Lexicon variation and distribution of Malay dialect in Perak: a GIS approach / Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin dan Zaharani Ahmad dan Harishon Radzi dan Mustaffa Omar

In many years research on geographical dialects are based on a hand drawn map and hence the isoglosses produced are unclear and ambiguous (cf Ajid, Rohani and Collins). Recently, an interdisciplinary approach supported by modern technological tool has become a breakthrough to account for this problem. A Geographical Information System (GIS) using interpolation technique which can store big volumes of spatial data, performing analysis and producing cartographic map results proves to be more reliable in constructing an accurate line of isogloss for lexicon variations and spatial distribution. This study attempts to adopt the same interdisciplinary approach in examining the variation and distribution of Malay dialects spoken in Perak. A purposive sampling ranging from four categories of ages and gender are chosen from 150 native Malay speakers. In our early findings, the state of Perak shows a mixture of Malay dialects, especially in the northern part. Different Malay dialects from the neighboring states have great influence to the Perak Malay dialect. As a result we can have Perak dialect such as ‘deme’ and ‘mike’ to refer to ‘they’, however, another lexicon variant ‘depa’ has been spotted in the northwest region. Interestingly, the migration of southern Siamese people, especially the Moslem from Pattani to Malaysia before independence has created a significant dialectal variation in Perak. These people in the northern and northeastern part of Perak use ‘deme’ instead. Another interesting observation is that this community has created some new variants such as ‘ha’ instead of ‘hang’ to refer to ‘you’ and ‘muha’ that is a combination of ‘mu’ (you) and ‘ha’ (you) for plural form. It is obvious that the topography of Perak acts as one of the contributing factors in determining lexicon variation and distribution in the state.