Chapter published in:
Variation Rolls the Dice: A worldwide collage in honour of Salikoko S. Mufwene
Edited by Enoch O. Aboh and Cécile B. Vigouroux
[Contact Language Library 59] 2021
► pp. 243–267

Foundings and futures

How to live like a Peranakan in the post-digital ecology

| Curtin University / University of Sydney
| University of Hong Kong

This chapter contemplates the positioning of the Peranakans (also known as Straits-born Chinese or Babas) – descendants of southern Chinese seafaring traders to the Malay archipelago who married local women, and settled in the region – across different eras and ecologies. We provide a critical digest of the contribution of scholarship on the Peranakans to Creole studies, World Englishes, and language endangerment – including a consideration of the Founder Principle in the ecology paradigm, as underscored by Mufwene, in establishing the Peranakans’ role as early adopters in the spread and evolution of English in the region. We examine sociological and communicative factors in their language practices in local, transnational, and digital ecologies, highlighting issues of postvernacular practice, authenticity indexing, and identity branding.

Keywords: language ecology, transnational communities, postvernacular, authenticity, heritage branding
Article outline
  • 1“Live like a Peranakan“
  • 2.The making of the Peranakans: A snapshot
  • 3.A study for the paradigms
    • 3.1The persistence of founders
    • 3.2Multilingualism matters
    • 3.3The practice of postvernacularity, and beyond
    • 3.4Maintenance of culture in the language of wider communication
    • 3.5Commodification and branding in centre-periphery dynamics
  • 4.Post-digital Peranakan practice
    • 4.1What’s in a name?
    • 4.2Culture, not language
    • 4.3Postvernacular practice
    • 4.4Vernacular costs
    • 4.5The commodification of authenticity
    • 4.6Heritage branding
  • 5.Experience like a Peranakan
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 October 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.59.10lim
References
Ansaldo, U.
2009 Contact Languages: Ecology and Evolution in Asia. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Identity alignment and language creation in multilingual communities. The Native Speaker and the Mother Tongue . Language Sciences 32: 615–623. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ansaldo, U. & Lim, L.
2014 The lifecycle of Sri Lanka Malay. Language Documentation and Conservation 7: 100–113.Google Scholar
2018 Citizenship theory and fieldwork practice in Sri Lanka Malay communities. In The Multilingual Citizen: Towards a Politics of Language for Agency and Change, L. Lim, C. Stroud & L. Wee (eds), 193–220. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ansaldo, U., Lim, L. & Mufwene, S. S.
2007 The sociolinguistic history of the Peranakans: What it tells us about “creolization”. In Deconstructing Creole [Typological Studies in Language 73], U. Ansaldo, S. Matthews & L. Lim (eds), 203–226. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ansaldo, U. & Matthews, S. J.
1999 The Minnan substrate and creolization in Baba Malay. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 27: 38–68.Google Scholar
Braddell, T.
1853 Notes of a trip to the interior from Malacca. Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 7: 73–104.Google Scholar
Brennan, S. & Costa, J.
2013 Celtic commodified: The role of minority languages in Scottish and Irish national celebrations. Babel: Littératures Plurielles 27(8): 87–104.Google Scholar
Clammer, J. R.
1981 Straits Chinese literature: A minority literature as a vehicle of identity. In Essays on Literature and Society in Southeast Asia: Political and Sociological Perspectives, S. C. Tham (ed.), 287–302. Singapore: Singapore University Press.Google Scholar
Coupland, N.
2010 The authentic speaker and the speech community. In Language and Identities, C. Llamas & D. Watts (eds), 99–112. Edinburgh: EUP.Google Scholar
Cramer, F.
2014 What is “post-digital”? Post-Digital. http://​www​.aprja​.net​/what​-is​-post​-digital (23 January 2019). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Duchêne, A. & Heller, M.
(eds) 2012 Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. New York NY: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eades, D.
1988 They don’t speak in an Aboriginal language, or do they? In Being Black: Aboriginal Cultures in “Settled” Australia, I. Keen (ed.), 97–115. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Earl, G. W.
1837 The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago in 1832-33-34. London: Allen & Co.Google Scholar
Gensler, O. & Gil, D.
(eds) Forthcoming Malay/Indonesian Linguistics. London: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Gwee, T. H. W.
1993 Mas Sepuloh: Baba Conversational Gems. Singapore: Armour.Google Scholar
2006 A Baba Malay Dictionary. Singapore: Tuttle.Google Scholar
Hale, K., Krauss, M. & Watamohigie, L. J.
1992 Endangered languages. Language 68: 1–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ho, M. L. & Platt, J.
1993 Dynamics of a Contact Continuum: Singaporean English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hornsby, M. & Vigers, D.
(eds) 2013  Breton: The Postvernacular Challenge. Special issue, International Journal of the Sociology of Language 223.Google Scholar
Kwachka, P.
1992 Discourse structures, cultural stability, and language shift. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 93(1): 67–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kwok, K. W.
2000 Singapore. In The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, L. Pan (ed.), 200–217. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, N.
2018 Baba Malay: Diverging trends in two ecologies. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 33: 136–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leow, R.
2016 Taming Babel: Language in the Making of Malaysia. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lim, B. K.
1917 The Chinese in Malaya. In Present Days’ Impressions of the Far East and Prominent and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad: The History, People, Commerce, Industries and Resources of China, Hong Kong, Indo-China, Malaya and Netherlands India, W. Feldwisk (ed.). 875–882. London: Globe Encyclopedia Co.Google Scholar
Lim, L.
2009 Revisiting English prosody: (Some) New Englishes as tone languages? English World-Wide 30: 218–239. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Peranakan English in Singapore. In The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction, D. Schreier, P. Trudgill, E. W. Schneider & J. P. Williams (eds), 327–347. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Tone in Singlish: Substrate features from Sinitic and Malay. In Creoles, their Substrates and Language Typology [Typological Studies in Language 95], C. Lefebvre (ed.), 271–287. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Yesterday’s founder population, today’s Englishes: The role of the Peranakans in the (continuing) evolution of Singapore English. In The Evolution of Englishes. Varieties of English Around the World [Varieties of English Around the World G49], S. Buschfeld, T. Hoffmann, M. Huber & A. Kautzsch (eds), 401–419. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016a Multilingual mediators: The role of the Peranakans in the contact dynamics of Singapore. In Multilingualism in the Chinese Diaspora World-Wide, L. Wei (ed.), 216–233. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
2016b The art of losing: From java and patois to post-vernacular vitality –Repositioning the periphery in global Asian ecologies. In Endangered Languages and Languages in Danger: Issues of Ecology, Policy and Documentation [Impact: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 42], M. Pütz & L. Filipović (eds), 283–312. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lim, L. & Ansaldo, U.
2007 Identity alignment in the multilingual space: The Malays of Sri Lanka. In Linguistic Identity in Postcolonial Multilingual Spaces, E. A. Anchimbe (ed.), 218–243. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Lim, S.
1988 Baba Malay: The language of the “Straits-born” Chinese. In Papers in Western Austronesian Linguistics 3, H. Steinhauer (ed.), 1–61. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Liu, G.
1999 Singapore: A Pictorial History 1819-2000. Singapore: National Heritage Board & Editions Didier Miller.Google Scholar
Mufwene, S. S.
1985 The linguistic significance of African proper names in Gullah. Nieuwe West-Indische Gids /New West Indian Guide 59: 149–166. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 Colonization, globalization and the plight of “weak” languages. Journal of Linguistics 38: 375–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Language birth and death. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 201–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 Language Evolution: Contact, Competition and Change. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Nathan, J.
1922 The Census of British Malaysia, 1921. London: Waterloo & Sons.Google Scholar
Negroponte, N.
1998 Beyond digital. Wired. https://​www​.wired​.com​/1998​/12​/negroponte​-55/ (12 January 2019).Google Scholar
Outakoski, H., Cocq, C. & Steggo, P.
2018 Strengthening indigenous languages in the digital age: Social media-supported learning in Sápmi. Media International Australia 169(1): 21–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pakir, A.
1986 A Linguistic Investigation of Baba Malay. PhD dissertation, University of Hawai‘i.Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, S., Jaffe, A., Kelly-Holmes, H. & Coupland, N.
2016 Sociolinguistics from the Periphery: Small Languages in New Circumstances. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pine, J. II & Gilmore, J. H.
1998 Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review. https://​hbr​.org​/1998​/07​/welcome​-to​-the​-experience​-economy (12 January 2019).Google Scholar
Proudfoot, I.
1986 A formative period in Malay book publishing. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 59: 101–132.Google Scholar
Reershemius, G.
2009 Post-vernacular language use in a Low German linguistic community. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 21: 131–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reid, A.
2000 Charting the Shape of Early Modern Southeast Asia. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
Rudolph, J.
1998 Reconstructing Identities: A Social History of the Babas in Singapore. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Shandler, J.
2006 Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Simon, C.
2010 Baba Bling: Domestic signs of prosperity in Singapore – Review. Guardian Weekly. https://​www​.theguardian​.com​/artanddesign​/2010​/oct​/19​/baba​-bling​-prosperity​-singapore​-review (19 October 2010).Google Scholar
Song, O. S.
1923 One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore. London: John Murray. (Reprinted 1967, Singapore: University of Malaya Press).Google Scholar
Tan, C. B.
1988a Structure and change: Cultural identity of the Baba of Melaka. Bijdragen tot de Taal, Land- en Volkenkunde 144: 297–314. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1988b The Baba of Malacca: Culture and Identity of a Peranakan Community in Malaysia. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Pelanduk Publications.Google Scholar
TPAS (The Peranakan Association of Singapore)
1994-2008 The Peranakan. Singapore: The Peranakan Association.Google Scholar
2013 The Peranakan. Singapore: The Peranakan Association.Google Scholar
Tredinnick-Rowe, J.
2017 The semiotics of minority language branding: A study of the Celtic languages. International Journal of Marketing Semiotics 25: 2–16.Google Scholar
Thomson, J. T.
1875 The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China and China, or Ten Years’ Travels, Adventures and Residence Abroad. London: Sampson Low; Marston: Low & Searle.Google Scholar
Van Zanten-Wervelman, E. A. & Goedemans, R.
2009 Prominence in Indonesian: Stress, phrases, and boundaries. Wacana. Jurnal Ilmu Pengetahuan Budaya 11(2): 197–225.Google Scholar
Vaughan, J. D.
1879 Manners and Customs of the Chinese in the Straits Settlements. Singapore: The Mission Press. (Reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1971, 1992).Google Scholar
Vermeulen, E. P. M.
2017 We are already living in the future: Why everyone must understand the digital age now. Hackernoon <https://​hackernoon​.com​/we​-are​-already​-living​-in​-the​-future​-c69443606805> (12 January 2019).
Woodbury, A. C.
2005 Ancestral languages and (imagined) creolisation. In P. K. Austin (ed.), Language Documentation and Description, Vol. 3, 252–226. London: SOAS.Google Scholar