Malay Loan Words across Different Dialects of English

Abstract

The treatment of Malay loanwords in dictionaries representing different English varieties (ie, the British English Oxford English Dictionary [1994] & the Singaporean & Malaysian English Times-Chambers Essential English Dictionary [1997]) is examined from a contrastive perspective. The most productive semantic domains (eg, food), orthography (ie, standard Malay according to 1970 rules, pre-1970 Malay, or Anglicized), labels (eg, "vernacular"), & pronunciation guidelines (ie, using English or alternative phonetic symbols) are compared. It is found that, whereas the Oxford dictionary usually treats Malay borrowings as exotic & foreign, marking the words as foreign & not domesticating pronunciation, the Times-Chambers dictionary tends to view Malay words as part of the vernacular & to use a more pragmatic perspective in spelling & pronunciation rules. It is concluded that researchers of different Englishes must be aware not only of lexical distinctions across regional language varieties, but also of the variation in lexicographical treatment that items may receive. S. Paul.