[tamizhar]

> standard Malaysian, he speaks Terengganu Malay.

I have visited Terengganu. The Malay spoken in Terengganu is the same as the Malay spoken elsewhere. It would the equivalent of saying Arkansas English versus American English.

[jzwinck]

I too have visited Terengganu. Your impression of the language vs standard Bahasa is far off the mark. Wikipedia says:

> Terengganu Malay is one of the most aberrant from all the Malay varieties in the Peninsular along with Kelantan-Pattani Malay and developed a distinct phonetic, syntactic and lexical distinctions which makes it mutually unintelligible for speakers from outside the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

People from areas quite far away are aware of this, such as the KL shopkeeper mentioned in the article who could not understand its protagonist.

[jamesrcole]

I'm pretty sure "mutually unintelligible" is putting it too strongly. My partner is from Malaysia, but from KL not Terengganu, and we were in Terengganu visiting my relatives there earlier this year and I'm pretty sure she was able to understand the Malay spoken there fairly well.

[jamesrcole]

UPDATE (writing this in a separate comment because I can no longer edit my original one): I've had a chance now to ask her about it, and she said that she can't speak or understand the Terengganu Malay. When she was in Terengganu she could communicate fine in Malay with people, but that was because they were communicating in the "standard" Malay.

[chingjun]

I am from Terengganu. And yes people in Terengganu can speak standard Malay, but among themselves they speak a different dialect, which is very different. People from other parts of Malaysia often have difficulty understanding it. It’s more like Scottish to English I would say.