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By Midnight
Art by Jehabdulloh Jehsorhoh (Photo: Ilham Gallery)
Selamat datang!
Welcome to this month’s language feature!
Our third language of the month is Malay. Malay is an Austronesian language and is the official language in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Indonesia. Malay is simply known as Bahasa Melayu in Brunei, Singapore, and Indonesia. In Malaysia, Malay is commonly referred to as either Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu, and these terms are used interchangeably.
Malay has a long history of development, influenced by various cultures and religions. Ancient Malay traces its roots back to the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian language, which was spoken by the earliest Austronesian settlers in Southeast Asia. Over time, under the influence of Indian cultures and religions, this language evolved into Old Malay with Kawi and Rencong scripts. Around the 15th century, Malay underwent significant changes and was heavily shaped by Islamic literature and the incorporation of words from Arabic, Persian, Tamil, and Sanskrit. The language became known as Classical Malay and lasted until the mid 19th century.
By the 19th century, Malay had already adopted and borrowed words from colonial languages, including Dutch, English, and Portuguese. Fast forward today, Modern Malay continues to embrace numerous new words borrowed from the English language. Currently, Malay is spoken by a vast number of people in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Brunei. Malay is also spoken as a minority language in Thailand, Philippines, East Timor, Christmas Island, and Cocos Islands.
An interesting feature of Malay is its use of reduplication to indicate plurality. For example, “rumah” means “house”, while “rumah-rumah” means “houses”. New words are also created by repeating a (or a portion of a) word. For instance, “agar” means “so that”, but “agar-agar” means “jelly”.
Bahasa Indonesia vs Bahasa Melayu. What’s the difference?
To non-native speakers, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) and Malay (Bahasa Melayu) can be hard to distinguish due to their similar sounds. However, both are distinct languages within the broader Malay language family. Indonesia and Malaysia had different colonial pasts. As a result, Indonesian words predominantly draw from Dutch, whereas Malay words are primarily influenced by British. Below are a few words to show how one language differs from the other:
English | Malay | Indonesian |
Car | Kereta | Mobil |
Shop | Kedai | Toko |
Pharmacy | Farmasi | Apotek |
Ticket | Tiket | Karcis |
Did you know?
Malay is phonemic, words spell as pronounced!
Malay has over 30 variants and dialects across different regions.
Malay lacks a grammatical gender, which makes the language easy to learn!
As of 2022, there are roughly 290 million Malay speakers across Southeast Asia.
Malay has two writing systems: the Latin alphabet (known as the Rumi script) and Jawi (a modified Arabic script). Latin is widely used.
Bahasa Pasar is colloquial Malay with simple grammar and often borrows words from various languages. It is used in daily conversations.
Basic Phrases in Malay
Hello - Hello/Hai
Good morning - Selamat pagi
Good evening - Selamat petang
Where is the bathroom? - Dimanakah bilik air?
How are you? - Apa khabar?
Thank you - Terima kasih
I love you - Saya cinta kamu
Congratulations! - Tahniah!
Goodbye - Selamat tinggal
About Midnight
An introvert navigating the twists and turns of life one day at a time. She hopes to carve a path in healthcare research using technology. When she’s not cooking or reading, she can be found delving into the world of languages and is currently studying Dutch and German.
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