What language and dialect do people in Kuching Speak?

KUCHING : HOW THEY TALK IN KUCHING

Kuching is very multicultural place, and most people speak at least Malay and their ethnic tongue, with quite a few speaking English as well. The ability to speak either Malay, English or Mandarin is usually enough for someone in Kuching to get by.

While standard Malay is well understood, the local dialect, known as Bahasa Melayu Sarawak, is different enough to be legally categorized as its own language. Malays from coastal part of Sarawak, especially the one from Sebuyau, Kabong, Saratok, Betong, Sri Aman and the surrounding areas speak different dialect called Bahasa Orang Laut. Malays from Sibu and Miri speak similar language with Kuchingites Malay, but they have some terms unique to their dialect, for example Pia in Sibu (in Kuching, they called it Sia, which means there), Cali in Miri (in Kuching, they called it Jenaka, which means funny).

Most Chinese in Kuching speak Hokkien (Minnan) as their native tongue, but Mandarin is the standard language of education and spoken by nearly all Chinese in Kuching.

The Iban language is spoken by some Iban people in Kuching, but almost all of them also understand Malay. You may also encounter speakers of other tribal languages like Bidayuh, Melanau

The lack of a homogeneous language used by the peoples is also clearly reflected around the city. Signs such as road names are written in Malay and Chinese. Street signs are in Malay. Shop names and other private signs are usually written in Malay, English or/and Chinese.