{"id":3566,"date":"2025-11-14T08:55:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T08:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/?p=3566"},"modified":"2025-11-12T09:26:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:26:52","slug":"celebrating-our-linguistic-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/celebrating-our-linguistic-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Our Linguistic Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Baba Emeric Lau ponders the future of Baba Malay upon the launch of Pantun Baba Chan<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It would be a mistake to label the launch of Pantun Baba Chan<\/em> by Baba Chan Eng Thai on the evening of Friday, 3 October at the Peranakan Museum as simply another Peranakan community event. Per the cover note: this book is the first collection of Baba Malay quatrains published in Singapore since the 1900s; it is certainly the first of its kind to be published with accompanying English translations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This writer believes the book serves as a crucial documentation and tribute to the beauty of Baba Malay, of which there are a dwindling number of speakers, mostly elderly. The poems within are sectioned by themes – life, festivities, birth, death, the 12-year Chinese astrological cycle, and a last chapter featuring pantons exchanged over WhatsApp with Wayang Peranakan Doyen GT Lye.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In a presentation, Baba Eng Thai credited Koh Hoon Teck, who was \u201ca fiercely traditionalist Baba who wrote many pantuns in Singapore during the 1940s-50s when the singing of Dondang Sayang was at its heyday\u201d. Baba Koh passed away in 1956, and a Dondang Sayang troupe performed at his funeral. <\/p>\n<\/div>

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Some 70 years later, our generation may be the last to experience Baba Malay as a living language, but it may not mean a total demise. Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to write a Baba Malay panton that celebrates the beauty of language, and this is the result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Keindahan Bahasa<\/em><\/strong>
Bunga melur di atas dulang,
Harum semerbak memenuhi ruang;
Bahasa indah penyambung sayang,
Budi tersirat dalam sembang.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Translation:
<\/strong>Jasmine blooms upon a tray,
Its scent drifts gently through the air;
Beautiful speech keeps hearts at play,
Grace and kindness hidden there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kamsiah \u2013 Thank you, Baba Chan Eng Thai, for shining a spotlight on the beauty of our linguistic heritage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hard copies of Pantun Baba Chan<\/em> are now available on the Tuttle Publishing website here<\/a>!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baba Emeric Lau ponders the future of Baba Malay upon the launch of Pantun Baba Chan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3578,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions\/3578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}