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Singkawang Hakka
Singkawang Hakka (Chinese: 山口洋客語; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Sân-gú-yòng Hak-ngî; Indonesian: Bahasa Khek Singkawang) is a variety of Hakka predominantly spoken by the Hakka Chinese community in the northwestern part of West Kalimantan, Indonesia, particularly in and around the Singkawang region. It originates from the Hakka dialects spoken in Guangdong, China, though it has evolved with some differences influenced by local influences. Singkawang Hakka differs from Pontianak Hakka, which is rooted in the Meixian dialect. In contrast, Singkawang Hakka is based on the Hailu dialect, with significant influence from Hopo and Wuhua dialects.[2][3] Singkawang Hakka is colloquially known as yinghua (硬話) 'hard speech' among the local Chinese community.[4] In contrast, Pontianak Hakka, spoken in areas south of Bengkayang, including Pontianak, Mempawah Regency, and Kubu Raya Regency, is commonly referred to as ruanhua (軟話) 'soft speech'. Today, Singkawang Hakka has a wide geographical spread. Besides being used in Singkawang, Pemangkat, and Sambas, it is also commonly spoken among the Chinese migrants from Singkawang in Jakarta. Hakka is the predominant language spoken among the Chinese communities in Singkawang, although there are also small Teochew-speaking communities present.[5] Additionally, many Hakka in Singkawang are multilingual, fluent in Mandarin, Indonesian, and the local Malay dialect. Code-switching and code-mixing are common among the Singkawang Chinese, who frequently alternate between Hakka, Malay, and standard Indonesian. This is especially prevalent in informal settings, such as local markets, where people from various ethnic backgrounds interact.[1] Additionally, since the majority of Singkawang's population is Hakka, many non-Chinese residents in the area are also able to speak and understand Hakka. History
The Hakkas began migrating to the coastal regions of western Borneo in the 17th century. While the majority originated from the interior of Guangdong (specifically areas around Meizhou, Huizhou, Jieyang, and other areas), a smaller number came from Tingzhou in western Fujian.[6][7] These immigrants brought their language and culture with them. By the late 19th century, there were already immigrants in the Singkawang region of West Kalimantan speaking Hailu Hakka. Additionally, Hopo immigrants from Jiexi had been documented in West Kalimantan as early as the late 18th century.[8] The Hakka dialect spoken in Singkawang today is likely the result of a historical blending of the Hailu and Hopo dialects, which has endowed it with the distinct characteristics of both varieties.[8] From the late Qing Dynasty to the early establishment of the Republic of China, wars and chaos were frequent on the Chinese mainland. As a result, many Hakka people, to avoid military conscription and forced labor or to earn a living, were forced to follow shuike (水客, suihak), brokers who specifically brought people to Southeast Asia, to Malaya or Bangka-Belitung, where they became contract laborers in tin mines. After their contracts ended, many workers moved to the region under the rule of the Sultan of Sambas, particularly to Singkawang and its surroundings, to seek a new life. At that time, a large group of Hopo immigrants arrived and rented land from the local government for farming.[3] Those with skills or relatives in Singkawang chose to settle and engage in small businesses there, selling cakes or working as laborers. By that time, there were already many traditional medicine shops, bookstores, barbershops, and others. Because many small stalls in the rural areas were owned by Hakka people, to facilitate transactions and blend in with the grassroots community, the tycoons of Singkawang, whether Teochew or Hokkien, were inevitably compelled to learn Hakka. Thus, Hakka became the lingua franca in Singkawang, while Teochew and Hokkien are only spoken at home.[3] Most of the Hakkas who migrated to present-day Singkawang came from impoverished backgrounds and were invited by the Sultanate of Sambas to work as miners. They formed kongsis (associations) for business purposes, particularly in gold mining, in the interior regions of West Kalimantan. One of the most well-known kongsis in West Kalimantan was the Lanfang Kongsi.[9] Its founder was Luo Fangbo, in the 18th century. He not only succeeded in establishing kongsis but also became the governor for the Chinese community in West Kalimantan, headquartered in Mandor (about 100 km from Pontianak). During that time, Monterado and Mandor were well-known as centers of gold mining, attracting Chinese people from various ethnic groups. Singkawang, on the other hand, served merely as a trade city and not as a resource-producing area like Monterado and Mandor.[6] The "Red Bowl" incident (Indonesian: Mangkok Merah) that occurred at the end of 1967 saw the Indonesian government expelling hundreds of thousands of Hakka Chinese from rural areas, so 99% of this Hakka-speaking exodus group was forced to settle in Singkawang and its surrounding areas. Before the government prohibited Chinese people from entering Indonesia in 1949, new arrivals from the Teochew and Hokkien-speaking communities were almost nonexistent.[3] However, Hakka speakers arrived in large numbers, around 10-20 thousand people, thus increasing the Hakka population in Singkawang. As time passed, the first generation of Teochew, Hokkien, and Hakka speakers became increasingly rare.[3] They were mostly elderly and rarely gathered together, so communication in their native languages became less frequent. Meanwhile, the second generation, although they initially mastered their mother tongue, found themselves communicating with Hakka in daily life and social interactions.[3] Geographical distribution and usageThe Hakka language in West Kalimantan is divided into two types: the Pontianak Hakka, which is more related to the Meixian Hakka dialect, and Singkawang Hakka, which is more related to the Lufeng (Hailu) Hakka dialect. These two varieties differ slightly in tone, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The areas that use the Meixian Hakka dialect include Pontianak, Sekadau, Sintang, Sanggau, and Mempawah. Meanwhile, the areas that use the Lufeng Hakka accent include Singkawang, Sungai Duri, Sambas, and Pemangkat.[10] In areas with a significant Hakka population, non-Chinese residents also understand and speak Singkawang Hakka. Many Malays, Dayak, and even Javanese residents are proficient in Hakka and actively use it to communicate with the Chinese community. Meanwhile, many elderly Chinese residents are either unable to speak or are less fluent in languages other than Hakka.[11] Today, Singkawang Hakka is spoken widely beyond Singkawang, Pemangkat, and Sambas, extending to the Chinese business community in Jakarta, specifically in western Jakarta, where many migrants from Singkawang have settled.[2] Hakka is widely spoken throughout Singkawang, with estimates suggesting that over 60% of the local population use it in their daily conversations.[12] Many Chinese in Singkawang, in addition to Hakka, are also fluent in Sambas Malay, the local Malay dialect. Code-switching or code-mixing between Hakka and Sambas Malay is very common, particularly when conversing with non-Chinese individuals.[1] In addition, most elders in Singkawang could speak both Hakka and Mandarin, as they learned the latter when educated in Chinese language schools before they were closed during the New Order.[13] Few also spoke Teochew or other Chinese dialects. Currently, following the lifting of the ban on learning Chinese, many young people have enrolled in Chinese schools where they are taught to speak and read Mandarin. Most Chinese residents, especially the younger generations are also fluent in standard Indonesian, the national language. The usage of Indonesian is typically limited to formal settings, such as government interactions or educational environments, where formal Indonesian is preferred.[14] Nonetheless, there is currently a growing trend in the use of the Hakka in official communications in Singkawang. Mayors and government officials frequently incorporate Hakka in various official functions, including meetings, public addresses, and interactions with the local community.[12] There is a slight difference in the Hakka dialects spoken in Singkawang city proper, Sambas, Pemangkat, and Bengkayang, primarily in their phonological features and pronunciations.[15] PhonologyConsonantsThe Singkawang Hakka dialect has 21 initials, including one zero initial [∅].[16] The list is as follows:
Notes:
RhymesSingkawang Hakka features five vowel phonemes: i, e, a, o, and u. Additionally, it includes one medial i, three open nasal codas (-m, -n, -ŋ), and three checked codas (-p, -t, -k). This yields eight open finals, seven vocalic finals, twenty nasal finals, seventeen stop finals, and two syllabic nasals. In total, there are 54 rimes.[17] Pure vowels
Diphthongs and triphthongs
Syllabic consonants
Nuclei with nasal codas
Checked rhymes
TonesIn Singkawang Hakka, there are a total of six tones.[18] The tones and their characteristics are shown in the table below:
Tone sandhiThe pronunciation of a single character is referred to as the base tone (本調). However, when two or more characters are combined, tone changes occur, resulting in what is called tone sandhi (變調). Tone sandhi can be categorized into two-character consecutive tone sandhi and tone sandhi involving three or more characters.[19] For example, the word /kieu˨²⁴/ (狗) 'dog' is pronounced with a rising tone [˨˦] (24). However, when combined with another syllable, such as /ŋiuk⁵/ (肉) 'meat', it becomes /kieu²⁴⁻²².ŋiuk⁵/ (狗肉) 'dog meat', where the original word is now pronounced with a low tone [˨] (22).[19] Another example is the word /t͡ʃuk˧˦/ (竹) 'bamboo', which is pronounced with a high checked tone [˧˦] (34) when it stands alone. However, when combined with another word, such as /ʒiap⁵/ (葉) 'leaf', it becomes /t͡ʃuk³⁴⁻³.ʒiap⁵/ (竹葉) 'bamboo leaf', where the original word is now pronounced with a mid-level tone [˧] (3). The combinations of tone sandhi in Singkawang Hakka can be summarized in the following rules:[20]
Differences from other Hakka dialectsSingkawang Hakka mainly shares similarities in phonology, rhyme, and tone with Hailu Hakka as spoken in mainland China and Taiwan. However, it also exhibits several notable differences that set it apart, due to influences from other Hakka dialects as well as other languages.[21] Phonological aspects
TonesThe majority of the Hakka people in Singkawang come from Hopo in Jiexi. This tonal system, which is used by most people, consists of six tones: yinping (陰平), yangping (陽平), shangsheng (上聲), yinqu (陰去), yinru (陰入), and yangru (陽入).[22] The most distinctive feature in Singkawang Hakka's tonal system is that the yangqu tone (陽去) is categorized as a shangsheng tone, which is different from Meixian Hakka, where all voiceless tones revert to the departing tone. As a result, the range of the shangsheng tone is broader. Additionally, Meixian Hakka speakers still retain the yangqu tone with a tonal value of 22 in a small number of cases, which is closer to the tonal system of Luhe Hakka.[22] Below is a comparative table of the tones in various Hakka dialects:
VocabularyDue to the close contact between the Singkawang Hakka and Indonesian, and the forced education in Indonesian for the local Chinese population after the 1960s, the vocabulary of Singkawang Hakka has been influenced by many local Indonesian words, making it significantly different from the Hakka dialects spoken in mainland China and Taiwan. As early as the 17th and 18th centuries, the Hakka people began to form a large presence in Borneo and started cultivating land there.[23] With frequent interactions between the Hakka people and the local dialect of Malays, linguistic and cultural exchanges were inevitable.[23] Many words were directly translated or borrowed from Malay, and also Indonesian which is a variety of Malay. Due to the long history of borrowing, Singkawang Hakka speakers now regards these words as part of the Hakka language, creating the unique expressions found in the region today. Additionally, due to progress and development, many new things emerged and were given different names, contributing to the unique terms in the Singkawang Hakka. In general, the vocabulary of Singkawang Hakka is highly localized. Some terms are only heard locally, while not used in mainland China or Taiwan's Hakka-speaking areas, or they are used with different meanings in other Hakka-speaking regions.[23] One notable characteristic of the Hakka dialect in Singkawang is its influence from both Teochew, one of the largest Chinese varieties spoken in West Kalimantan after Hakka, and Indonesian, the national language.[24] For example, in daily life, Singkawang Hakka has incorporated several Teochew words. For instance, the word for "fatigue" is pronounced /kʰoi˥/ in Sixian Hakka and /tʰiam˨˦/ in Hailu Hakka, but in Singkawang, it is pronounced /ho˥t/, borrowed from Teochew /hek˥/. Similarly, Indonesian has contributed loanwords, such as "potato," which is pronounced /ma˥˧.lin˩.su˩/ in Sixian Hakka and /ma˥˧.lin˥.su˥/ in Hailu Hakka, but /kan˥.tang˥˧/ in Singkawang, derived from the Indonesian word kentang. There are also several borrowed words from Cantonese, such as /tʰoŋ˥˧/ meaning "to slaughter," which is derived from the Cantonese word 劏 /tʰɔŋ˥˧/.[25] This phenomenon of lexical borrowing is increasingly prevalent in Indonesian Hakka-speaking communities.[24] LexiconThe lexicon of Singkawang Hakka is predominantly derived from Hailu Hakka, but it has also incorporated loanwords from other Hakka dialects, as well as from Teochew, Cantonese, and Indonesian.[25] LoanwordsMeixian HakkaSince some of the Hakka people in Singkawang are descendants of immigrants from Meixian in mainland China, Singkawang Hakka has absorbed certain loanwords from Meixian Hakka, although the pronunciation has been influenced by Hailu Hakka. Nevertheless, Singkawang Hakka still retains many vocabulary features of Meixian Hakka to this day.[26] Below are some examples of loanwords in Singkawang Hakka that are absorbed from Meixian Hakka:
TeochewDue to the close proximity between the Chaoshan region and Hakka-speaking areas, frequent interactions between the two populations have facilitated the use of Teochew in eastern Guangdong. The Hakka communities in Haifeng, Lufeng, Jiexi, and Raoping have been notably impacted by contact with Teochew, leading to the adoption of several loanwords into their language. In West Kalimantan, both Hakka and Teochew are prominent languages within the Chinese community. Consequently, West Kalimantan Hakka has significantly absorbed loanwords from Teochew.[28] Below are examples of Teochew loanwords that have been incorporated into Singkawang Hakka:
CantoneseA small number of words in Singkawang Hakka are directly borrowed from Cantonese. It is speculated that when the Singkawang Hakka people lived in their original homeland on the mainland, they frequently interacted with Cantonese-speaking people in Guangdong. Due to this linguistic contact, Cantonese influenced their speech, leading to the borrowing of some Cantonese vocabulary into their Hakka language.[28] Below are examples of Cantonese loanwords that have been incorporated into Singkawang Hakka:
IndonesianDue to the status of Indonesian as the national language, Singkawang Hakka speakers have incorporated several Indonesian words into their daily conversations. This borrowing primarily occurs due to the absence of equivalent terms in Hakka, or because of local objects and newly coined terms in Indonesia. As a result of ongoing language contact and interaction, the integration of Indonesian into Hakka is inevitable and increasingly common.[29] Below is a list of Indonesian loanwords frequently used by locals in their everyday lives:
Sample words and sentencesBelow are some examples of commonly used Singkawang Hakka words and sentences: Quantifier
Pronouns
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Sample sentences
Writing systemDue to the prohibition of learning Chinese during the New Order era, Singkawang Hakka, along with other Chinese varieties spoken in the Indonesia, is now rarely written. Currently, most Hakka Chinese people in West Kalimantan are no longer able to read or write in Hakka but can only understand and speak the language.[30] At present, there are very few Hakka speakers can write Chinese characters, typically elderly individuals who learned it in Chinese schools in the 1960s before it was closed down by the Indonesian government.[31] With the rise of social media, more Singkawang Hakka speakers are communicating online with each other, mixing Hakka and Indonesian using the Latin alphabet, which follows the Indonesian orthography. See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
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