Regional Variation in Language

MUHAMMAD HARITH BIN HAMZAH - 215922

• The example happens in Northern Perak more specifically in Larut Matang and Selama (LMS) districts and Hulu Perak (HP) district.

• background Larut Matang dan Selama and Hulu Perak:

1. Bordered by Kedah (to the west), southern Thailand (to the north), and Kelantan (to the northeastern).

2. An array of highlands dissected the zone into two. One side faced Kedah and the other faced southern Thailand and Kelantan.

3. A big river known as Sungai Perak originates from Hul

4. A large lake to the east of Hulu Perak forms a large area of wetlands and is very lightly populated. Most of the population in this area were Aslian people.

5. A large area of northern Perak especially to the west has been greatly influenced by northern dialect. This has been proven by Asmah (1993). The sub-districts are Taiping, Bagan Serai, Selama and Bukit Gantang. However, the area that forms Lenggong is influenced by the Perak dialect in the south and Malay Pattani and Kelantan in the north and east.

• 38 villages were selected to help conduct this investigation about the variation of language in North Perak. Among people here, those who are sub-ethnic malay such as rawa, jawa and banjar are excluded because they speak another kind of Malay. 40 linguistics students were chosen to carry out this project and they were provided with 200 words which is also the most frequent words used in Malaysia.

The Distribution of [mereka] ‘they’

‘mereka’ has nine variants.

i) [dema], [demə] and [demɔ]

ii) [depa] and [dp]

iii) [hangpa], [mikə], [mək] and [moha]

[demɔ] is spoken in Hulu Perak

[dema], [depa], [hangpa] were more dominant in Larut Matang and Selama.

The Distribution of[ular] ‘snake’

3 variants for [ular] ‘snake’, namely [ulɑ], [ulɔ] and [ulɑʕ].

Variant [ulɑ] is pronounced dominantly in this area. The next dominant variant is [ulɔ] followed by the variant [ulɑʕ]

I like the way the real-world example is conducted and what it has shown. By using only two words which are “mereka” and “ular”, there are three forms of lexical variants from each “mereka” and “ular”. Also for “ mereka” , phonological variants existed in tandem with lexical variants, such as [dema], [demə] and [demɔ]. In addition, places with one or two variants, are surrounded by highlands, especially in Larut Matang and Selama. This also means that varieties happen caused by the structure of the area like highland, lowland, by the river and so on. All changes of dialect occur by a specific reason or mix of one another causes.

Truthfully speaking, I am not really sure how to use this example as my example in this portfolio but after I read it more deeply, it will be a waste if I don't use it because this is one of our country's variations of a language. It really caught my interest, and I learned more about the language used in North Perak. It also encourages me to do research about language too.

In a country with many dialects like Malaysia, every person can learn more than one dialect. When a person knows more than one dialect, they can easily communicate with others. The social class can also become more solid. The variety of words in this project is influenced by the speaker itself, the boundaries between each are and lastly the topographies. The more dialects a country has, then the country will be richer with linguistic elements.

In conclusion, language is affected by geographical conditions. Research shows that in tropical regions with heavily forested landscapes, the languages and dialects spoken tend to use more vowels and softer consonants than the dialects spoken by people in colder and drier areas. Same as the real world example, people have been divided by certain causes like rivers and hills and that gives birth to a new dialect or languages. Even with one word like “ular” (snake) , there are three lexical and phonological variations. Can we even imagine if we do research about the word “snake” around the world, how many types of dialect or accents will we see? Eventually, we will go deeper about languages and that will be interesting. Lastly , language is beautifully growing and we will see varieties of language in the future.

1. Geo-linguistics study on lexical and phonology dialect variations in north Perak, Malaysia. (2013). ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281401550X#bbib0045

2. Callary, R. E. (1971). Dialectology and linguistic theory. American Speech, 46(3/4), 200. https://doi.org/10.2307/3087774