Semelai Currency Terminology and the Melaka Sultanate
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Abstract
Currency terms in Semelai, a Mon-Khmer language spoken by an Orang Asli group in Peninsular Malaysia, closely resemble those recorded in early sixteenth-century Melaka, after its conquest by the Portuguese. This study confirms that the Semelai terms are borrowings from fifteenth-century Melaka Malay and brings to bear ethnographic, historical, linguistic, and archaeological evidence to suggest a close relationship between this Orang Asli group and the Sultanate of Melaka. It also presents cultural reasons for the retention of these terms, over more than five hundred years, by Semelai speakers.
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Semelai Currency Terminology and the Melaka Sultanate
In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the OrientSearch for other papers by Rosemary Gianno in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Currency terms in Semelai, a Mon-Khmer language spoken by an Orang Asli group in Peninsular Malaysia, closely resemble those recorded in early sixteenth-century Melaka, after its conquest by the Portuguese. This study confirms that the Semelai terms are borrowings from fifteenth-century Melaka Malay and brings to bear ethnographic, historical, linguistic, and archaeological evidence to suggest a close relationship between this Orang Asli group and the Sultanate of Melaka. It also presents cultural reasons for the retention of these terms, over more than five hundred years, by Semelai speakers.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 8535 | 8061 | 45 |
| Full Text Views | 30 | 16 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 48 | 19 | 0 |
