The BAH Particle in Brunei English

Abstract

The variety of English used in Negara Brunei Darussalam is largely unresearched. It has similarities with other Southeast Asian varieties, most noticeably Singapore and Malaysia, but there are im portant differences. One such difference is the particle bah, which we recognise as one of the salient features of Brunei English. In order to understand the particle it is important to look at its use in both Brunei Malay and in the local variety of English. The literature on particles in Singapore and Malaysian Englishes, as well as the limited literature on bah in Malay is reviewed. An analysis of the particle is attempted based on data collected from spontaneous speech, tape- recordings, questionnaires and informant comment. While a discus sion of the syntactic behaviour of bah is deemed necessary, pro minence is given to a discussion of its functional behaviour. We con clude that the particle is extremely versatile and very different in most aspects to the la/lah of Singapore and Malaysia. A further con clusion is that the use of bah plays an important role in signifying membership of the Brunei speech community.

Functions of student code-switching in a Bruneian classroom

“…The bah particle is a unique feature of Brunei English and is multifunctional. Its purpose is to build rapport and solidarity (Conrad, Ozog, & Martin, 1990; Deterding & Salbrina, 2013; McLellan, 2020). In the present research, the students used bah as an alternative to ‘okay’, as shown in (9).…”