A sociolinguistic description of the Peranakan Chinese of Kelantan, Malaysia

This dissertation investigates the language and linguistic behavior of the Kelantan Peranakan Chinese society, a group who have assimilated extensively to the Kelantan rural Malays, and to some extent to the Kelantan Thai society as well, culturally and linguistically. An attempt is made in this work to incorporate historical, linguistic, and social anthropological materials within a single study so as to strike a better balance between linguistic and social analyses in sociolinguistics.; The major findings of this dissertation are reported in chapters II through IV. Chapter II focuses primarily on the ethnic formation, identity, and culture of these Peranakan Chinese. The discussion of the foregoing topics are dealt within the framework of assimilation to the local rural Malay community that has made the Peranakan Chinese part of their community. Despite retaining certain aspects of Chinese culture, the Peranakan Chinese show a high level of assimilation to the Kelantan rural Malay community, and have adopted many Kelantan Malay cultural traits. The adoption of the local Malay cultural features reflects the fact that they are willing to assimilate to another life-style, even though they will always identify themselves as Chinese.; Chapter III explores the form of language spoken by the Kelantan Peranakan Chinese. Its phonological, morphological as well as syntactic structures are thoroughly examined. A sociolinguistic history of the Peranakan Chinese and the varieties of their language are also discussed in detail. The language of the Peranakan Chinese is a form of Hokkien Chinese with local Malay and Thai elements. This is a reflection of the cultural synthesis of Chinese, Malay, and Thai, on the part of the Peranakan Chinese. Its structural similarities to Kelantanese Malay and Kelantanese Thai are discussed within the framework of language contact phenomena. The extent and character of Malay and Thai borrowings are also addressed. Its differences from standard Hokkien Chinese are also looked into in this chapter.; Chapter IV focuses primarily on the interethnic communication between the Peranakan Chinese and the Kelantan rural Malays. More importantly, the ways by which this group of Chinese became assimilated into the Malay social world are examined within the interethnic social interaction framework. The organization of discourse and patterns of communication which facilitate the existing interethnic social interaction between the two groups are the main areas of study in this chapter. The verbal as well as nonverbal aspects of communication are viewed together as interrelated elements of a process working to achieve the strong social bond between the Peranakan Chinese and the local rural Malays. Their communication with Kelantan mainstream Chinese (non-Peranakan Chinese) and the local Thais are also addressed in this chapter.