Abstract:
This research aims to analyse and compare the sound systems and lexicons between Baba Phuket and Baba Malay from 2,000 words. The research result reveals that the sound system of Baba Phuket is similar to that of the Phuket Thai dialect while the sound system of Baba Malay is similar to that of Malay. There are 21 consonant phonemes in Baba Phuket, all of them can occur in the initial position but 9 of them occur in the final position. Baba Phuket has also 10 consonant clusters (CC-); unlike Phuket Thai dialect, it has no ml-. With regard to vowels, there are 18 monophthongs and 6 diphthongs. Baba Phuket has contrastive vowel length. Baba Phuket is tonal while Baba Malay is non-tonal. Like Phuket Thai dialect, Baba Phuket has a tonal system of 7 tones and these 7 tones have almost identical phonetic characteristics in both languages. This research result supports the hypothesis. In Baba Malay, there are 19 consonant phonemes, all of them can occur in the initial position but 10 of them can occur in the final position. Baba Malay has 8 monophthongs and 7 diphthongs. In terms of lexicon, Baba Malay and Baba Phuket share 510 look-alike words (25% of all 2,000 words). The look-alike words can be classified into 8 groups, the second group of these look-alike words have mostly been found (248 words or 48.62% of all look-alike words ). 74.5% of all 2,000 words are similar to the words of Phuket Thai dialect. Therefore, Baba Phuket may be regarded as a variety of Phuket Thai dialect . Moreover, 1,819 words (or 90.95% of all 2,000 words) are general words used in everyday life and 181 words (or 9.05% of all 2,000 words) are cultural words. Most of Baba Phuket general words have been borrowed from Phuket Thai dialect while Baba Phuket and Baba Malay shared cultural words, mostly Hokkien words. These research results also support the hypotheses.