Kedah Malay language

Kedah Malay or Kedahan (Also known as Pelat Utara or Loghat Utara 'Northern Dialect') also referred in Thailand as "Syburi Malay" (มลายูไทรบุรี) is a variety of the Malayan languages mainly spoken in the northwestern northern Malaysian states of Perlis, Kedah, Penang, and northern Perak and in the southern Thai provinces of Trang, Satun and parts of Yala, the usage of Kedahan Malay was historically prevelant in southwestern Thailand before being superseded by the Thai language. Enclaves of Kedahan Malay language can be found in Kawthaung District in Myanmar, Jaring Halus, Langkat in Indonesia and Bangkok, Thailand, mostly by the descendants of historical settles from Kedah.

Kedah Malay can be divided into several dialects, namely Kedah Persisiran (standard), Baling or Kedah Hulu, Kedah Utara, Perlis-Langkawi, Penang and some others outside Malaysia. See Malayan languages for a comparison of Kedah Persisiran, Penang and Baling dialects.

The main characteristic of Kedah Malay is the -a final vocal is pronounced as /ɑ/ such as /a/ in "dark", which is varied from standard Malay -a that pronounced as /a/. Other characteristics of the dialect are final consonant -r is pronounced as -q and final consonant -s is pronounced as -ih (e.g.:Lapar = Lapaq (Hungry), Lepas = Lepaih (release, after) ) while initial and middle r are guttural. Speakers in Trang are most heavily influenced by Thai language.