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| Origin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There are many hypotheses as to where the Malay language originated. One of these is that it came from Sumatra island. The oldest written documents in Malay, dated from the end of the 7th century AD, were found on Bangka Island, off the southeastern coast of Sumatra and in Palembang in southern Sumatra. "Malayu" was the name of an old kingdom located in Jambi province in eastern Sumatra. It was known in ancient Chinese texts as "Mo-lo-yo" and mentioned in the Nagarakertagama, an old Javanese epic written in 1365, as one of the "tributary states" of the Majapahit kingdom in eastern Java.
The use of Malay throughout insular and peninsular Southeast Asia is linked to the rise of Muslim kingdoms and the spread of Islam, itself a consequence of growing regional trade.
Indonesia pronounced a variety of Malay its official language when it gained independence, calling it Bahasa Indonesia. However, the language had already been used as the lingua franca throughout the archipelago since the 15th century. Since 1928, nationalists and young people throughout the Indonesian archipelago declared it to be Indonesia's only official language, as proclaimed in the Sumpah Pemuda "Youth Vow." Thus Indonesia was the first country to designate it as an official language. In several parts of Indonesia, in Sumatra and Borneo Islands, Malay is spoken as local dialect of ethnic Malays.[7]
In Malaysia, the term Bahasa Malaysia was in use until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to "Bahasa Melayu," used in the Malay version of the Federal Constitution. According to Article 152 of the Federal , Malay is the official language of Malaysia. "Bahasa Kebangsaan" (National Language) was also used at one point during the 1970s. At present day, the government is referring to the language as Bahasa Malaysia again.[citation needed] Similar to Malaysia in the mid 1990's, "Bahasa Melayu" was defined as Brunei's official language in the country's 1959 Constitution.
Indonesian and Malay are separated by some centuries of different vocabulary development, partly due to the influence of different colonial languages; Dutch in the case of Indonesia, formerly the Dutch East Indies and English in the case of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, which were formerly under British rule.
Some Malay dialects, however, show only limited mutual intelligibility with the standard language; for example, Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some fellow Malay speakers to understand, while Indonesian contains many words unique to it that are unfamiliar to speakers of Malay (some because of Javanese , Sundanese, or other local language influence, and some because the language has been modified by youngsters).
The language spoken by the Peranakan (Straits Chinese, a hybrid of Chinese settlers from the Ming Dynasty and local Malays) is a unique patois of Malay and the Chinese Hokkien dialect, which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca in Malaysia, and the Indonesian Archipelago.
[ Tags:Indonesia,Indonesian,Official Language,Malaysia,Brunei,Sumatra,Borneo,Bangka Island,Palembang,Malayu,Jambi Province,Chinese,Nagarakertagama,Javanese,Majapahit Kingdom,Java,Southeast Asia,Muslim,Islam,Independence,Lingua Franca,Sumpah Pemuda,Federal Constitution,Citation Needed,Dutch,East Indies,English,British,Rule,Dialects,Mutual Intelligibility,Kelantanese,Sundanese,Local Language,Modified By Youngsters,Peranakan,Ming Dynasty,Patois,Hokkien,Straits Settlements,Penang,Malacca,Asia, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| History |
Main article: Old Malay
The history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods: Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, Late Modern Malay, and modern Malay.
Old Malay is unintelligible to a speaker of modern Malay.[citation needed] It was heavily influenced by Sanskrit, the lingua franca of Hinduism and Buddhism. The earliest known inscription in the Old Malay language was found in Sumatra, written in Pallava variant of Grantha script [8] and dates back to 7th century - known as Kedukan Bukit Inscription, it was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920, at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang, a tributary of the River Musi. It is a small stone of 45 by 80 cm.
The Malay language came into widespread use as the trade language of the Sultanate of Malacca (1402–1511). During this period, the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature. The development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, and Hindi or Sanskrit vocabularies. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognizable to speakers of modern Malay.
[ | Tags:Pallava,Old Malay,Sanskrit,Hinduism,Buddhism,Grantha Script,Kedukan Bukit Inscription,Trade Language,Sultanate Of Malacca,Arabic,Hindi, Classification and related languages |
See also: Austronesian languages#Cross-linguistic Comparison Chart
Malay is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, which includes languages from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia. Malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this linguistic family. Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking. Many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common Austronesian ancestor. There are many cognates found in the languages' words for kinship, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities.
Within Austronesian, Malay is part of a cluster of numerous closely related forms of speech known as the Malay languages, which were spread across Malaya and the Indonesian archipelago by Malay traders from Sumatra. There is disagreement as to which varieties of speech popularly called "Malay" should be considered dialects of this language, and which should be classified as distinct Malay languages. The local language of Brunei, Brunei Malay, for example, is not readily unintelligible with the standard language, and the same is true with some varieties on the Malay Peninsula such as Kedah Malay. However, both Brunei and Kedah are quite close.[9]
The closest relatives of the Malay languages are those left behind on Sumatra, such as Minangkabau with 5½ million speakers on the west coast.
[ | Tags:Austronesian,Malay Peninsula,Pacific Ocean,Malagasy,Madagascar,Indian Ocean,Cognates, Writing system |
Main article: Malay alphabet
Malay is normally written using Latin alphabet called Rumi, although a modified Arabic script called Jawi also exists. Rumi is official in Malaysia and Singapore, and Indonesian has a different official orthography also using the Latin script. Rumi and Jawi are co-official in Brunei. Efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve Jawi script and to revive its use amongst Malays in Malaysia, and students taking Malay language examination in Malaysia have the option of answering questions using Jawi script. The Latin alphabet, however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes.
Historically, Malay has been written using various scripts. Before the introduction of Arabic script in the Malay region, Malay was written using Pallava, Kawi and Rencong script and these are still in use today by the Champa Malay in Vietnam and Cambodia. Old Malay was written using Pallava and Kawi script, as evident from several inscription stones in the Malay region. Starting from the era of kingdom of Pasai and throughout the golden age of the Sultanate of Malacca, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region. Starting from the 17th century, under Dutch and British influence, Jawi was gradually replaced by the Rumi script.[10]
[ | Tags:Kawi, Extent of use |
Main article: Varieties of Malay
See also: Malay-based creole languages
The extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Malay is the national language in Malaysia by Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia, and became the sole official language in West Malaysia in 1968, and in East Malaysia gradually from 1974. English continues, however, to be widely used in professional and commercial fields and in the superior courts. Other minority languages are also commonly used by the country's large ethnic minorities. The situation in Brunei is similar to that of Malaysia.
[ | Tags: Phonology |
Note: this article uses the orthography of Malaysian Malay. For Indonesian orthography, see Indonesian language.
Table of consonant phonemes of Malay
Bilabial
Labio-
Dental
Dental
Alveolar
Post-
Alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Uvular
Glottal
Nasal
m /m/
n /n/
ny /ɲ/
ng /ŋ/
Plosive
p /p/
b /b/
t /t/
d /d/
k /k/
g /ɡ/
Affricate
c /t͡ʃ/
j /d͡ʒ/
Fricative
f /f/
v /v/
s /s/
z /z/
sy /ʃ, ʂ, sj/
h /h/
Approximant
y /j/
w /w/
Lateral
l /l/
Trill
r /r/
Orthographic Note:
The combination of /ŋɡ/ is represented as ngg.
Table of vowel phonemes of Malay
Height
Front
Central
Back
Close
i /i/
u /u/
Mid
e /e, ɛ/
e /ə/
o /o, ɔ/
Open
a /a/
a /ɑ/
Table diphthongs of Malay
Orthography
IPA
ai
/aɪ̯, ai/
au
/aʊ̯, au/
ua
/ua/
There are two vowels represented by the letter "e", i.e. /e, ɛ/ and /ə/. Learners of Malay are expected to distinguish between the two sounds while learning each new word.
In some parts of Peninsular Malaysia, especially in the central and southern regions, most words which end with the letter a tend to be pronounced /ə/.
Stress in Malay words is traditionally said to be either on the final or penultimate syllable, depending on regional variations as well as the presence of the shwa (/ə/) in the word. However, there is some disagreement among linguists on this issue, with at least one researcher suggesting that in some dialects there is no lexical stress at all.[11]
[ | Tags:Ipa,Indonesian Language, Word Formation |
Malay is an agglutinative language, and new words are formed by three methods. New words can be created by attaching affixes onto a root word (affixation), formation of a compound word (composition), or repetition of words or portions of words (reduplication).
[ | Tags: Affixes |
Root words are either nouns or verbs, which can be affixed to derive new words, e.g. masak (to cook) yields memasak (cooks, is cooking, etc.), memasakkan (cooks, is cooking for etc.), dimasak (cooked - passive) as well as pemasak (cook - person), masakan (a meal, cookery). Many initial consonants undergo mutation when prefixes are added: e.g. sapu (sweep) becomes penyapu (broom); panggil (to call) becomes memanggil (calls, is calling, etc.), tapis (to sieve) becomes menapis (sieves, is sieving, etc.)
Other examples of the use of affixes to change the meaning of a word can be seen with the word ajar (teach):
ajar = teach
ajaran = teachings
belajar = to learn
mengajar = to teach
diajar = being taught (intransitive)
diajarkan = being taught (transitive)
mempelajari = to study
dipelajari = being studied
pelajar = student
pengajar = teacher
pelajaran = subject
pengajaran = lesson, moral of story
pembelajaran = learning
terajar = taught (accidentally)
terpelajar = well-educated
berpelajaran = is educated
There are four types of affixes, namely prefixes (awalan), suffixes (akhiran), circumfixes (apitan) and infixes (sisipan). These affixes are categorised into noun affixes, verb affixes, and adjective affixes.
Noun affixes are affixes that form nouns upon addition to root words. The following are examples of noun affixes:
Type of noun affixes
Affix
Example of root word
Example of derived word
Prefix
pe(N)-
duduk (sit)
penduduk (population)
ke-
hendak (want)
kehendak (desire)
juru-
acara (event)
juruacara (event host)
Infix
-el-
tunjuk (point)
telunjuk (index finger, command)
-em-
kelut (dishevelled)
kemelut (chaos, crisis)
-er-
gigi (teeth)
gerigi (toothed blade)
Suffix
-an
bangun (wake up, raise)
bangunan (building)
Circumfix
ke-...-an
raja (king)
kerajaan (government)
pe(N)-...-an
kerja (work)
pekerjaan (occupation)
(N) and (R) indicate that if a word begins with certain letters (most often vowels or consonants k, p, s, t), the letter will either be omitted or will undergo nasal mutation or be replaced by the letter l.
Similarly, verb affixes are attached to root words to form verbs. In Malay, there are:
Type of verb affixes
Affix
Example of root word
Example of derived word
Prefix
be(R)-
ajar (teach)
belajar (to study) - Intransitive
me(N)-
tolong (help)
menolong (to help) - Active transitive
di-
ambil (take)
diambil (is being taken) - Passive transitive
mempe(R)-
kemas (tidy up, orderly)
memperkemas (to arrange further)
dipe(R)-
dalam (deep)
diperdalam (is being further deepen)
te(R)-
makan (eat)
termakan (to have accidentally eaten)
Suffix
-kan
letak (place, keep)
letakkan (keep) - Imperative transitive
-i
jauh (far)
jauhi (avoid) - Imperative transitive
Circumfix
be(R)-...-an
pasang (pair)
berpasangan (in pairs)
be(R)-...-kan
tajuk (title)
bertajukkan (to be titled, to entitle)
me(N)-...-kan
pasti (sure)
memastikan (to make sure)
me(N)-...-i
teman (company)
menemani (to accompany)
mempe(R)-...-kan
guna (use)
mempergunakan (to utilise, to exploit)
mempe(R)-...-i
ajar (teach)
mempelajari (to study)
ke-...-an
hilang (disappear)
kehilangan (to lose)
di-...-i
sakit (pain)
disakiti (to be hurt by)
di-...-kan
benar (right)
dibenarkan (is allowed to)
dipe(R)-...-kan
kenal (know, recognise)
diperkenalkan (is being introduced)
Adjective affixes are attached to root words to form adjectives:
Type of adjective affixes
Affix
Example of root word
Example of derived word
Prefix
te(R)-
kenal (know)
terkenal (famous)
se-
lari (run)
selari (parallel)
Infix
-el-
serak (disperse)
selerak (messy)
-em-
cerlang (radiant bright)
cemerlang (bright, excellent)
-er-
sabut (husk)
serabut (dishevelled)
Circumfix
ke-...-an
barat (west)
kebaratan (westernized)
In addition to these affixes, Malay also has a lot of borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and English. For example maha-, pasca-, eka-, bi-, anti-, pro- etc.
[ | Tags: Compound word |
In Malay, new words can be formed by joining two or more root words. Compound words, when they exist freely in a sentence, are often written separately. Compound words are only attached to each other when they are bound by circumfix or when they are already considered as stable words.
For example, the word kereta which means car and api which means fire, are compounded to form a new word kereta api (train). Similarly, ambil alih (take over) is formed using the root words ambil (take) and alih (move), but will link together when a circumfix is attached to it, i.e. pengambilalihan (takeover). Certain stable words, such as kakitangan (personnel), and kerjasama (corporation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.
[ | Tags: Reduplication |
There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely
Full reduplication
Partial reduplication
Rhythmic reduplication
Reduplication of meaning
[ | Tags: Measure words |
Another distinguishing feature of Malay (include Indonesian Malay) is its use of measure words (penjodoh bilangan). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, and Bengali.
Measure words are similar to the English two head of cattle or a sheet of paper. Examples are:
measure word
used for measuring
literal translation
example
buah
thing (in general)
'fruit'
dua buah meja (two tables), lima buah rumah (five houses)
ekor
animal
'tail'
seekor ayam (a chicken), tiga ekor kambing (three goats)
orang
person, human
'person'
seorang lelaki (a man), enam orang petani (six farmers), seratus orang murid (a hundred students)
biji/ butir
rounded object including fruits, nuts and grains
'grain'
sebiji/ sebutir telur (an egg), sebiji epal (an apple), sebutir/ butiran-butiran beras (rice or rices)
[ | Tags: Function words |
There are 16 types of function words in Malay which perform a grammatical function in a sentence.[12] Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.
[ | Tags: Negations |
There are two negation words in Malay (include Indonesian Malay), that is bukan and tidak. Bukan is used to negate noun phrases and prepositions in a predicate, whereas tidak is used to negate verbs and adjectives phrases in a predicate.
Subject
Negation
Predicate
Lelaki yang berjalan dengan Birsilah itu
(That boy who is walking with Birsilah)
bukan
(is not)
teman lelakinya
(her boyfriend)
Surat itu
(The letter)
bukan
(is not)
daripada/ dari teman/ sahabat penanya di Perancis/ Prancis
(from his penpal in France)
Pelajar-pelajar itu
(Those students)
tidak
(do not)
mengikuti peraturan sekolah
(obey school regulations)
Penguasaan Bahasa Melayunya
(His command of Malay language)
tidak
(is not)
sempurna
(perfect)
The negative word bukan however, can be used before verb phrases and adjective phrases if the sentence shows contradictions.
Subject
Negation
Predicate
Contradiction
Karangan Izwah
(Izwah's composition)
bukan
(is not)
baik sangat/ sangat baik,
(very good,)
tetapi/ melainkan/ namun Izwah mendapat markah yang baik
(but Izwah received good marks)
Kilang/ Pabrik itu
(The factory)
bukan
(is not)
menghasilkan kereta Kancil,
(producing Kancil cars)
sebaliknya menghasilkan Proton Wira
(instead is producing Proton Wira)
[ | Tags: Grammatical gender |
Malay does not make use of grammatical gender, and there are only a few words that use natural gender; the same word is used for he and she or for his and her. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes. For example, adik can both refer to a younger sibling of either sex. In order to specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective has to be added: adik laki-laki corresponds to "brother" but really means "male younger sibling". There are some words that are gendered, for instance puteri means "princess", and putera means "prince"; words like these are usually absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from Sanskrit).
[ | Tags: Pluralization |
There is no grammatical plural in Malay. Plurality is expressed by the context, or the usage of words expressing plurality, and by reduplication when needed. However, reduplication has most of the time many other functions and meanings.
[ | Tags: Verbs |
Verbs are not inflected for person or number, and they are not marked for tense; tense is instead denoted by time adverbs (such as "yesterday") or by other tense indicators, such as sudah, "already". On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and denote active and passive voices or intentional and accidental moods. Some of these affixes are ignored in daily conversations.
[ | Tags: Word order |
The basic word order is Subject Verb Object. Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns follow the noun they modify.
[ | Tags: Borrowed words |
Main article: List of Malay loanwords
The Malay language has many words borrowed from Arabic (mainly religious terms), Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms).
[ | Tags: Basic phrases in Malay |
In Malaysia and Indonesia, to greet somebody with "Selamat pagi" or "Selamat sejahtera" would be considered very formal, and the borrowed word "Hi" would be more usual among friends; similarly "Bye-bye" is often used when taking one's leave. However if you're a Muslim and the Malay person you're talking to is also a Muslim, it would be more appropriate to use the Islamic greeting of ' Assalamualaikum '. Muslim Malays, especially in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, rarely use ' Selamat Pagi ' ( Good Morning ), ' Selamat Petang ' ( Good Afternoon ) , ' Selamat Malam ' ( Good Evening / Night ) or 'Selamat Tinggal / Jalan ' ( Good Bye ) when talking to one another.
Malay Phrase
IPA
English Translation
Selamat datang
/səlamat dataŋ/
Welcome (Used as a greeting)
Selamat jalan
/səlamat dʒalan/
Have a safe journey (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party staying)
Selamat tinggal
/səlamat tiŋɡal/
Have a safe stay (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party leaving)
Terima kasih
/tərima kasih/
Thank you
Sama-sama
/sama sama/
You are welcome (as in a response to Thank You)
Selamat pagi
/səlamat paɡi/
Good morning
Selamat petang
/səlamat pətaŋ/
Good afternoon/evening (note that 'Selamat petang' must not be used at night as in English. For a general greeting, use 'Selamat sejahtera')
Selamat sejahtera
/səlamat sədʒahtəra/
Greetings (formal). Please note however that this greeting is rarely used and would be unheard of among Malays especially in Malaysia and Singapore. Its usage might be awkward for the receiver.
Selamat malam
/səlamat malam/
Good night
Jumpa lagi
See you again
Siapakah nama awak/kamu?/Nama kamu siapa?
What is your name?
Nama saya ...
My name is ... (The relevant name is placed in front. For example, if your name was Munirah, then you would introduce yourself by saying "Nama saya Munirah", which translates to "My name is Munirah")
Apa khabar/kabar?
How are you? / What's up? (literally, "What news?")
Khabar/kabar baik
Fine, good news
Saya sakit
I'm sick
Ya
/ja/
Yes
Tidak ("tak" colloquially)
No
Ibu (Saya) sayang engkau/kamu (awak)
I love you (In a more of a family or affectionate sort of love, e.g.: mother to daughter, the Mother addresses herself as "Ibu" (mother) or Emak (Mother) instead of "Saya" for "I". And the mother also uses the informal "engkau" instead of "awak" for "you".) Generally amongst ethnic Malays "engkau" is considered a coarse way of referring to someone and would never be used to refer to one's mother whereas it is appropriate for a mother to refer to her child as "engkau".
Aku (Saya) cinta pada mu (awak)
I love you (romantic love. In romantic situation, use informal "Aku" instead of "Saya" for "I". And "Kamu" or just "Mu" for "You". In romance, in immediate family communication and in songs, informal pronouns are used). Please note that in Malay language, appropriate personal pronouns must be used depending on (1) whether the situation is formal or informal, (2) the social status of the people around the speaker and (3) the relationship of the speaker with the | Tags: |