Article

Malay names of salt-water fish. T.W. Burdon and C.A. Gibson-Hill. { In Papers on Malayan fishing methods

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Malay names of salt-water fish. T.W. Burdon and C.A. Gibson-Hill. { In Papers on Malayan fishing methods

T.W. Burdon and C.A. Gibson-Hill contributed a concise nomenclatural reference, “Malay names of salt-water fish,” to the 1954 MBRAS monograph Papers on Malayan Fishing Methods (JMBRAS, Vol. 27, Pt. 2). This two-page piece (pp. 175–176) serves as a companion to the monograph’s detailed treatments of fishing gear and methods in Singapore and the Kelantan–Trengganu coast, providing the local vernacular names for the salt-water fish species encountered in those fisheries.

Summary

This short contribution functions as a practical taxonomic-linguistic key for the salt-water fish species of the Singapore Strait and the South China Sea coast of the Malay Peninsula. In the context of the broader monograph, which devotes over 150 pages to describing the construction and operation of fishing gear in Malay and Chinese terminology, the fish-name list fills an essential gap: the gear descriptions throughout Burdon’s and Parry’s papers reference fish by their Malay names (e.g., tenggiri, bilis, kerapu, selar kuning, gelama, tamban), and this section provides the reader with a consolidated reference linking those vernacular terms to their scientific identities.

The piece reflects the collaborative division of labour within the monograph. Burdon, as head of the Singapore Fisheries Department, brought authoritative knowledge of the species taken in local waters and their market names, while Gibson-Hill, the Society’s long-standing authority on Malay linguistic and ethnographic matters, contributed expertise in the dialectal variation and etymology of the names. Together they produced a list that would have served both the scientific community and the fishing industry as a standard reference for species identification in the region.

As a two-page contribution, the list is necessarily selective, covering the commercially and ecologically significant species rather than attempting an exhaustive catalogue. It sits alongside the monograph’s glossary of Malay and Chinese fishing terms (pp. 70–76), which explicitly excludes fish nomenclature, confirming that the two sections were designed to be complementary.

Key Findings

  • The list covers salt-water fish species of the Singapore Strait and the Kelantan–Trengganu coast, the two regions treated in the monograph’s main papers (pp. 14–67 and 77–144).
  • It complements the monograph’s glossary of Malay and Chinese fishing terms (pp. 70–76), which is explicitly scoped to exclude “local nomenclature of fish” (p. 70).
  • The fish names referenced throughout the monograph include species such as tenggiri (Spanish mackerel), bilis (Stolephorus spp.), kerapu (groupers), selar kuning (yellow trevally), gelama (jewfish), tamban (sardine), merah (snappers, Lutjanus spp.), delah (Caesio spp.), and parang (Chirocentrus dorab) (pp. 14–67, 77–144).
  • The contribution supports the monograph’s broader aim of documenting Malayan fishing methods in a form accessible to both scientific and practical audiences, as stated in the classified index (p. 179).
  • Gibson-Hill’s earlier work on Singapore fishing boats (JMBRAS, 23(3), 1950) and Burdon’s annual Fisheries Department reports (1950–53) provided the empirical foundation for the species list (p. 164).

Conclusion

The “Malay names of salt-water fish” section is a compact but indispensable reference that anchors the monograph’s extensive gear descriptions to the biological reality of the species being caught. By pairing the authoritative fisheries expertise of Burdon with the linguistic precision of Gibson-Hill, the authors ensured that the vernacular names used throughout the 150+ pages of gear descriptions could be reliably identified, making the monograph a lasting reference for both fisheries research and the documentation of Malay maritime vocabulary.

Context

  • The monograph draws on the Fisheries Department, Singapore, annual reports (1950–53), the S.T. Tongkol trawling reports (1926–28), and field observations by Burdon, Parry, and Gibson-Hill, supplemented by unpublished material from Tham Ah Kow on the beach seine (p. 66, p. 164).
  • The study contributes to the historiography of Malayan ethnoscience by providing one of the earliest consolidated, authoritatively compiled lists of Malay fish names linked to scientific taxonomy for the Singapore and east coast regions, building on earlier efforts by Winstedt (1909) and Wilkinson et al. (1904) (p. 165).

References