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Hanis Farhana Binti Mohd Shamsuri (200852)
Background of the Topic
The Malay Language has evolved into a variety of dialects according to different regions. This is what makes languages all over the world special in their own way. The Malay Language has been used way before the era of independence. Since then, Malay was not only used as a medium of communication but in aspects of politics, finance, business, and literary works (Onn, 1976). Kedah dialect was proved to exist when Sultan Abdul Hamid wrote a collection of letters that were mainly about speech communities in Kedah and the choice of language when interacting (Omar, 2017). The Sultan's written or literary language is the Kedah dialect. This shows the choice of the language used by the Sultan affects the community’s language and dialect. Kedah Malay or mainly known as the ‘Loghat Utara’ (Northern Dialect) in Malaysia is a part of the Austronesian family that is widely used in the Northwestern regions in Malaysia such as Perlis, Kedah, Penang and also includes the regions in Southern Thailand in provinces of ‘Trang’ and ‘Satun’. This is due to the location of the state of Kedah that is bordered by various states which makes the Kedah dialect significantly different from other Malay dialects (Mohamed Sultan et al., 2019). Malaysia is known for its variety of cultures and various races in the community. As society uses the language, there is a variation from the standard language to a particular dialect. Kedah Dialect can also be divided into different types. For instance, there are Standard Kedah Malay, Northern Kedah Dialect, the Perlis-Langkawi, and Penang dialect. All of these types of Kedah dialect might be standardly similar but there are distinct features that make it obviously different (Mohamed Sultan et al., 2019). When we hear the Kedah dialect or the ‘Loghat Utara’, we can ultimately identify the person who may come from one of the Northern States in Malaysia that are just mentioned.
Interesting Aspect of the Topic
The Kedah dialect is a variation of the Malay language that is used in the daily communication of the Kedah community. Sometimes when non - Kedah people listen to a full conversation using the Kedahan Dialect, they will feel like they are currently hearing an unfamiliar language. What differentiates between the Kedah Dialect and the Standard Malay Language is the phonological and morphological aspects. In-depth, the Kedah dialect tends to minimize the usage of words in a sentence rather than the Standard Malay Language. For instance, when we want to ask where somebody is going, the Kedah Dialect uses, “Hang nak pi mana?” while the Standard Malay Language uses “Awak nak pergi ke mana?”. There are a lot of compressions that are similar to the example in the Kedah Dialect. If we differentiate the word of loud between the Kedah Dialect, ‘Hingaq’ and the Perak Dialect, ‘Hingor’, we can observe that the two dialects are different in their pronunciation and phonetically. This is what makes every dialect distinct in their own way. Overall, the Kedah Dialect is a very interesting dialect to learn as it is simple but complicated in its own way.
Concept Related with Interesting Aspect
Regional Dialects do affect the interesting aspect of the topic where Kedah dialect is full of unique morphological and phonological aspects. Each region has its own differences in identifying their dialects. One way we can identify a dialect is by analyzing its phonological sounds. When we can identify each phonological aspect of each region, only then we can fully identify which dialect is it from. For instance, the Kedah dialect tends to use a lot of plosives and fricatives in their vocabulary. This might seem quite awkward if we have not heard the Kedah dialect but if we fully adapt to it, we can use it normally. The other interesting part of the Kedah dialect that relates to the concept of regional dialects is that it has regional dialects that are mainly similar to it. For example, the Penang and the Perlis dialect are very much identical to the Kedah dialect and according to Omar (2017), it is sometimes considered the sub-dialects of the Kedah dialect. This proves that the concept of regional dialects play a role in affecting the interesting aspects of the Kedah dialect.
Support Relation of concept to the Topic
In relation to the concept of the topic, it is clear that the essence of the Kedahan Dialect is the geographical location and the pronunciation affects how the dialect is formed. Therefore, the suitable concept for this element is the concept of regional dialects. Regional dialects exist and are commonly recognized based on distinct geographical areas (Yule, 2020). In this concept, the regional dialect has its own stereotyped pronunciation. For instance, we often take the opinion that the Melaka Dialect comes with a rough attitude just because of how the dialect is used in their daily life. The Kedahan Dialect is unique in a sense mainly because of its pronunciation and vocabulary that is distinct from Standard Malay (Mohamed Sultan et al., 2019). The community of Kedah is often stereotyped as having a thick but simple dialect to learn. According to Omar (2017), the Kedah Dialect is similar to various dialects in the Northern states of Malaysia such as Pulau Pinang and Perlis. These dialects seem to share similar phonological aspects mainly in the three fricative consonants, namely the consonants /s, ɣ, h/. For example, the word hard in Malay, ‘keras’ [kəras] are the same for the three dialects, ‘keqaih’. If we focus on the phonetic transcription of the word, [keɣayh], we can see the usage of the velar fricative of /ɣ/ is actually adapted a lot in these three dialects. Another word using the fricative consonant that is the same for the three dialects is the word ‘berat’ [bərat] meaning heavy in English. The Kedah Dialect often says ‘beqhat’ or in its phonetic transcription, [bəɣat]. Although they are not in the same geographical location, they share some consistent features in their dialect (Omar, 2017) and this statement aligns with the concept of regional dialects. If we try to differentiate the difference between the Kelantan and the Kedah Dialect, we can see there are some differences that make the two dialects completely identifiable especially when the Kelantan dialect involves the silencing and addition of certain alphabets into their vocabulary like ‘kamu’ (you) becomes ‘mu’. The Kedah dialect often varies from the Standard Malay Language, ‘kamu’ becomes ‘hang’. Overall we can observe that the concept of regional dialects plays a role in identifying the Kedah dialect in-depth and geographical location does affect the dialect.
References
References
H, S. A., & Faiz Fauzi, M. (2020). PENELITIAN AKUSTIK DIALEK KEDAH. Jurnal Melayu, 0(0). https://ejournal.ukm.my/jmelayu/article/view/44411
Mohamed Sultan, F. M., & Jamil, A. I. (2019). Variasi leksikal dialek Melayu di negeri Kedah: Kajian geolinguistik. Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 15(4). https://doi.org/10.17576/geo-2019-1504-02
Omar, A. H. (2017). LANGUAGE IN KEDAH IN LATE 19TH CENTURY-LANGUAGE SITUATION IN A MALAY STATE IN LATE 19TH CENTURY. Malaysian Journal of Languages and Linguistics (MJLL), 6(2), 36–47.
Onn, F. M. (1976). Aspects of Malay phonology and morphology. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Yule, G. (2020). In The study of language (pp. 282–283). essay, Cambridge University Press.
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