‘Young Perakians proud of dialect’
IPOH: ‘Kome ’ or ‘ miker’, and ‘teman’, mean ‘you’ and ‘I’ in the Perak dialect and are still being used by the younger generation although they have become urbanised, said the Karyawan Perak association president Dr Zabidin Ismail.
He rubbished claims that young Perakians were disinterested in speaking the dialect.
“Perak is a big state with people from different ethnic backgrounds like Jawa, Rawa, Minang, Banjar, Pattani and more.
“People tend to think that those in the state can speak the Perak dialect, but they would be mistaken because many are of mixed ethnicity and most are not good at speaking the dialect.
“In fact, some speak in a northern dialect because they live near the border with Kedah.”
He was responding to a news report citing Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Centre for Research in Language and Linguistics lecturer Professor Dr Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin, who said the dialect was facing “extinction” because young Perakians were shy to speak it and preferred to use bahasa baku (standard Malay) instead.
Zabidin said a majority of those who spoke the dialect resided along Sungai Perak and at places such as Kampung Gajah, Parit and Kuala Kangsar.
“The dialect is spoken widely by people of all ages throughout these areas, especially at Bota in Parit.
“Those from places like Batu Kurau and Gerik who are of Pattani origin, or those from Gopeng who are of Rawa origin, will neither be fluent at using the dialect nor understand it,” he said.
My Red Manchester Komuniti Perak deputy president Zairul Azmir said he noticed that children raised in Ipoh spoke the Perak dialect, although not fluently.
“I organise a lot of welfare activities with young people who come from around Ipoh and they use slang words that sound like they’re using Perak’s dialects, although not ‘piyor’ (pure) like in Bota.
“Perak is unique because the dialects vary by district,” he explained.
Bakti Gemilang Perak non-governmental organisation chairman Muhamad Khalish Nantha Rajendran said he learnt the dialect after living in Perak for more than 10 years.
“I don’t think it’s correct to say that almost all the young people are shy to speak in the local dialect because I picked it up through friends, acquaintances and the community. I also haven’t forgotten my Negri Sembilan dialect,” he said.
The former Malaysian Youth Parliament and Perak Youth Council member said using Bahasa Malaysia to speak with outsiders should not be taken to mean they are embarrassed to speak the local dialect.