Malay trade and creole languages

In addition to its classical and literary form, Malay had various regional dialects established after the rise of the Srivijaya empire in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the south East Asia Archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca ("trade language") that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay and in Malay Melayu Pasar. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Hokkien, Portuguese, and Dutch traders. Besides the general simplification that occurs with pidgins, the Malay lingua franca had several distinctive characteristics. One was that possessives were formed with punya 'its owner'; another was that plural pronouns were formed with orang 'person'. The only Malayic affixes that remained productive were tĕr- and bĕr-. Other features: Ada became a progressive particle. Reduced forms of ini 'this' and itu 'that' (>ni, tu) before a noun became determiners. The verb pĕrgi 'go' was reduced, and became a preposition 'towards'. Causative constructions were formed with kasi or bĕri 'to give' or bikin or buat 'to make'. A single preposition, often sama, was used for multiple functions, including direct and indirect object. For example, Rumah-ku 'my house' becomes Saya punya rumah Saya pukul dia 'I hit him' becomes Saya kasi pukul dia Megat dipukul Robert 'Megat is hit by Robert' becomes Megat dipukul dek Robert Bazaar Malay is used in a limited extent in Singapore and Malaysia, mostly among the older generation or people with no working knowledge of English. The most important reason that contributed to the decline of Bazaar Malay is that pidgin Malay has creolised and created several new languages. Another reason is due to language shift in both formal and informal contexts, Bazaar Malay in Singapore is gradually being replaced by English, with English and its creole Singlish being the lingua franca among the younger generations. Baba Malay is spoken by the Peranakans in Melaka (in Malaysia) and Singapore.