Code-switching and code-mixing are common among the Singkawang Chinese, who frequently alternate between Hakka, Malay, and standard Indonesian.

[8] From the late Qing Dynasty to the early establishment of the Republic of China, wars and chaos were frequent on the Chinese mainland.

As a result, many Hakka people, to avoid military conscription and forced labor or to earn a living, were forced to follow shuike (水客, suihak), brokers who specifically brought people to Southeast Asia, to Malaya or Bangka-Belitung, where they became contract laborers in tin mines.

After their contracts ended, many workers moved to the region under the rule of the Sultan of Sambas, particularly to Singkawang and its surroundings, to seek a new life.

[3] Those with skills or relatives in Singkawang chose to settle and engage in small businesses there, selling cakes or working as laborers.

[3] Most of the Hakkas who migrated to present-day Singkawang came from impoverished backgrounds and were invited by the Sultanate of Sambas to work as miners.

They formed kongsis (associations) for business purposes, particularly in gold mining, in the interior regions of West Kalimantan.

He not only succeeded in establishing kongsis but also became the governor for the Chinese community in West Kalimantan, headquartered in Mandor (about 100 km from Pontianak).

During that time, Monterado and Mandor were well-known as centers of gold mining, attracting Chinese people from various ethnic groups.

Before the government prohibited Chinese people from entering Indonesia in 1949, new arrivals from the Teochew and Hokkien-speaking communities were almost nonexistent.

Meanwhile, the second generation, although they initially mastered their mother tongue, found themselves communicating with Hakka in daily life and social interactions.

[1] In addition, most elders in Singkawang could speak both Hakka and Mandarin, as they learned the latter when educated in Chinese language schools before they were closed during the New Order.

[12] There is a slight difference in the Hakka dialects spoken in Singkawang city proper, Sambas, Pemangkat, and Bengkayang, primarily in their phonological features and pronunciations.

[17] 寫 (sia²⁴) 有 (ʒiu⁵³) 灰 (foi⁵³) 橋 (kʰiau⁵⁵) 茄 (kʰio⁵) 大 (tʰai²⁴) 跪 (kʰui²⁴) 蟻 (ŋie³¹) 爪 (t͡sau²⁴) 後 (heu²⁴) 減 (kam²⁴) 揞 (em⁵³) 金 (kim⁵³) 添 (tʰiam⁵³) 弇 (kiem⁵³) 山 (san⁵³) 朋 (pʰen⁵⁵) 新 (sin⁵³) 遠 (ʒian²⁴) 見 (kien³¹) 軟 (ŋion⁵³) 軍 (kiun⁵³) 肝 (kon⁵³) 粉 (fun²⁴) 硬 (ŋaŋ²⁴) 平 (pʰiaŋ⁵⁵) 香 (hioŋ⁵³) 胸 (hiuŋ⁵³) 講 (koŋ²⁴) 東 (tuŋ⁵³) 胛 (kap³⁴) 澀 (sep³⁴) 汁 (t͡ʃip³⁴) 帖 (tʰiap³⁴) 舌 (ʃat⁵) 蝨 (set³⁴) 日 (ŋit³⁴) 越 (ʒiat⁵) 節 (t͡siet³⁴) 刷 (sot³⁴) 骨 (kut³⁴) 隻 (t͡ʃak³⁴) 錫 (siak³⁴) 腳 (kiok³⁴) 玉 (ŋiuk⁵) 索 (sok³⁴) 屋 (buk³⁴) In Singkawang Hakka, there are a total of six tones.

This tonal system, which is used by most people, consists of six tones: yinping (陰平), yangping (陽平), shangsheng (上聲), yinqu (陰去), yinru (陰入), and yangru (陽入).

As early as the 17th and 18th centuries, the Hakka people began to form a large presence in Borneo and started cultivating land there.

[23] With frequent interactions between the Hakka people and the local dialect of Malays, linguistic and cultural exchanges were inevitable.

Additionally, due to progress and development, many new things emerged and were given different names, contributing to the unique terms in the Singkawang Hakka.

The Hakka communities in Haifeng, Lufeng, Jiexi, and Raoping have been notably impacted by contact with Teochew, leading to the adoption of several loanwords into their language.

As a result of ongoing language contact and interaction, the integration of Indonesian into Hakka is inevitable and increasingly common.

[29] Below is a list of Indonesian loanwords frequently used by locals in their everyday lives: /fu⁵⁵.mo⁵³.nai⁵⁵/ /hoŋ¹¹.ŋe⁵⁵/ /kan⁵⁵.taŋ⁵³/ /ma⁵³.lin⁵.ʃu⁵⁵/ /ko⁵⁵.pi⁵³/ /ka⁵³.pi⁵³/ /pʰaŋ⁵³/ 麵包 /mien³³.pau⁵³/ /tuŋ³¹.kat⁵/ /kuai³³.kun¹¹/ /pa⁵³.sak⁵/ /ʃi¹¹.t͡ʃʰoŋ⁵⁵/ /lui⁵³/ /tsʰien⁵⁵/ /t͡ʃʰa⁵³.sɿ¹¹/ /tʰen¹¹.ʃiu²⁴/ /se¹¹.ŋin⁵⁵/ /kau³¹.ŋin⁵⁵/ /kiet².fun⁵³/ /tsʰap¹¹.fo¹¹.tiam¹¹/ /ma⁵⁵.pu¹¹.tʰoi¹¹/ /m̩⁵⁵.tsʰok²/ Below are some examples of commonly used Singkawang Hakka words and sentences: Due to the prohibition of learning Chinese during the New Order era, Singkawang Hakka, along with other Chinese varieties spoken in the Indonesia, is now rarely written.