BAHASA BAKU: CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF STANDARD MALAY IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Since its implementation in Singapore in 1993, Bahasa Baku, the standard spoken variation of Malay in Singapore, appears to have made no significant progress in terms of its use in the formal domains of the community. Previous studies dated over 10 years ago have revealed a significant number of non-standard features being used in Bahasa Baku, indicating a great influence of the colloquial Johor-Riau dialect, which goes against the “speak as you spell” guidelines prescribed by language authorities. Therefore, in order to obtain a sense of whether this remains to be the case, I have conducted two sociophonetic studies focusing on the use of Bahasa Baku in television news broadcasts.

The first study examines the use of /a/, /i/ and /u/ variants in television news broadcasts through the years, with results showing the same pattern as seen in the previous studies, and the only consistent standard feature used being the /a/ variants. The second study investigates how Malay speakers perceive standard /a/ and non-standard /a/ variants in news broadcasts. 77 survey participants rated four news audio clips, consisting of standard and non-standard variants, on professionalism, from a scale of 0 (“Completely Unprofessional”) to 5 (“Completely Professional”). Results revealed that /a/ variants were rated significantly more professional, indicating speakers’ recognition of Bahasa Baku as the standard variety. Nonetheless, speakers do not view the Johor-Riau dialect as the non-standard variety, and together with the pervasion of the Johor-Riau dialect in the formal domains, this denotes the future possibility of a reversion to the Johor-Riau dialect as the standard variety.