Cocos Malay
Cocos Malay is a post-creolized variety of Malay, spoken by the Cocos Malays of Home Island, Christmas Island, and those originally from the Cocos Islands currently living in Sabah.
| Cocos Islands Malay | |
|---|---|
| Basa Pulu Cocos/Basa Pulu Keling | |
| Native to | Australia, Malaysia |
| Region | Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Sabah |
| Ethnicity | 4,000 in Malaysia (2000) |
Native speakers | (1,100 in Australia cited 1987–2012) |
Creole
| |
Writing system | Latin (Malay alphabet) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | coa |
| Glottolog | coco1260 |
| ELP | Cocos Islands Malay |
Cocos Malay derives from the Malay trade languages of the 19th century, specifically the Betawi language. Malay is offered as a second language in schools, and Malaysian has prestige status; both are influencing the language, bringing it more in line with standard Malay. There is also a growing influence of English, considering the Islands having been an Australian territory and globalization drifting modern terms into the daily parlance. In 2009, Cocos Malay students were prohibited from using their own language and failure to comply resulted in punishment in the form of "speaking tickets" which meant that they were required to carry out cleaning duties in school. However, this form of language restriction ended by 2011.