Pontianak Hakka (Chinese: å¤ç¸客èªÂ; PhaÃÂk-fa-sá¹³: Khun-tîen Hak-ngî; Indonesian: Bahasa Khek Pontianak) It is a variety of Hakka primarily spoken by the Hakka Chinese community in western and central West Kalimantan, Indonesia, particularly in and around the provincial capital, Pontianak. Pontianak Hakka was brought to West Kalimantan by Hakka speakers who migrated from Guangdong, China. Most of these migrants came from Meixian, making Pontianak Hakka a descendant of the Meixian variety. Over time, it has been influenced by Cantonese, Teochew, and the local languages of West Kalimantan, including the local variety of Malay and, more recently, Standard Indonesian, which is also a form of Malay. These influences have contributed to Pontianak Hakka's distinctive phonetic features and unique vocabulary. Pontianak Hakka is primarily spoken in the city of Pontianak and Mempawah Regency, where there is a significant Chinese population. It is also spoken in Kubu Raya, Landak, Sanggau, Sekadau and Sintang, particularly in urban areas with a high concentration of Chinese residents. In contrast, Hakka communities in the northwestern part of West Kalimantan, such as Singkawang and its surrounding areas, speak a different variety descended mainly from the Hailu dialect.
Locally, it is referred to as "soft speech" (è»Â話), in contrast Singkawang Hakka which is referred as "hard speech" (硬話). In Pontianak, Hakka is the second-most spoken Chinese variety among the local Chinese community, after the regional variety of Teochew. Since the majority of Pontianak's Chinese population is Teochew, the language serves as the lingua franca within the community. As a result, many Hakka speakers in Pontianak are fluent in Teochew, and vice versa. Code-mixing and code-switching between Teochew, Hakka, Pontianak Malay, and Indonesian are common in daily interactions among Pontianak's Chinese community. However, Pontianak Teochew is mainly spoken in the city and certain suburban areas. Outside of Pontianak, particularly to the north of the Kapuas River, Hakka is the dominant language among the Chinese community.
The Chinese began migrating to West Kalimantan in the 18th century, invited by Malay kingdoms such as the Pontianak Sultanate, Sambas Sultanate and the Panembahan Mempawah, who employed them as forced laborers in gold mines. These Chinese migrants were brought in to work in gold mines across areas like Mandor, Monterado, Budok, and Singkawang. At that time, the Chinese population was made up of four major groups: the Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, and Cantonese. The two largest Chinese groups who migrated to West Kalimantan are the Hakka and Teochew, both of which originated from Guangdong.The Hakka people tend to work as farmers, miners, and small traders in rural areas, while the Teochew people are more likely to settle in urban areas and engage in trade. Most of the Hakka people who migrated to Pontianak came from present-day Meizhou in eastern Guangdong, which is why Pontianak Hakka shares many similarities with the Meixian dialect.
Luo Fangbo, one of the leaders of the first group of Hakka immigrants, was a native of Meizhou. He led more than 100 Hakka immigrants, mostly from Jiaying and Dapu, out of the Pearl River estuary, and after more than two months, they arrived in Borneo. His group eventually settled in Mandor, near Pontianak, where they cleared land, built homes, and planted crops for survival. They also dug wells, expanded their influence inland, and discovered gold and silver mines. Luo established strong relationships with the local king and sultan, and continued to return to China to recruit new immigrants to stabilize and develop the economic foundation of the settlement. In 1777, Luo Fangbo founded the Lanfang Company, with Mandor as its administrative center. The organization, composed primarily of Hakkas, especially those from Meizhou. These individuals often worked together in the nearby gold and silver mines and farmlands. Similar organizations were formed in the Sambas and Pontianak areas. The Hakkas and Teochews are locked in a fierce rivalry over economic dominance in the region. The Lanfang Company was abolished following the consolidation of Dutch rule in West Borneo at the end of the 19th century.
After Indonesia gained independence in the second half of the 20th century, the government implemented a strict naturalization policy for overseas Chinese to foster greater identification with Indonesia's politics and culture. This policy even sought to eliminate Chinese culture through various measures, such as abolishing Chinese schools, prohibiting the publication and import of Chinese literature, and banning the use of Chinese characters in public spaces. These efforts accelerated the assimilation of Chinese Indonesians and led to significant changes in the everyday language used by local Hakka Chinese communities.
Due to historical and environmental changes, the Hakka people in Pontianak have had frequent linguistic interactions with Hakka and Teochew communities from other parts of Guangdong, as well as Cantonese speakers and local indigenous groups. These interactions have led to shifts in both pronunciation and vocabulary. Additionally, the influence of various dialects, along with the introduction of Indonesian and English education, has resulted in a growing number of loanwords from foreign languages.
Pontianak Hakka is spoken in Pontianak and various regencies across western and central West Kalimantan, including Kubu Raya, Landak, Mempawah, Sanggau, Sekadau and Sintang. Meanwhile, the Hakkas in Singkawang and nearby areas, such as Bengkayang and Sambas in northwestern West Kalimantan, speak a distinct variety of Hakka that more closely resembles Hailu Hakka, with significant influence from Hopo and Wuhua dialects. Notable differences exist between Pontianak Hakka and Singkawang Hakka, particularly in their phonology and tonal system. The linguistic boundary between Pontianak Hakka and Singkawang Hakka follows the Duri River, which also serves as the political border between Bengkayang and Mempawah Regency. In Pontianak, Hakka is primarily spoken in the northern part of the city, across the Kapuas River, and in its suburbs, while Teochew dominates the city center and southern Pontianak. In addition, small yet significant Hakka communities can also be found in Kubu Raya Regency, just south of Pontianak. Hakka is also spoken by Pontianak Chinese migrants living in Jakarta.
Hakka is the mother tongue of the Hakka people in Pontianak and is commonly used for day-to-day communication within the Hakka community. However, most Hakkas are also bilingual in Teochew the lingua franca of the Chinese community in the city. Many Teochew speakers, on the other hand, are also fluent in Hakka. Additionally, many Hakkas and Pontianak residents in general are proficient in Pontianak Malay, which is commonly used for interethnic communication in the city, as well as Indonesian, the national language and the medium of instruction in schools and government offices. It is common for Hakka speakers to code-switch and code-mix between Hakka, Teochew, Pontianak Malay, and Indonesian, depending on the context and the people they are speaking with. Furthermore, many Hakka and Teochew speakers, particularly older generations who had the opportunity to attend Chinese schools before their closure by the Indonesian government in the mid-1960s, are also fluent in Mandarin. Meanwhile, younger speakers are increasingly learning the language, either through formal education or community initiatives aimed at its preservation.
Pontianak Hakka has 21 initials, including one zero initial [â ]. The list is as follows:
Notes:
Pontianak Hakka features five vowel phonemes: i, e, a, o, and u. Additionally, it includes two medial (i, u), three open nasal codas (-m, -n, -Ã Â), and three checked codas (-p, -t, -k). This yields eighteen open finals, twenty-one nasal finals, nineteen checked finals, and two syllabic nasals. In total, there are 60 rimes.
In Pontianak Hakka, there are a total of six tones. The tones and their characteristics are shown in the table below:
Tone sandhi (è®Â調) in Pontianak Hakka is highly limited and closely resembles that of Sixian Hakka. Only one tone undergoes tone sandhi: Tone [èæ] (24), while all other tones remain unchanged. The only tone sandhi rule in Pontianak Hakka is that when a word with Tone [èæ] (24) is followed by another word with Tone [èæ] (24), Tone [ÃÂ¥ÃÂ¥] (55), or Tone [ÃÂ¥] (5), it changes to Tone [ç] (33). For example, the word 天 /tðienòâ´/ (âÂÂdayâÂÂ) is normally pronounced with Tone [èæ] (24), but in 天氣 /tðienòâ´â»óó.hiâµâµ/ (âÂÂweatherâÂÂ), where it precedes æ°£ /hiâµâµ/ (âÂÂairâÂÂ) with Tone [ÃÂ¥ÃÂ¥] (55), 天 shifts to Tone [ç] (33). This tone sandhi occurs in disyllabic or multi-syllabic words, where the first syllable adjusts based on the tone of the following syllable. The original tone before the change is known as the base tone (æ¬調).
Pontianak Hakka largely retains the phonology, rhymes, and tones of Meixian Hakka as spoken in mainland China but has undergone phonetic and lexical changes due to prolonged interaction with other languages such as Teochew and Indonesian.
Below are some phonological distinctions of Pontianak Hakka in comparison to other Hakka varieties:
Pontianak Hakka shares a six-tone system with the Meixian dialect in mainland China and the Sixian dialect in Taiwan, both of which originate from Meixian. These tones include yinping, yangping, shangsheng, qusheng, yinru, and yangru. Its most distinctive tonal feature is the shift of fully voiced syllables from shangsheng to qusheng, while qusheng also encompasses a broader range of unstressed syllables. Despite minor variations due to external influences, the overall tonal patterns remain largely consistent. The table below provides a comparative overview of the tones across different Hakka dialects:
Due to frequent contact between Pontianak Hakka and Indonesian, since the 1960s, after Indonesia's anti-Chinese policies, a large influx of official vocabulary into local dialects has occurred. The vocabulary of Pontianak Hakka has already been influenced by Indonesian, resulting in phonetic and lexical differences from Meixian Hakka. However, Pontianak Hakka still retains some older terms, some of which no longer exist in other Hakka dialects of mainland China. In other places, some of the traditional Hakka dialect words have fallen out of use, while certain Hakka dialect terms used in Pontianak differ significantly in meaning compared to their equivalents in other Hakka dialects. Additionally, loanwords from mainland China and TaiwanâÂÂsuch as names for tools, clothing, celestial and geographical terms, and agricultural itemsâÂÂdo not correspond well to Indonesian terminology. Pontianak Hakka has also developed unique terminologies that are not found in any other Hakka dialects. In addition, Pontianak Hakka vocabulary has been significantly influenced by Teochew, largely due to the Teochew community's dominance in Pontianak and the geographic proximity between Hakka-speaking regions and Chaoshan, the homeland of the Teochew people in Guangdong. Additionally, traces of Cantonese influence can be observed, likely stemming from the strong cultural presence of Cantonese in Guangdong.
Pontianak Hakka retains many lexicons from Meixian Hakka while incorporating a significant number of loanwords from Teochew and, to a lesser extent, Cantonese. Over time, it has also increasingly adopted vocabulary from Indonesian, the national language.
Centuries of isolation from their kin in China and Taiwan have led Pontianak Hakka to develop unique vocabulary. Below is a list of distinct words coined in Pontianak Hakka, not found in other Hakka dialects, along with comparisons to Meixian and Sixian Hakka:
Pontianak Hakka has incorporated a significant number of loanwords from Teochew, influenced by the dominance of the Teochew community in Pontianak, where Teochew serves as the lingua franca among local Chinese residents. Below is a list of loanwords in Pontianak Hakka that have been borrowed from Teochew, along with comparisons to the Meixian dialect:
Some vocabulary in Pontianak Hakka is directly borrowed from Cantonese in both pronunciation and meaning. Due to interactions between Hakka speakers from mainland China and Cantonese-speaking communities, migrants who settled in Pontianak continued to incorporate Cantonese words into their Hakka speech.
Indonesian, the national language, serves as the primary language of government and education in Pontianak, contributing to an increasing lexical influence on Pontianak Hakka. Additionally, since Pontianak was traditionally a Malay homeland, the local variety of Malay has also influenced Pontianak Hakka.
Below are some examples of commonly used Pontianak Hakka words and sentences: