GEORGE TOWN, March 8 — Lagu tu rupanya. This phrase in Malay may translate to “so it’s that song” but in Penang’s Bahasa Tanjong, it carries a whole different meaning which loosely translates to “so that’s how it is”.

Bahasa Tanjong, which was recently listed as a state intangible heritage, is a language often spoken by the Jawi Peranakans in George Town.

Local historian Dahalan Fazil said the language has been around since before the arrival of the British and has evolved over 200 years as a result of intermarriage between Indian Muslims and Arabs with local Malays.

“These are the Jawi Perakanans who spoke Malay but due to influences of the mixed cultures, the language evolved to include words from Tamil, Arabic and even some English after the British arrived,” he said.

He said it is a language mainly spoken by Jawi Peranakans and also those who grew up in George Town, or Tanjong as it is known locally.

“This is a language you can hear at mamak stalls or in normal conversations in George Town and from Butterworth up to Teluk Ayer Tawar,” he said.

However, those that are further north of Seberang Perai, he said, their Malay would be more similar to that spoken in Kedah.

In a research paper by Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Professor Hajar Abdul Rahim on Bahasa Tanjong,  the language is considered a hybridised form of Malay that was the result of contact between two cultures, Malay and South Indian Muslims.

Bahasa Tanjong has lexical borrowings from Tamil such as loanwords like achi (older sister) or the common word mamak which actually means uncle.

There are also some expressions in Malay that reflect influences from Tamil such as banyak punya cantik which translates to “who do you think you are” or belakang kira which translates to “consider it later”.

According to Jawi Peranakan Nurilkarim Razha, Bahasa Tanjong has evolved with the times and has phrases that adopted English words but these are often pronounced with a Tamil accent.

He said words such are lejen (legend), maveles (marvellous), memang top (really top), tiptop and first class are also part of the vocabulary.

Even inviting someone to a meal could use different phrases from the more polite jom pi makan to mai pekena sat that is often used among friends, he said.

In this case, pekena is often used to refer to eating.

“The shorter form of jemput makan when all is seated would be boh dulu where the du is silent,” he said.

And the reply to that? “Hah boh boh boh” (let’s eat). 

Another common phrase used now is takdak nak ranjau mia which is used to mean “I’m telling you the truth”.

Hajar found that the language was further influenced by other immigrant languages in Penang including Hindi/Urdu and Arab.

There are original Bahasa Tanjong phrases coined by its speakers such as pasembor for the popular hawker food of mixed deep-fried fritters with vegetables in a spicy sauce, lingkup pahana to mean destroyed, terbakaq perut to mean very angry and even swear words such as mangkok hayun to mean stupid.

Hajar concluded that Bahasa Tanjong may have evolved with changes over the years but the language and the Jawi Peranakans have not lost their unique identity.

This is especially when words from Bahasa Tanjong are adopted by the Malays in general: gabra, mami and mamu.

“It is a unique Malay dialect with linguistic influences from Tamil, English, Hindi/Urdu and Arabic not found in other Malay dialects in the country,” Hajar said.