Malaysian Mandarin

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Malaysian Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 马来西亚华语; traditional Chinese: 馬來西亞華語; pinyin: Mǎláixīyà Huáyǔ) is a variety of the Chinese language spoken in Malaysia by ethnic Chinese residents. It is currently the primary language used by the Malaysian Chinese community^[1]

It is uncommon for Malaysian Mandarin speakers to translate local terms or names into Mandarin when they speak. They tend to prefer the use of Malay place names in their original Malay pronunciation : for instance, even though the street name "Jalan Bukit Kepong" is written as "武吉甲洞路" (Wǔjí Jiǎdòng lù; 'Bukit Kepong Road') in local Chinese printed media, the local Chinese almost never use Wǔjí Jiǎdòng lù in daily conversations. There are exceptions, for example Taiping, since this name is derived from the Chinese language, when people mention this place when speaking local Mandarin, they always use its Mandarin pronunciation, "Tàipíng", instead of using its Malay pronunciation, which is closer to "Taipeng". Another example is when a place's Chinese translation varied vastly with its native Malay name, for example: for Teluk Intan, Seremban, Kota Kinabalu and Bau, they are preferably referred respectively as Ānsùn (安順) (which refers to "Teluk Anson", Teluk Intan's former colonial name), Fúróng (芙蓉) Yàbì (亞庇), and Shilongmen (石隆門).