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Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond

According to dictionaries of Standard Malay, nyonya means the married woman of a Chinese or a European, whereas nona stands for an un-married, young woman of European or Chinese descent. Hence, a dichotomous relation is reflected in the meanings for these two terms. Nowadays, nyonya almost refers ex...

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Main Authors: Tan, Raan Hann, Silvio, Moreira de Sousa
Other Authors: Moussa, Pourya Asl
Format: Book Section
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Ilmu Kemanusiaan 2019
Subjects:
H1-99 Social sciences (General)
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/45615/1/ART8.pdf
http://eprints.usm.my/45615/
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spelling my.usm.eprints.45615 http://eprints.usm.my/45615/ Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond Tan, Raan Hann Silvio, Moreira de Sousa H1-99 Social sciences (General) According to dictionaries of Standard Malay, nyonya means the married woman of a Chinese or a European, whereas nona stands for an un-married, young woman of European or Chinese descent. Hence, a dichotomous relation is reflected in the meanings for these two terms. Nowadays, nyonya almost refers exclusively to a Chinese Peranakan lady. This is the connotation of the term in Baba Malay and it is clearly visible in the ethnonym baba-nyonya or in designations of cultural areas connected to the Chinese Peranakan such as ‘baba-nyonya language’, ‘nyonya food’, ‘nyonya kuih’, or ‘nyonya clothing’. These labels coexist with other labels like ‘peranakan cuisine’ and ‘peranakan fashion’. As for nona, the word also has a different significance in the Portuguese creole varieties of Melaka (Malaysia) and Tugu (Indonesia). Parents in Portuguese Eurasians families address their daughters by the term nona, but, unlike nyonya for the Chinese Peranakans, nona is not an ethnonym for the female members of the Portuguese Eurasian communities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Sarkissian (1995) and Jackson (2007) analyzed the song Jinkli Nona and demonstrated that the beautiful and exotic “Portuguese” damsel - in fact, a Eurasian-African-Sinhalese “nona” - had “become synonymous over time with South and Southeast Asian women in areas influenced by Indo-Portuguese maritime contacts, both etymologically and aesthetically” (Jackson 2007: 213). In the context of Malaysia, the song is now considered a national song that is known by all ethnic groups, young and old. Expanding from there, the objective of this paper is to observe how music has influenced the meaning of the terms nyonya and nona, and to understand how the terms nyonya and nona shifted semantically between languages and nations, if that is the case. Further analysis could take into perspective pantuns and poems. Pusat Pengajian Ilmu Kemanusiaan Moussa, Pourya Asl Kumaran, Rajandran Azam, Yazir 2019 Book Section PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/45615/1/ART8.pdf Tan, Raan Hann and Silvio, Moreira de Sousa (2019) Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond. In: The 5Th International Conference on Linguistics, Literature and Culture. Pusat Pengajian Ilmu Kemanusiaan, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, pp. 38-41. ISBN 9789674614362
institution Universiti Sains Malaysia
building Hamzah Sendut Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Sains Malaysia
content_source USM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.usm.my/
language English
topic H1-99 Social sciences (General)
spellingShingle H1-99 Social sciences (General)
Tan, Raan Hann
Silvio, Moreira de Sousa
Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond
description According to dictionaries of Standard Malay, nyonya means the married woman of a Chinese or a European, whereas nona stands for an un-married, young woman of European or Chinese descent. Hence, a dichotomous relation is reflected in the meanings for these two terms. Nowadays, nyonya almost refers exclusively to a Chinese Peranakan lady. This is the connotation of the term in Baba Malay and it is clearly visible in the ethnonym baba-nyonya or in designations of cultural areas connected to the Chinese Peranakan such as ‘baba-nyonya language’, ‘nyonya food’, ‘nyonya kuih’, or ‘nyonya clothing’. These labels coexist with other labels like ‘peranakan cuisine’ and ‘peranakan fashion’. As for nona, the word also has a different significance in the Portuguese creole varieties of Melaka (Malaysia) and Tugu (Indonesia). Parents in Portuguese Eurasians families address their daughters by the term nona, but, unlike nyonya for the Chinese Peranakans, nona is not an ethnonym for the female members of the Portuguese Eurasian communities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Sarkissian (1995) and Jackson (2007) analyzed the song Jinkli Nona and demonstrated that the beautiful and exotic “Portuguese” damsel - in fact, a Eurasian-African-Sinhalese “nona” - had “become synonymous over time with South and Southeast Asian women in areas influenced by Indo-Portuguese maritime contacts, both etymologically and aesthetically” (Jackson 2007: 213). In the context of Malaysia, the song is now considered a national song that is known by all ethnic groups, young and old. Expanding from there, the objective of this paper is to observe how music has influenced the meaning of the terms nyonya and nona, and to understand how the terms nyonya and nona shifted semantically between languages and nations, if that is the case. Further analysis could take into perspective pantuns and poems.
author2 Moussa, Pourya Asl
author_facet Moussa, Pourya Asl
Tan, Raan Hann
Silvio, Moreira de Sousa
format Book Section
author Tan, Raan Hann
Silvio, Moreira de Sousa
author_sort Tan, Raan Hann
title Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond
title_short Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond
title_full Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond
title_fullStr Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond
title_full_unstemmed Music to My Ears:The Terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as Ethnonyms and Beyond
title_sort music to my ears:the terms ‘nona’ and ‘nyonya’ as ethnonyms and beyond
publisher Pusat Pengajian Ilmu Kemanusiaan
publishDate 2019
url http://eprints.usm.my/45615/1/ART8.pdf
http://eprints.usm.my/45615/
_version_ 1648738915320856576
score 13.211869

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