Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar
This paper presents an analysis on some aspects of Seletar, the language of the Orang Seletar, namely the phonology, lexicon and polysemy. The Orang Seletar are one of Singapore’s indigenous sea peoples (Orang Laut) and one of the many groups of Orang Asli (‘indigenous people’) of Malaysia. Seletar...
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| Format: | Final Year Project (FYP) |
| Language: | English |
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Nanyang Technological University
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138325 |
| _version_ | 1826130398213570560 |
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| author | Tan, Zhi Xuan |
| author2 | Alexander Coupe |
| author_facet | Alexander Coupe Tan, Zhi Xuan |
| author_sort | Tan, Zhi Xuan |
| collection | NTU |
| description | This paper presents an analysis on some aspects of Seletar, the language of the Orang Seletar, namely the phonology, lexicon and polysemy. The Orang Seletar are one of Singapore’s indigenous sea peoples (Orang Laut) and one of the many groups of Orang Asli (‘indigenous people’) of Malaysia. Seletar is considered a dialect of Malay. Although some research has been done on the Orang Seletar, they often lack linguistic documentation and detailed analysis. Some interesting observations of Seletar were made in this study, for example neutralization of /p/ and /m/ in p-initial verbal roots, sesquisyllabic structure, various vowel-sequences, frequent contractions of Standard Malay lexical items, and polysemy unseen in Standard Malay. Seletar has some non-Malay lexical items which might indicate borrowings from Aslian and Borneo languages. However, many words seem uniquely Seletar. The paper concludes with a transcribed word list of 345 items based on the recordings of two speakers. Much further research is needed to analyse Seletar in detail. More than anything, this paper serves as an introduction to Seletar, which many overlooked as they deemed it ‘very similar to Malay’. The paper hopes to be a starting point to more detailed studies regarding the Orang Seletar, linguistic or otherwise. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T07:55:49Z |
| format | Final Year Project (FYP) |
| id | ntu-10356/138325 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T07:55:49Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Nanyang Technological University |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1383252020-05-02T08:13:27Z Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar Tan, Zhi Xuan Alexander Coupe School of Humanities arcoupe@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::Linguistics This paper presents an analysis on some aspects of Seletar, the language of the Orang Seletar, namely the phonology, lexicon and polysemy. The Orang Seletar are one of Singapore’s indigenous sea peoples (Orang Laut) and one of the many groups of Orang Asli (‘indigenous people’) of Malaysia. Seletar is considered a dialect of Malay. Although some research has been done on the Orang Seletar, they often lack linguistic documentation and detailed analysis. Some interesting observations of Seletar were made in this study, for example neutralization of /p/ and /m/ in p-initial verbal roots, sesquisyllabic structure, various vowel-sequences, frequent contractions of Standard Malay lexical items, and polysemy unseen in Standard Malay. Seletar has some non-Malay lexical items which might indicate borrowings from Aslian and Borneo languages. However, many words seem uniquely Seletar. The paper concludes with a transcribed word list of 345 items based on the recordings of two speakers. Much further research is needed to analyse Seletar in detail. More than anything, this paper serves as an introduction to Seletar, which many overlooked as they deemed it ‘very similar to Malay’. The paper hopes to be a starting point to more detailed studies regarding the Orang Seletar, linguistic or otherwise. Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Multilingual Studies 2020-05-02T08:13:27Z 2020-05-02T08:13:27Z 2020 Final Year Project (FYP) https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138325 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University |
| spellingShingle | Humanities::Linguistics Tan, Zhi Xuan Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar |
| title | Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar |
| title_full | Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar |
| title_fullStr | Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar |
| title_full_unstemmed | Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar |
| title_short | Some aspects of the language of the Orang Seletar |
| title_sort | some aspects of the language of the orang seletar |
| topic | Humanities::Linguistics |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138325 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tanzhixuan someaspectsofthelanguageoftheorangseletar |