Language Choice Of The Eurasian Community In Penang: A Sociolinguistic Study

Eurasian Communities in Penang

According to Walker (2012), the Eurasian community in colonial Penang is the product of connections and interactions on a global scale. They were first formed through the arrival of Francis Light to Penang when the Sultan of Kedah formed an alliance with British, which later resulted in the taking over of the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah in 1786 (Choo, 2007). Augustinee (1979) writes that the British also implemented intermarriage policy for economic purposes where the Eurasians can be the source to form more soldiers, sailors and other employees. He notes that Francis Light also brought more Eurasians to Penang from Port Queda for the purposes of business transactions and goods.

In general, Nonis (2014) suggests that the Eurasian communities in Penang can be divided into two main groups: (1) the town Eurasians and (2) the Pulau Tikus Eurasians. The town Eurasians are the Eurasian communities who lived in Georgetown and were able to communicate well in English while the Pulau Tikus Eurasians are known to live away from the town and settled in the Northern Coast. The Eurasians there mostly worked in providing fresh supplies to ships and many were the remnants of the Portuguese community. Choo (2007) elaborates that “Eurasians have been referred to as “Serani”, a word believed to have originated from Nazarani or Christian, religion being one of their identifying characteristics, and historically have been largely English-speaking” and thus, the Eurasian settlement in Pulau Tikus became known as the “Kampung Serani” (p.134).

Historically, when Japan invaded Malaya in 1941, Penang went through heavy bombing which killed thousands of people in Georgetown (Nonis, 2014). Augustinee (1979) explains that Japanese’s hatred towards British drove them to captivate and to execute Eurasians in Penang due to their British and European ancestry. Some of the Eurasians were kept in prison in Taiping, Perak whilst some managed to escape to Singapore through acquaintances. There were also Penang Eurasians who were transported to a Bahau in Negeri Sembilan (Augustinee, 1979). Due to World War Two, many Eurasians decided to migrate to Australia, the UK and Canada and the migration pattern increased gradually when Malaya and Singapore prepared for independence from Britain (Choo, 2007).

Goh (2002) points out that the Portuguese Eurasians in Pulau Tikus is traced back to the settlement in Malacca where the Portuguese Eurasians’ identity was at stack when Kampung Serani was to be demolished by the Penang Eurasian Association due to political and economic purposes. Despite the struggle to maintain a Eurasian presence in Pulau Tikus or in Kampung Serani and that the Pulau Tikus community fought for the place, the Catholic Church went ahead and destroyed the traces of the built heritage of the Eurasian community (Choo, 2007). Many negotiations took place before the demolishment of the Kampung Serani; however evidence of the existence of Kampung Serani was removed and the Penang Eurasian Association was only left with the Heritage House in Jalan Kelawai, Georgetown as the reminder of Eurasian presence in Penang (Nonis, 2014).

Nonetheless, Nonis (2014) explains that the Penang Eurasians contributed and achieved well in sports, education and music. For example, the College General and the formation of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus as well as the St Xavier’s Institution that have been established in Penang since 1809 became important centres of Catholicism within the region (Walker, 2012). Overall, the Eurasians in Penang has gone through many challenges and might still face other obstacles to maintain their heritage as a community.

Language Use in Eurasian Communities

In Malaysia, published studies on Eurasians communities are mostly related to those on language shift, language maintenance and policy. To illustrate, David and Faridah (1999) conduct a study on the language status of the Eurasians in the Portuguese settlement of Malacca in Malaysia. The study aims to determine whether the Kristang creole is going through a shift or is being maintained in the community. The results of the study show that the older generation mostly claim that Kristang is their language of use while the younger generation state that they tend to use English more frequently than their mother tongue and that they are also able to speak more languages than the elders. This shows that there is a gap between the two generations in terms of their language choice. Consequently, the language situation of the Portuguese Eurasians in Melaka indicates that the younger generation has shifted in their use of heritage language into a more dominant language such as English.

Lee (2011) further examines the Portuguese creole in Melaka and the factors that contribute to language shift and the community’s awareness towards their language situation. The findings show that the lack of perseverance for the community’s heritage language is primarily caused by economic factor. The respondents also mentioned other factors such as historical background and socio-cultural factor as several of the reasons that have led to language shift among the Portuguese community in Malacca.

In another research, Pillai, Soh, and Kajita (2014) discuss the role of family and language policy on the Portuguese creole in Melaka and its effects on the status of their heritage language. Similar to David and Faridah (1999), they report that the younger generations’ usage of the heritage language, Portuguese creole, is minimal even though all of them identified the creole as their mother tongue. Hence, the usage of the heritage language in the community is said to be declining due to the influence of dominant languages; hence the process of language shift for this creole is essentially emerging.

Yet, documented studies on the Eurasian communities in Penang have not been addressed as rigorously as the Eurasians communities in Melaka and other parts of the country.

Quantitative Data

The questionnaire used in this was a sociolinguistic questionnaire that consisted of demographic data on the background of the participants, followed by items on the language choice of participants based on different domains and finally participants’ attitude towards the language. As a research instrument, the questionnaire was adapted from Fishman (1966) and also Dweik, and Al-Obaidi, (2014) and was piloted before data collection was carried out. In general, the questionnaire consisted of three main sections:

• The first section of the questionnaire covered the demographic background of the particpants such as gender, age, marital status, profession, education and language background.

• The second section contained questions on the respondents’ language choice in different domains of language use.

• The third section included questions on the participants’ attitudes towards their heritage language and the other dominant languages spoken in their community.

Using judgment sampling, the population for the study involved Eurasians who were residing in Penang. A total of 80 participants between the ages of 15 to 75 took part in the study, in which 47 of them were females and the other 33 were males. 56 of them were single whereas the remaining were married. They local Eurasians of various occupational, educational and religious backgrounds. The participants profile show that a majority of the participants (57 of them) have tertiary education, followed by 23 participants with secondary level of education. They participants basically comprised of government and private professionals, self-employed professionals, retirees and students.

Qualitative Data

In terms of collecting the qualitative data, interviews were used and carried out on ten participants. The qualitative data for this research is interview in which the participants were interviewed by the researcher to collect data in order to examine whether or not the language choice of the participants is leading to language shift. Semi- structured interview questions were used to collect the qualitative data of this study. According to DiCicco‐Bloom and Crabtree (2006), semi-structured interviews are often used as the data source for qualitative data. According to Longhurst (2003), although semi structure interview has a list of predetermined questions, interviews are carried out on a conversation manner offering participants the chance to explore issues that they feel important. In order to collect the information from the interview, audio recording were used to attain the data needed. The interview questions were also piloted before the interview sessions took place. In this study, the semi- structured interviews were carried out in places convenient to the participants of the study, and also in the association’s heritage house. In total, 10 participants were randomly selected for the interview sessions. The interviews were then transcribed and coded. The data were analysed to support the quantitative data analysis in order to examine if the language choice of the participants of the study leads to language shift.

The Most Preferred Language of the Eurasian Communities in Penang

Table 01 shows the overall results of the Penang Eurasian participants’ language choice in all the six domains selected in the study. The data illustrate that 61.05% of the participants speak English in family domain whilst 37.32% of the participants stated preference to switch between two languages or more when they are speaking to their family members. Switching between two or more languages includes the use of languages such as English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Hokkien and Portuguese. Only 1.45% of the participants preferred speaking in Malay in the family domain and 0.19% mentioned switching between three languages when speaking in family domain.

In the friendship domain, most participants (51.79%) used only English as their preferred language when interacting with their friends. 1.96% of the participants chose to use only Mandarin when they are speaking with their friends whereas 1.79% speak only Malay in the friendship domain. Interestingly, close to half of the total number of participants (44.46%) highlight that they prefer to switch between two or more languages when communicating with their friends. The switches mostly involved English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil in the friendship domain (see Table 01 ).

As illustrated in Table 0.1, the most dominant language used among the Penang Eurasian participants’ (21.41%) in the education domain is the English language. 14.19% of the participants considered using Malay as their preferred language when they are communicating with the domain. Only 1.88% of them preferred to speak in Mandarin in schools. As observed in the earlier two domains, many participants (62.97%) viewed code-switching as their preferred language use when converse in the education domain. In particular, most of them cited switching between English and Malay frequently in the education domain when conversing with the respective interlocutors. The results also reveal that more than half of the participants stated that they also code-switch more than two languages in the education domain.

From the data in Table 0.1, the results indicate that English is the choice of language among the Penang Eurasian participants in the employment domain. 56.25% of them use English, whereas 2.19% prefer to use Malay in their workplace. The remaining 41.56% participants opted to switch between languages (such as English, Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien and Tamil) when they communicate with their superiors, colleagues and clients.

Similarly, in the religion domain, most participants (71.24%) were in favour to use English as their choice of language whilst 8.53% stated that they use Malay. 5.93% and 1.86% of them prefer Mandarin and Tamil respectively when conversing in the religion domain. Yet, 12.43% of the participants maintained that they also code-switched within the religion domain. The languages that they cited to be using include switches involving English, Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien, Arabic and Tamil (see Table 01 ).

In the last domain, the entertainment domain, 61.25% of the participants chose English as their language choice when compared to other languages. 38.75% also switched between two or more languages when they take part in events or for different entertainment purposes. The languages stated by the participants are usually English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and Spanish.

To sum up, the domains of language use based on Fishman (1972) were analysed one by one to explicate the participants’ language choice in all six domains and when they are involved in different circumstances in each of the domains. However, the results of the findings clearly show that English is the most preferred the language to be used in all the domains selected. The findings of the study also show that code switching, the use of more than one language, variety, or style by a speaker within an utterance or discourse, or between different interlocutors or situations (Romaine, 1992) is also a common language choice among the Penang Eurasian participants of the study. Due to the linguistic repertoire of the participants, code switching is therefore becoming inevitable and frequent. These general findings illustrate that the instances of code-switching in all the domains have significant influences on the patterns of language use and language choice among the Eurasians in Penang. However, it is evident English has become a dominant language in the selected domains when compared to other heritage languages listed by the participants.

Factors that Determine Language Choice among the Eurasians in Penang

The findings of the study suggest that the factors that determine the language choice of the Penang Eurasians are based on the domains of language use and the addressees or the people that are involved in the domains itself. Eventhough the language choice of the Penang Eurasian are mostly English, there were slight changes in their language choice in certain domains due to the interlocutors and/or situations. Wei (1994) writes that settings, interlocutors and topics are important variables that affect language choice. To illustrate, the language use in the Penang Eurasians’ family domain is very much affected by the members of the family that the participants interact with, which subsequently is further defined by speech events that the participants belong to. The results of the study also show that participants speak in a different language with their father and another with their mother. This signifies that the addressee can be one variable that influence the language choice of the Penang Eurasians. Likewise, in other domain such as the workplace, some participants claimed that they prefer to use Malay with their colleagues. Again, the findings suggest that the addressee is an important factor contributing to the language choice of Penang Eurasians.

In short, the findings of the study indicate that the factors determining the language choice of the Penang Eurasians can be drawn out from the attitude of the participants towards language. Through their attitude towards language, it can be seen that most participants stated that that they prefer English as their choice of language in terms of attaining social success and achieving economic status. This signifies that social success and economic status are influential that determine the language choice of the Penang Eurasians.

Language Shift among the Eurasian Communities in Penang

Based on the semi-structured interview findings, the results specify that there is an emerging language shift among the Penang Eurasians based on their language choice. Many of them prefer English as their choice of language based on all the domains of language use. They also demonstrate a very positive attitude towards English in which they stated that English is the language that helps them in attaining social success and in achieving economic status. Pillai, Soh, and Kajita (2014) claim that the younger generation of the Portuguese Eurasians in Melaka usage of their heritage language is declining due to the influence of dominant languages. The rate of language shift in the Eurasian communities in Penang, however, might be more rapid as most of them come from diverse Eurasian backgrounds Portuguese, British, Spanish, Dutch and German. Furthermore, the Eurasians in Penang are not confined to a living compound such as the one in the Portuguese Settlement in Ujong Pasir, Melaka. As a consequence, language shift in the Penang Eurasian communities is heavily influenced by the lack of social networks that can sustain the usage of the respective heritage language.

To further elaborate, when asked about the status of their heritage language, half of the participants felt that it is either endangered or dying. The other half who claimed English as their heritage language negated that their language is dying as English is a universal language and mostly everyone knows it. As an illustration, in the interview with Participant 1, he explained that his heritage language, Portuguese, is dying since there are not many Eurasians who are willing to learn the language. He stated that:

“Because not many of them want to learn. Not willing to learn, there are handful only that are willing to learn. Other than that, nobody bothers about it. There are people from Melaka who are willing to come out from Melaka to teach, just to spread the language, but no one is interested in bringing them up”.

Similarly, Participant 10 also clarified that most of the Penang Eurasians are not speaking the Portuguese language anymore as she confirmed that even she does not speak that language.

“I think yes, because most of us are not speaking Portuguese anymore. I don’t even know how to speak this language. So, it feels like its slowly dying.”

In another interview, Participant 7 claimed that her heritage language, Spanish, is dying in the Penang Eurasian communities. She mentioned that:

“It is a sad thing, but it is happening because my father doesn’t know Spanish. Only his mother knows Spanish. In terms of my fathers’ generation, they all have already forgotten it”.

These responses on the status of their heritage language depicts that there is an emerging language shift in the Penang Eurasian communities based on their language choice in the various domains of language use. According to Holmes (2013), the attitude and value of the people towards the language that can become influential reasons that cause of language shift. This is depicted in the interviews where most of the participants claimed that they do not know the language because they were mostly taught English by their parents. Several of the respondents also pointed out that not many in the community is using the heritage language and due to that, they are not willing to learn the heritage language. In other words, most of the participants are using English as their preferred language because it is the language that they grew up with. Lee (2011) discusses that in the case of Portuguese creole in Melaka, the lack of perseverance for the community’s ethnic language is mainly caused by economic factor and other factors such as historical background and socio-cultural factor. Similarly, these factors are also influencing the language choice of the Eurasian participants of the study. More importantly, they indicate that language shift is taking place in the Eurasian communities in Penang.