Perak Dialect

Throughout the years, the Malay language has been evolving into many kinds of pronunciations and even having evolutions of new words. As people live in different areas, it won’t make sense if they all speak the same way. One from the North won’t speak the same way as one from the South. This phenomenon is called the theory of Regional Dialects. A regional dialect, also known as a regiolect or topolect, is a distinctive dialect spoken in a specific geographic location (Nordquist, 2019). Malaysia is a country located in SouthEast Asia and Perak is a Malaysian state on the Malay Peninsula's west coast. Perak is bordered on the north by Kedah, on the northwest by Penang, on the east by Kelantan and Pahang, and on the south by Selangor. Zuraidah (2003) said that it is inevitable for Malaysian people to make unique language choices as there are many people of different races and from different areas.

Just like other regions in Malaysia, Perak has its own distinctive dialect usually known as Perak Malay or "Bahasa Melayu Perak". This region is so unique in terms of its dialect because it has five main types of dialects, namely the Northern dialect ("Loghat Utara"), the Patani dialect ("Loghat Patani"), the Perak River Valley dialect ("Loghat Lembah Sungai Perak"), the Indonesian Archipelago dialect ("Loghat Kepulauan Indonesia") and the Southern dialect of the Peninsula ("Loghat Selatan Semenanjung") (Bayu Merdeka, 2011).

The variety of Perak dialect types is mainly due to the migration of people.

According to Jasbindar (2019), based on ancient history, a lot of people from Kedah migrated to Perak as a result of the Siamese threat in 1821.

Besides, in Hulu Perak, namely Kroh, Grik and Lenggong, the people in this area tend to use the Patani dialect which makes it sound as if they are talking using Kelantan dialect as there are similarities between the Patani dialect and Kelantan dialect. Just like in the north Perak, the people living in Hulu Perak also mostly consist of residents from Patani and Reman so the way they speak is the same.

Meanwhile, in the Kinta district, the dialect differs according to the community. The vast majority of the people there comes from the Indonesian archipelago such as Rawa, Mandheling, Banjar and many more and they use the Indonesian archipelago dialect.

In spite of that, in the Hilir Perak, namely the district of Batang Padang to Bagan Datoh, the dialect is more influenced by the dialect of the Southern Dialect of the Peninsula such as Selangor and Johor. This is because the community also consists of migrants from Selangor (Javanese and Bugis) during the Civil War in Selangor around 1860 to 1870.

Finally, in Perak Tengah such as Kuala Kangsar, Sayong, Karai, Bota, Parit, Lambor Kg. Gajah and Tg. Belanja. The dialect that is used here is said to be the original dialect of Perak because it has the most distinctive way of speaking from other Malay dialects.

Due to the influence of state boundaries, Perak has been a state that has a variety of dialects as well subdialect. Nevertheless, Perak has not only received the influence of foreign dialects through state borders but also through the migration of communities outside of the Malay Peninsula. They all take parts in influencing the evolution of the Malay dialect in the northern and southern parts of the Perak (Hamzah et.al., 2017). This is one of the main causes of the formations of many lexical variations in Perak.

Lexical variation is one of the most peculiar aspects of the Perak dialect as they are so easy to be distinguished from other Malay dialects. Lexical variation refers to the different words and phrases we use to refer to the same objects/concepts (Bailey, 2021). Perak dialect has a variety of lexical variants. However, if we were to compare between the normally spoken Perak dialect now and before, there is a vast array of variants due to disparities in variant usage between the older and younger generations (Jalaluddin et.al, 2015).

On account of lexical variation, the Perak dialect has its own words for some things/actions. Some popular words of Perak dialect that are known to the public are “ate” (pronounced as /atə/ or /atɛ/) and “kome” (pronounced as /kɑmə/ or /kɑmɛ/). Their way of pronouncing depends on which part of Perak the speaker comes from. “Ate” means “then” or “habis itu” / "sudah itu" in standard Malay, and “kome” means “you guys” or “kalian”.

Just to clarify, as many people are confused between "kome" and "miker" (pronounced as /mikə/); as stated before, "kome" means "you guys" / "you all" which is used when talking to more than one person, while "miker" is for "you" which only refer to the person we're talking. So, it is incorrect to use "kome" for "you" or "awak" / "kamu" in standard Malay.

An example of a Perak dialect word for action is "ngelewor" (pronounced as /ŋɘlæwɔ/) which means "walking like a drunk person" or "walking left and right" (literal translation) or "berjalan ke kiri kanan" in standard Malay.

In addition, the Perak dialect has specific words for "they" and "theirs", just like the English language. The word for “they”, originally “mereka” in standard Malay is “deme” (pronounced as /dɛmə/) in Perak dialect; while “theirs”, originally “mereka punya” in standard Malay is “depe” (pronounced as /dɛpə/).

The Perak dialect has a very distinctive phonological pronunciation of the vowel. Some words that are pronounced as /ə/ in usual spoken Malay or standard Malay will be pronounced with /ɛ/. For example, the word “mana” (pronounced as /manə/), will be pronounced as /manɛ/.

Also, some words ending with a consonant sound will be pronounced with vowel sounds, usually a diphtong. For example, "mahal" (pronounced as /mahæ/ or /mahʌɪ/).

Plus, words that end with /r/ will be pronounced as /ɒ/. For example, "bayar" (in English: pay) is pronounced as /bajɒ/ and "belajar" (in English: study) is pronounced as /bəlajɒ/.

However, this kind of phonological pronunciation depends on where the speaker came from. As mentioned in the background, one from the north will not speak the same way as one from the south. People from Northern Perak like Taiping, Semanggol and Parit Buntar, their way of speaking will sound more like Kedah dialect but slightly different. Perakian people refer to it as "Loghat Utara" or Northern Dialect. (ML Studios, 2019).

That is all my sharing for this e-portfolio. Nonetheless, there are still many enthralling aspects of the Perak dialect. Everyone could learn the Perak dialect. So, let's learn the Perak dialect to ensure that the tradition won't be lost in time!! :D