Ambon Malay

Ambon Malay (autonymously Bahasa Melayu Ambon) is a Malay-based contact variety of the Maluku archipelago, spoken as L1 by around 250,000 people and as L2 by approximately 1.4 million in the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku. Linguistically, Ambon Malay descends from the lingua franca Malay used by Maluku spice traders and Dutch colonial administrators since the 16th century, gradually replacing the indigenous Maluku Austronesian languages of Ambonese and Lease Islanders. It is now a creolized contact variety with simplified Malay grammar but distinctive Ambonese phonology (final consonant weakening, distinct vowel qualities) and lexicon (significant Portuguese, Dutch, and indigenous Maluku loanwords). Ambon Malay is one of the most-vibrant regional Malay varieties of Indonesia and serves as the cultural lingua franca of the entire Maluku region.