Bacan Malay

Bacan Malay^[1] or Bacan^[2] is a Malayic language spoken on the island of Bacan in North Maluku province, Indonesia, by the minor Bacan ethnic group.^[3][4] It is an anomalous presence in the region, being surrounded by genetically distant Austronesian languages and languages of the unrelated North Halmahera family.^[5][6] Bacan is geographically removed from the Malay heartlands in the western archipelago.^[7][8]

It is sharply distinct from other eastern Indonesian varieties of Malay, differing both in its typology and historical origins. The Bacan people are thought to be a Malayic community that migrated from Borneo some centuries ago, preserving its native language. Nonetheless, Bacan Malay has received much influence from the local languages of Maluku, as seen in its lexicon and grammar.

Older information on Bacan Malay is scarce and largely lexical.^[1] A 1958 article provides some grammatical and lexical notes, comparing Bacan to standard Malay/Indonesian.^[9] No major descriptive efforts were made during the colonial period, but Bacan did receive some linguistic attention in the 1980s.^[10] J.T. Collins has done much research work in the area, describing Bacan as well as demonstrating the Malayic nature. A 2022 Bacan-English dictionary is available.^[11]