Malaysian Malay () or Malaysian ()

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

ically known as Standard Malay () or simply Malay (, abbreviated to BM)is a standardized form of the

Malay language Malay ( , ; , Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language spoken primarily by Malays (ethnic group), Malays in several islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula on the mainland Asia. The lang ...

used in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and also used in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

(as opposed to the variety used in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, which is referred to as the "Indonesian" language). Malaysian Malay is

standardized Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

from the Johor–Riau dialect of Malay, particularly a branch spoken in the state of

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

south of the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

. It is spoken by much of the Malaysian population, although most learn a

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

Malay dialect or another native language first.

Terminology

In Malaysia

Article 152 of Malaysia's Constitution as drafted in 1957 (revised in 1963) merely mentions "Malay" (''Bahasa Melayu'') as the designation of its "national language" without any further definition, but the term ''bahasa Malaysia'' () is used in official contexts from time to time. The latter term was endorsed by

Tunku Abdul Rahman Tunku Abdul Rahman (8 February 19036 December 1990), commonly referred to as Tunku, was a Malaysian statesman who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 1957 to 1970. He previously served as the only chief minister of Federation of Malaya ...

during his premiership. The exact wording of either names above can be politically contentious. Between 1986 during Mahathir Mohamad's tenure and 2007, the term ''bahasa Malaysia'' was replaced by "''bahasa Melayu''"; even in 1999 the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka rejected the publication of some short stories as the preface to the publication used the term ''bahasa Malaysia'' instead of ''bahasa Melayu''. In 2007, to recognize that

is composed of many ethnic groups (and not only the ethnic Malays), the term ''bahasa Malaysia'' became the government's preferred designation for the national language. The Ministry of Education's official communications used ''bahasa Malaysia'' from 2011 to 2015 but has preferred ''bahasa Melayu'' in its syllabi as of 2023.

Other countries

In Singapore, "the Malay language" in the " Roman script" is afforded the status of national language in part 13 of its constitution's general provisions. The term ''bahasa Melayu'' is used continuously in Singapore's educational literature and is considered to be identical to Malaysian Malay. The national standard variety of Malay employed in formal communications of

dubbed "Standard Brunei Malay" (or internally "Standard Malay") is observed to largely follow the Malaysian standard; the main differences being minor variation in pronunciation and some lexical influence from Brunei Malay, the local non-standard vernacular variety of Malay.

Writing system

The

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

, known in Malay as ''Rumi'' (Roman alphabet), is prescribed by

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

as the official script of Malaysian Malay, and the

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

called Jawi (or Malay script) is not legally prescribed for that purpose. Rumi is official while efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve the Jawi script and to revive its use in Malaysia. The Latin alphabet, however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, for both official and informal purposes.

Borrowed words

While literary Malay throughout the region has mostly absorbed from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, Tamil, Hindustani (Hindi–Urdu),

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Persian, Portuguese and

Sinitic languages The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a language group, group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a p ...

; the variety spoken within British colonies that eventually make up Malaysia following the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty borrowed majorly from English (in particular many scientific and technological terms) compared to Dutch as spread within the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

. Since Malayan independence and later

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

formation, its own Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka followed a purist approach in lexicography away from Western loanwords (even favouring established roots like Sanskrit and Arabic) as well as neologizing from native roots. In recent years, Malaysian has also been influenced lexically by the Indonesian variety largely through the popularity of neighbouring mass media like dramas, soap operas, and musicakin to the effect of American media towards other Englishes like those of Britain and Australia. # Sanskrit: This language had a significant influence on the Malay language through trade and the spread of

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

religions that arrived in the Malay Archipelago from the 1st to the 14th century. Borrowed words include ''bahasa'' (language), ''raja'' (king), ''syurga'' (heaven), ''neraka'' (hell), ''desa'' (village). # Arabic: With the arrival of Islam in the region during the 7th century, Arabic began influencing the Malay language, especially in religious and philosophical terminology. Examples include ''kitab'' (book), ''masjid'' (

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

), ''ilmu'' (knowledge), ''iman'' (faith), ''zakat'' (almsgiving). # Tamil: The influence of the Tamil language came primarily through maritime trade between India and the Malay Archipelago. Borrowed words from Tamil include ''kedai'' (shop), ''mangga'' (mango), and '' vadai'' (a type of snack). # Chinese: Trade relations between Chinese merchants and the local population led to the borrowing of words such as ''tauhu'' (tofu), ''mi'' (noodles), ''lombong'' (mine). # Portuguese: The Portuguese occupation of Malacca in the early 16th century introduced words like ''gereja'' (church), ''keju'' (cheese), ''jendela'' (window), and ''almari'' (cupboard). # Dutch: Borrowing from Dutch occurred during the Dutch colonial period, including words like ''kabin'' (cabin), ''sekolah'' (school), ''kontrak'' (contract). # English: The English language introduced many technical and modern words into Malay, especially during British colonial rule. Examples include ''telefon'' (telephone), ''komputer'' (computer), ''bank'', ''internet'', and ''stesen'' (station).

Grammar

Colloquial and contemporary usage

Colloquial and contemporary usage of Malay includes modern Malaysian vocabulary, which may not be familiar to the older generation, such as: *''Awek'' (means girl, in place of ''perempuan''). *''Balak'' (means guy, in place of ''jantan''). *''Cun'' (means pretty, in place of ''cantik / jelita''). New plural pronouns have also been formed out of the original pronouns popularly nowadays and the word ''orang'' (person), such as: *''Korang'' (''kau'' + ''orang'', "you all", in place of ''kalian / kamu semua''). *''Kitorang'' (''kita'' + ''orang'', the exclusive "we", in place of ''kami''). *''Diorang'' (''dia'' + ''orang'', the exclusive "they", in place of ''mereka''). In addition, Arabic terms that is originally used in Standard Malay nowadays has been popularly changed where some of the words and pronunciations in the involved terms have been added by the local conservative Muslims by disputing the terms suggested by the ''Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka'' (DBP), claiming that the involved terms with implementation of the additional words and pronunciations is the real correct terms as same as stated in the Qur'an, where it is predominantly used by the local Muslim netizens in the social medias nowadays. The several involved terms in comparison to Standard Malay that is popularly used, such as: *''Ramadhan'' (means the holy fasting month, in place of ''Ramadan''). *''Aamiin'' (means asking Allah (Islam) to verify the prayer (''Du'a''); real term is Ameen, in place of ''Amin''). *''Fardhu'' (means obligatory (''in Islam''), in place of ''Fardu''). *''Redha'' (means accepting, in place of ''Reda''). *''Mudharat'' (means harm, in place of ''Mudarat''). *''Dhaif'' (means poverty, in place of ''Daif''). *''Zohor'' (means mid-day or noon time, in place of ''Zuhur''). *''Hadith'' (means Prophet (Mohamed) terms or speeches, in place of ''Hadis''). Code-switching between English and Malaysian and the use of novel loanwords is widespread, forming Bahasa Rojak. Consequently, this phenomenon has raised the displeasure of linguistic purists in Malaysia, in their effort to uphold use of the prescribed

standard language A standard language (or standard variety, standard dialect, standardized dialect or simply standard) is any language variety that has undergone substantial codification in its grammar, lexicon, writing system, or other features and that stands ...

References

External links

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature Malaysia, in Malay only)

The Malay Spelling Reform
Asmah Haji Omar, (Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society, 1989-2 pp. 9–13 later designated J11) {{DEFAULTSORT:Malaysian Malay Agglutinative languages * Languages of Malaysia Standard languages Subject–verb–object languages