Abstract
This project explores the migration history of the Malay people by using linguistic data. To this end, it investigates the crucial genealogical affiliations of two understudied Malayic varieties on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Terengganu Malay (TM) and Kelantan Malay (KM). Malay and its variants belong to the Malayic language group within the Austronesian language family. While little is known about the internal subgrouping of Malayic, a distinction between Malay dialects and non-Malay languages is often made, suggesting that all Malay dialects have a direct common ancestor. This implies that speakers of various Malay dialects originate in a single group of people. However, it has been pointed out that the Malay/non-Malay distinction lacks a solid basis, and that some taken-for-granted Malay dialects, such as TM and KM, might actually be more closely related to non-Malay languages. Therefore, this study addresses the genealogical affiliation of TM and KM: where do they fit in to the Malayic language genealogy, and what can their genealogical affiliation tell us about Malay migration history? I hypothesise that TM and KM do not have the same ancestor as many other Malay dialects, and an alternative migration history of the Malays can be suggested. New linguistic data will be gathered and analysed to test this hypothesis. The results of this study will provide a more fine-grained internal subgrouping of Malayic varieties as well as a new understanding of Malay migration history. In addition, it will also contribute to the speakers’ awareness of their own languages. (249 words)