Peranakan
Chinese or Straits-born Chinese are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who came to the Malay
archipelago including British Malaya (now Peninsular
Malaysia and Singapore,
where they are also referred to as Baba-Nyonya) and Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia, where they're also referred as Kiau-Seng) between the 15th and 17th centuries.
Members of
this community in Malaysia address themselves as "Baba Nyonya".
Nyonya is the term for the women and Baba for the men. It applies especially to
the Han populations
of the British Straits
Settlements of Malaya and the
Dutch-controlled island of Java and other
locations, who have adopted Nusantara customs — partially or in full — to
be somewhat assimilated into the local communities. Many were the elites of Singapore, more loyal to the British than to China. Most have
lived for generations along the straits of Malacca. They were
usually traders, the middleman of the British and the Chinese, or the Chinese
and Malays, or vice versa because they were mostly English educated. Because of
this, they almost always had the ability to speak two or more languages.
While the term Peranakan is most commonly used to refer to
those of Chinese descent also known as Straits Chinese(named after the Straits
Settlements; 土生華人 in Chinese;Tionghoa-Selat or Tionghoa
Peranakan in Indonesian, Phuket
Baba, Phuket Yaya or Baba
Yaya among Thais in Phuket, Thailand), there are also other,
comparatively smaller Peranakan communities, such as Indian Hindu
Peranakans (Chitty), Arab/Indian Muslim Peranakans (Jawi Pekan) (Jawi being the
Javanised Arabic script, Pekan a colloquial contraction of Peranakan) and Eurasian
Peranakans (Kristang) (Kristang
= Christians of Portuguese and Asian ancestry). The group has parallels to the Cambodian Hokkien, who are
descendants of Hoklo Chinese, and the Pashu of Myanmar, a Burmese word for the Peranakan or Straits Chinese who have settled in
Myanmar. They maintained their
culture partially despite their native language gradually disappearing a few
generations after settlement.
The
language of the Peranakans, Baba
Malay (Bahasa
Melayu Baba), is a creole language related to the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu), which
contains many Hokkien words. It is a dying language, and
its contemporary use is mainly limited to members of the older generation.
The
Peranakan Malay spoken by the Malaccan Peranakans community is strongly based on
the Malay language as most of them can only speak
little to none of the language of their Chinese forebears.[14] Whereas in the east coast of Peninsula
Malaysia, the Peranakans are known to not only speak a Hokkien
version of their own but also Thai and Kelantanese Malay dialect in Kelantan, and Terengganu Malay dialect in Terengganu respectively. Unlike the rest of the
Peranakans in Malaysia, Penang Peranakans in comparison are much
heavily influenced by a variant of Hokkien dialect known locally as Penang Hokkien.
In
Indonesia, the Peranakan language is mainly based on Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese language that is mixed with elements of Chinese language, mostly Hokkien dialect.
Speakers of the Peranakan language can be found scattered along the northern
coastline area throughout West Java, Central Java and East Java, and also in Special
Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Young
Peranakans can still speak this creole language, although its use is limited to
informal occasions.
Today,
young Peranakans especially have lost much of their traditional language.
Therefore, that has resulted in a difference in vocabulary between the older
and younger generation especially now that English and Mandarin have replaced
Peranakan Malay as the main languages spoken amongst the younger generation.
