Loanwords in Chetty Language: Evidence of Contact with Tamil and Malay Language

This study examines the lexification by Tamil and Malay of the Chetty language, a sociolinguistic variety spoken by the Chetty community in Melaka, Peninsular Malaysia.A mixed heritage community with Tamil roots, coupled with hundreds of years of assimilation into the Malay world, the Chetties provide a sui generis case of linguistic fusion.Based on spoken data, historical materials and community interviews, the paper presents core loan words in different semantic domains like food, clothing, kinship, religion, and general day-today life.Religious and familial concepts are used alongside a significant proportion of loanwords from Tamil, while administrative, culinary and social terms run the gamut of Malay loanwords.The research also shows that code-switching, borrowing, and phonological adaptation provide evidence of both historical contact and current identity.This kind of lexical blending represents not only bilingualism but also the preservation of cultural identity.Ultimately, the paper underscores the importance of Chetty as a contact language that embodies multicultural linguistic heritage.