malay dialects: 42-64.