Cocos Malay

Cocos Islands Malay
Basa Pulu Cocos/Basa Pulu Keling
Native toAustralia, Malaysia
RegionCocos (Keeling) Islands, Sabah
Ethnicity4,000 in Malaysia (2000)[1]
Native speakers
(1,100 in Australia cited 1987–2012)[1]
Latin (Malay alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3coa
Glottologcoco1260
ELPCocos Islands Malay

Cocos Malay is a post-creolized variety of Malay, spoken by the Cocos Malays of Home Island, Christmas Island, and those originally from the Cocos Islands currently living in Sabah.[1]

Cocos Malay derives from the Malay trade languages of the 19th century, specifically the Betawi language.[2] Malay is offered as a second language in schools, and Malaysian has prestige status; both are influencing the language, bringing it more in line with standard Malay.[3] There is also a growing influence of English, considering the Islands having been an Australian territory and globalization drifting modern terms into the daily parlance. In 2009, Cocos Malay students were prohibited from using their own language and failure to comply resulted in punishment in the form of "speaking tickets" which meant that they were required to carry out cleaning duties in school.[4] However, this form of language restriction ended by 2011.[5]

  1. ^ a b c Cocos Islands Malay at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Wurm, Mühlhäusler, & Tryon, Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, 1996:686
  3. ^ Ansaldo, 2006. "Cocos (Keeling) Islands: Language Situation". In Keith Brown, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2 ed.). Elsevier. ISBN 0-08-044299-4.
  4. ^ Bunce, Pauline (2012). Out of Sight, Out of Mind… and Out of Line: Language Education in the Australian Indian Ocean Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Multilingual Matters. pp. 37–59. ISBN 978-1-84769-749-3.
  5. ^ Welsh, Alistair (2015). "Cocos Malay language since integration with Australia". Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures. 9 (1). Archived from the original on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-04-24.