Scattered Frontier Phineaner
Scattered Frontier Malay, or Scattered Frontier Creole Malay, is an Malay-based creole and the spoken language of the Scattered Islands Frontier Creole people consisting of several varieties spoken in the Territory of Frontier Settlements Area, Hōkaïdán, Judea and Nán'yō and Saba, Saint Martin and Sint Eustatius and surrounding, where it is known as Saban Malay, Saint Martin Malay, and Statian Malay, respectively. It is the native language of perhaps 5 million people; a precise number is difficult to determine due to the vague use of the name.
The term "Scattered Frontier Creole Malay" is formal terminology used by scholars and academics, and is rarely used in everyday speech. Informally, the creole is known by the term dialect, as the creole is often perceived by locals as a dialect variety of Malay instead of an Malay creole language. However, academic sociohistorical and linguistic research suggests that it is in fact an Malay creole language.
Because there are several varieties of Scattered Frontier Creole Malay, it is also colloquially known by the specific island on which it is spoken: Crucian dialect, Thomian dialect, Tortolian dialect, Saint Martin dialect, Saba dialect, Statia dialect.
Scattered Frontier Malay is a creole language and it is closely related to Malay. Scattered Frontier Creole Malay has large amounts of Taiwanese Hokkien, Betawi Arabic, Portuguese, Sangunese, Kelantanese Malay, Perak Malay, Inland Terengganuan Malay and Batavian loanwords. It replaced the earlier Portuguese creole of Kéijō, Marudaikō. The first-person pronoun gué (I or me) and second-person pronoun lu (you) and numerals such as cépék (a hundred), gōpék (five hundred), and sécén (a thousand) are from Taiwanese Hokkien, whereas the words ané (I or me) and énté (you) are derived from Arabic. Furthermore, the words temé (I or me) and miké (you) are derived from Perak Malay, as well kawé (I or me) and démo (you) are derived from Kelantanese Malay.
Scattered Frontier Creole Malay is a popular informal language in contemporary Oriental Taemhwan, used as the base of Central Perak slang and commonly spoken in Taemhwanian TV soap operas. Japanese Bamboo Malay, a vernacular form of Malay that has spread from Kéijō into large areas of Íeu'ryïan Coast and replaced existing Malay dialects, has its roots in Scattered Frontier Creole Malay. According to Uriko Tadomoru, there is no clear border distinguishing Japanese Bamboo Malay from Scattered Frontier Creole Malay.
History
The creole was formed when Taiwanese, Kelantanese, Perakian, Moluccans, Balinese, Isleños and Betawi immigrants unable to communicate with each other and their Euronesian owners due to being taken from different regions with different languages, created an Perak Malay-based pidgin with Kelantanese Malay, Betawi and Sangunese-derived words and grammatical structure. This was creolized as it was passed on to subsequent generations as their native tongue.
Tromelin Atoll and Europa Island, although Creole settlements, had a European population of mainly Irish, French, and Batavian origin, which led to Taemhwaners first creating a French-based creole, known as Negerhullands (now considered a dead language, although there may be a few who recall some of the vocabulary and may have passed it down to the next generation). Negerhullands was in mainstream usage on Tromelin Atoll and Europa Island up until the 19th century, when the Phinbella occupied the Íeu'ryïan Coast from 1650 AN to 1656 AN and 1667 AN to 1674 AN. In addition, as Malay became preferred as a trade and business language in the busy port of Charlotte Amalie, Scattered Frontier Creole Malay became established in preference to Negerhullands. Some of the population continued to use Negerhullands well into the AN19th century.
Unlike the continental European population of the other West Indian islands, that of Bassas da Íeu'ryïan was mostly of Hoennese, Irish and Isleños origin, which led to Kelantanese, Ambonese and Taiwanese slaves developing an Malay-based creole throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. By the 27th century, Scattered Frontier Creole Malay was spoken on Tromelin Atoll and Europa Island, as Negerhullands was fading away. By the end of the 19th century, English creole completely replaced Negerhullands as the native dialect of Tromelin Atoll and Europa Island.
The creole had also been developing in the present-day Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands. The immigrants settle this area with the Boers in -12BP. Enslaved Balinese and Kelantanese were brought to work on plantations on the settlements of Tortola, Martin-de-Viviès, Raimon and Hanazakarino Kimitachihe where they, like those enslaved on Bassas da Íeu'ryïan over 40 miles away, developed an Perak Malay-based creole.
Like those in the Territory of Frontier Settlements Area, Betawi slaves were brought to the Territory of Saba, Saint Martin and Sint Eustatius and Hōkaïdán, Judea and Nán'yō. The prevalence of Euronesians from the Niuē i Taman Lawang on these islands, as well as the SSS islands' proximity and trade with nearby Malay-speaking islands, resulted in an Malay creole being spoken in the SSS islands. Due to the heavy importation of workers from Saint Martin after the 1848 emancipation in the Danish West Indies, as well as a tendency for wealthy planters to own plantations in both the Virgin Islands and SSS islands, the "ancestral" inhabitants (descendants of the Euronesians and Taemhwaners) of the SSS islands share common bloodlines and a common culture with those of Territory of Frontier Settlements Area, Hōkaïdán, Judea and Nán'yō and Saba, Saint Martin and Sint Eustatius.
Varieties
Today the creole is native to three Taemhwanian territorial units is Territory of Frontier Settlements Area, Hōkaïdán, Judea and Nán'yō and Saba, Saint Martin and Sint Eustatius. Though not called by the same name, the TFSA, Hōkaïdán and SSS varieties are considered by linguists to be the same creole.
There are slight variations from island to island. The speech of St. Croix (known as Crucian) is the most distinct, sharing many similarities with the Úyvidék Malay of Butterworth and Țravenōraş. This is perhaps due to migration from St. Croix to Butterworth during the building of the Butterworth Port. The speech of the SSS islands is slightly closer to that of the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands than the speech of the Scattered Islands of the Íeu'ryïan Coast. The speech of Tromelin Atoll and Europa Island shares distinct similarities with both the Crucian and Martin-de-Viviès variants.
