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EspañolMALAY LANGUAGE
(Redirected from Malay Language)
The 'Malay language' (''Bahasa Melayu''; Jawi script: ), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo, Cocos and Christmas Islands in Australia, and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official language of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. It is very similar to Indonesian, known locally as ''Bahasa Indonesia'', the official language of Indonesia.
In Malaysia, the language is officially known as ''Bahasa Malaysia'', which translates as the "Malaysian language". The term, which was introduced by the National Language Act 1967, was predominant until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to "''Bahasa Melayu''," which is used in the Malay version of the Federal Constitution. According to Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, ''Bahasa Melayu'' is the official language of Malaysia. "''Bahasa kebangsaan''" (National language) was also used at one point during the 1970s.
In spoken Malay and Malaysian English, the language is also referred to by the initialism BM.
Indonesia adopted a form of Malay as its official language upon independence, naming it ''Bahasa Indonesia'' and although a large degree of mutual intelligibility exists, Indonesian is distinct in many ways from Malay as spoken in Malaysia. In Singapore and Brunei it is known simply as Malay or ''Bahasa Melayu''. 'Bahasa Melayu' is specified as the Brunei's official language by the country's 1959 Constitution.
However, many Malay dialects are not as mutually intelligible: for example, Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some Malaysians to understand, while Indonesian tends to have a lot of words unique to it which will be unfamiliar to other speakers of Malay.
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 dialect of Hokkien (Min Nan), which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca.
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 on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this linguistic family.
Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the family (including the Languages of the Philippines and Malagasy), which is further subdivided into Outer Hesperonesian languages and Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian of which Malay is a member. Malay's closest relatives therefore include Javanese, Acehnese, Chamorro and Palau (Belau), Gilbertese, Nauruan, Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan and Tuvaluan.
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. Many cognates are kinship terms, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities. For example, ''lima'' is practically the universal term for "five".
Malay is normally written using Latin alphabet called Rumi, although a modified Arabic script called Jawi also exists. 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. Latin alphabet, however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes.
Historically, Malay language has been written using various types of script. Before the introduction of Arabic script in the Malay region, Malay was written using Pallava, Kawi and Rencong script. 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 Sultanate of Malacca, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region.
During the period of Western colonization, the Portuguese, Dutch and British introduced Latin script and its use has since spread throughout the Malay region until today. Until the 1960s there were two separate systems of Romanization, one based on English and used in Malaya and one based on Dutch and used in Indonesia, in each case as an alternative to Jawi. In 1962 [check date] a common system was introduced by treaty between the two countries, which is now the sole official script.
In the colonial period a distinction was drawn between the standard literary Malay of the south of the Malay peninsula and the "bazaar Malay" which was the lingua franca of the islands (modern Indonesia), which was influenced by Javanese and other languages of the archipelago. To some extent this is reflected in the differences between official Malay (''bahasa Melayu'') and official Indonesian (''bahasa Indonesia'').
The extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Bahasa Melayu 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.
In Singapore, Malay was historically the ''lingua franca'' among people of different races and nationalities. Although this has largely given way to English, Malay still retains the status of national language and the national anthem, Majulah Singapura, is entirely in Malay.
Most residents of the five southernmost provinces of Thailand — a region that, for the most part, used to be part of an ancient Malay kingdom called Pattani — speak a dialect of Malay called Yawi (not to be confused with Jawi), which is similar to Kelantanese Malay, but the language has no official status or recognition.
Due to earlier contact with the Philippines, Malay words — such as ''dalam hati'' (sympathy), ''luwalhati'' (glory), ''tengah hari'' (midday), ''sedap'' (delicious) — have evolved and been integrated into Tagalog and other Philippine languages.
By contrast, Indonesian has successfully become the ''lingua franca'' for its disparate islands and ethnic groups, in part because the colonial language, Dutch, is no longer commonly spoken. (In East Timor, which was governed as a province of Indonesia from 1976 to 1999, Indonesian is widely spoken and recognized under its Constitution as a 'working language'.)
'Orthographic Notes':
★ The 'k' at the end of a word in native Malay words is pronounced as a glottal stop.
★ The combination of [] is represented as 'ngg'.
★ The letter 'x' is variously pronounced as [], [] or [].
There are two vowels represented by the letter "e", i.e. [, ] and []. Learners of Malay are expected to distinguish between the two sounds while learning each new word. (Before the joint spelling reform of 1972 between Malaysia and Indonesia, the two nations marked the difference in vowels. For unknown reasons, it was decided to drop the marking when the spellings were united.)
In some parts of Peninsular Malaysia, especially in the central and southern region, most words which end with the letter ''a'' tends to be pronounced as [].
Malay is an agglutinative language, and new words are formed via 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).
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'' (cooking, 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'' (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
★ '' ajar'an' '' = teachings
★ '' 'bel'ajar '' = is studying
★ '' 'meng'ajar '' = to teach
★ '' 'di'ajar '' = (something) is being taught
★ '' 'di'ajar'kan' '' = (someone) is being taught (something)
★ '' 'mempel'ajar'i' '' = to study (something)
★ '' 'dipel'ajar'i' '' = is being studied
★ '' 'pel'ajar '' = student
★ '' 'peng'ajar '' = teacher
★ '' 'pel'ajar'an' '' = subject
★ '' 'peng'ajar'an' '' = lesson, moral of story
★ '' 'pembel'ajar'an' '' = learning
★ '' 'ter'ajar '' = taught
★ '' 'terpel'ajar '' = well-educated
★ '' 'berpel'ajar'an' '' = 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:
(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 other letters will replace it, most commonly with the letters in the bracket or m, ng, ny and l.
Similarly, 'verb affixes' are attached to root words to form verbs. In Malay, there are:
'Adjective affixes' are attached to root words to form adjectives:
In addition to these affixes, Malay language 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.
In Malay, new words can be formed by joining two or more root words. Compound words, when 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'' (personel), and ''kerjasama'' (cooperation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.
There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely
★ Full reduplication
★ Partial reduplication
★ Rhythmic reduplication
★ Reduplication of meaning
Another distinguishing feature of Malay is its use of measure words (''penjodoh bilangan''). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Bengali.
In Malay, there are 4 parts of speech:
★ Nouns
★ Verbs
★ Adjectives
★ Function words
There are 16 types of function words in Malay which performs a grammatical function in a sentence. [2] Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.
There are two negation words in Malay, that is ''bukan'' and ''tidak''. ''Bukan'' is used to negate noun phrases and preposition in a predicate, whereas ''tidak'' is used to negate verbs and adjective phrases in a predicate.
The negative word ''bukan'' however, can be used before verb phrases and adjective phrases if the sentence shows contradictions.
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 gender. In order to specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective has to be added: ''adik lelaki'' 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).
Plurals are often expressed by means of reduplication, but only when the plural is not implied in the context. For example, "cup", which is 'cawan', would be 'cawan-cawan'. This can be shortened to 'cecawan', but this only applies to a list of words.
There are exceptions to this rule. Although "person" is ''orang'', "people" is not ''orang-orang'', but normally 'banyak orang' (literal translation: many persons). "One thousand people" is ''seribu orang'', as the numeral makes it unnecessary to mark the plural form. Besides expressing plurals, reduplication can also be used to create new words that differ in meaning before reduplication takes place, for instance ''hati'' means "heart" or "liver" (depending on context) whereas ''hati-hati'' means "to be careful" and it is often used as a verb. For foreigners who are learning Malay, reduplication is not as easy as it seems to be because one can say ''orang'' ("person") or ''orang-orang'' ("scarecrow"). Some write duplicates with a "2", e.g. ''orang2'' for ''orang-orang''.
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. Some of these affixes are ignored in daily conversations.
The basic word order is Subject Verb Object. Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns follow the noun they describe.
The Malay language has many words adopted from Arabic (mainly religious terms), Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms). Some examples follow:
★ aksi - ''action'' (from Dutch ''actie'')
★ almari - ''cupboard'' (from Portuguese ''armário'')
★ anggur - ''grape'' (from Persian انگور/''angur'')
★ bahasa - ''language'' (from Sanskrit ''bhāshā'')
★ bandar - ''town'' (from Persian بندر/''bandr'')
★ bangku - ''stool'' (from Portuguese ''banco'')
★ bendera - ''flag'' (from Portuguese ''bandeira'')
★ bihun - ''rice vermicelli'' (from Hokkien ''bi-hun'')
★ biola - ''violin'' (from Portuguese ''viola'')
★ biskut - ''biscuit'' (from English)
★ bomba - ''fire brigade'' (from Portuguese ''bomba'', "pump", or ''bombeiro'', "fireman", lit. "pumper")
★ boneka - ''doll'' (from Portuguese ''boneca'')
★ buat - ''do'' (from Sanskrit ''wuat'')
★ buku - ''book'' (from Dutch ''boek'')
★ bumi - ''earth'' (from Sanskrit ''bhumi'')
★ cawan - ''cup'' (from Mandarin ''cháwǎn'')
★ dakwah - ''sermon'' (from Arabic ''da3wah'')
★ dewan - ''hall'' (from Persian دیوان/''diwan'')
★ duka - ''sadness'' (from Sanskrit ''duhkha'')
★ dunia - ''world'' (from Arabic ''dunyā'')
★ falsafah - ''philosophy'' (from Arabic ''falsafah'')
★ gandum - ''wheat'' (from Persian گندم/''gandm'')
★ garfu - ''fork'' (from Portuguese ''garfo'')
★ gereja - ''church'' (from Portuguese ''igreja'')
★ gratis - ''for free'' (from Portuguese)
★ guru - ''teacher'' (from Sanskrit)
★ had - ''limit'' (from Arabic ''hadd'')
★ huruf - ''word character/letter'' (from Arabic ''urūf'')
★ ini - ''this'' (from Persian این)
★ jawab - ''to answer'' (from Arabic ''jawāb'')
★ jendela - ''window'' (from Portuguese ''janela'')
★ Khamis - ''Thursday'' (Arabic ''al-khamis'')
★ kamus - ''dictionary'' (from Arabic ''qāmūs'')
★ kapal - ''ship'' (from Tamil கப்பல்/''kappal'')
★ katil - ''bed'' (from Tamil கட்டில்/''kattil'')
★ kaunter - ''counter'' or ''desk'' (from English)
★ keju - ''cheese'' (from Portuguese ''queijo'')
★ kemeja - ''shirt'' (from Portuguese ''camisa'')
★ kepala - ''head'' (from Sanskrit ''kapala'' "skull")
★ kereta - ''carriage, car'' (from Portuguese ''carreta'')
★ komputer - ''computer'' (from English)
★ kongsi - ''share'' (from Hokkien 公司/''kong-si'')
★ kuda - ''horse'' (from Hindi ''kudh'')
★ kuil - ''temple'' (from Tamil கோவில்/''kovil'')
★ kurma - ''date'' (from Persian خرما/''Khurma'')
★ lif - ''lift, elevator'' (from English))
★ limau - ''lemon/orange'' (from Portuguese ''limão'' "lemon")
★ lori - ''lorry, truck'' (from English)
★ maaf - ''sorry'' (from Urdu ''māf'' "forgiveness")/(from Arabic ''Mafu'')
★ maha - ''great'' (from Sanskrit)
★ makmal - ''laboratory'' Arabic
★ mangga - ''mango'' (from Portuguese ''manga'')
★ manusia - ''human being'' (from Sanskrit ''manuya'')
★ mentega - ''butter'' (from Portuguese ''manteiga'')
★ mee/mi - ''noodles'' (from Hokkien ''mi'')
★ meja - ''table'' (from Portuguese ''mesa'')
★ misai - ''moustache'' (from Tamil மீசை/''meesai'')
★ miskin - ''poor'' (from Arabic ''miskiin'')
★ muflis - ''bankrupt'' (from Arabic ''muflis'')
★ nujum - ''astrologer'' (from Arabic ''al-nujum'')
★ nanas/nenas - ''pineapple'' (from Portuguese or Arabic ''ananás'')
★ paderi - ''priest (Christian)'' (from Portuguese ''padre'')
★ pau - ''bun'' (from Hokkien 包/''pau'')
★ pesta - ''party'' (from Portuguese ''festa'')
★ pita - ''tape'' (from Portuguese ''fita'')
★ putera - ''prince'' (from Sanskrit ''putra'' "son")
★ raja - ''king'' (from Sanskrit ''rāja'')
★ roda - ''wheel'' (from Portuguese ''roda'')
★ roti - ''bread'' (from Sanskrit ''roi'')
★ sabun - ''soap'' (from Arabic) ''sàbuun''
★ sains - ''science'' (from English)
★ - ''same'' (from Sanskrit)
★
★ sama-sama - ''together'' (derived from ''sama'' via reduplication)
★ sekolah - ''school'' (from Portuguese ''escola'')
★ sengsara - ''suffering'' (from Sanskrit ''sasara'')
★ sepatu - ''shoe'' (from Portuguese ''sapato'')
★ soldadu - ''soldier'' (from Portuguese ''soldado'')
★ syariah - ''Islamic law'' (from Arabic ''shāri`ah'')
★ syurga - ''Heaven'' (from Tamil சொர்கம்/''sorgam'')
★ syukur - ''thankful'' (from Arabic ''shukr'')
★ singahsana - ''location'' (from Sanskrit ''singahsanam'')
★ sistem - ''system'' (from English)
★ suka - ''happiness'' (from Sanskrit ''sukha'')
★ tangki - ''tank'' (from Portuguese ''tanque'')
★ tauhu - ''beancurd'' (from Hokkien ''tao-hu'')
★ tarikh - ''date'' (from Arabic ''tārīkh'')
★ teh - ''tea'' (from Hokkien ''t'')
★ teko - ''teapot'' (from Hokkien ''t-ko'')
★ televisyen - ''television'' (from English)
★ tuala - ''towel'' (from Portuguese ''toalha'')
★ tukar - ''to exchange'' (from Portuguese ''trocar'')
★ Agama - ''Religion'' (from Sanskrit ''agama'')
★ unta - ''camel'' (from Urdu ''ūn'')
★ utara - ''north'' (from Sanskrit ''uttara'')
★ warna - ''colour'' (from Sanskrit ''varnam'')
★ waktu - ''time'' (from Arabic ''waqt'')
★ wira - ''hero'' (from Tamil வீரா/''veera'')
★ zirafah - ''giraffe'' (from Arabic ''zirāfah'')
Some Malay words have been borrowed into English. See the at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sister project.
Malay language has also heavily influenced the forms of colloquial English spoken in Malaysia (Manglish).
In Malaysia, to greet somebody with "Selamat pagi" or "Selamat sejahtera" would be considered very formal, and the borrowed word "Hi" would be more usually among friends; similarly "Bye-bye" is often used when taking one's leave.
While sending SMS messages on their mobile phones, or being logged into Internet chat rooms, Malay-speaking youths tend to abbreviate their words to save message space or simply be quick in sending their messages, e.g. 'x' - ''tak'', ''tidak'' (no; not); 'bkn' - ''bukan'' (not); 'bleh' - ''boleh'' (can, i.e. able to). They even alter the spellings of certain full words, e.g. 'ko' - ''(eng)kau'' (you); 'ye' - ''ya'' (yes). They even merge two words into a new one in place of a word of the same meaning in formal Malay, e.g. ''diorang'' (''dia'' and ''orang'').
There is a new set of slang spoken by the urban youth, which may not be familiar to the older generation, e.g. ''awek'' (girl); ''balak'' (guy); ''usha'' (survey); ''skodeng'' (peep); ''cun'' (pretty); ''poyo/slenge'' (horrible, low-quality) etc. The youth also tend to mix Malay with English words, forming Bahasa Rojak. Example of this pidgin is:'' 'Best'lah tempat ni'' (This place is cool);''kau ni 'terror' lah'' (How daring you are; you're fabulous). This issue has raised the displeasure of language purists in Malaysia, in their effort to uphold the proper use of the national language.
There are many different Malay dictionaries. In Malaysia, the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) dictionary is the chief arbiter for the language, and is considered the authority in defining Malay usage. Some other dictionaries are:
★ Kamus Dewan
★ Kamus Pelajar
★ Kamus Oxford
★ Kamus Besar
★ The and at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project
★ Jawi, an adapted Arabic alphabet for Malay
★ Kamus Dewan, one of the best selling Malay language dictionaries in Malaysia.
★ Indonesian language
★ Differences between Malay and Indonesian
★ Malay-based creole languages
★ Manado Malay
★ Malaysian English, English language used formally in Malaysia.
★ Rojak language
★
★ Hamzah Fansuri, a famous Malay poet
★ List of English words of Malay origin
1. [1]
2. [2]
★ The Extent of the Influence of Tamil on the Malay Language: A Comparative Study - Dr. T.Wignesan
★ Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
★ Basic Course in the Malay Language (GOH Peng Joo)
★ Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature Malaysia, in Malay only)
★ English - Malay Online Dictionary from Focus on Malaysia
★ Ethnologue report for Malay
★ Good Translation Service. English - Malay & Malay - English
★ Malay - Chinese Online Dictionary (ekamus)
★ Malay - English Online Dictionary (Dr Bhanot's)
★ Malay - English Online Dictionary (All Free Dictionaries)
★ Malay - English Online Dictionary (from Malay to English only) from Webster's Dictionary
★ Malay - English - Chinese Online Dictionary (cari.com.my)
★ Malay - English Text translation (LinguaWEB)
★ Malay language questions forum & small Malay - English - Finnish dictionary
★ Tatabahasa, Portal Pendidikan Utusan
★ The Malay Spelling Reform, Asmah Haji Omar, (Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society, 1989-2 pp.9-13 later designated J11)
The 'Malay language' (''Bahasa Melayu''; Jawi script: ), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo, Cocos and Christmas Islands in Australia, and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official language of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. It is very similar to Indonesian, known locally as ''Bahasa Indonesia'', the official language of Indonesia.
In Malaysia, the language is officially known as ''Bahasa Malaysia'', which translates as the "Malaysian language". The term, which was introduced by the National Language Act 1967, was predominant until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to "''Bahasa Melayu''," which is used in the Malay version of the Federal Constitution. According to Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, ''Bahasa Melayu'' is the official language of Malaysia. "''Bahasa kebangsaan''" (National language) was also used at one point during the 1970s.
In spoken Malay and Malaysian English, the language is also referred to by the initialism BM.
Indonesia adopted a form of Malay as its official language upon independence, naming it ''Bahasa Indonesia'' and although a large degree of mutual intelligibility exists, Indonesian is distinct in many ways from Malay as spoken in Malaysia. In Singapore and Brunei it is known simply as Malay or ''Bahasa Melayu''. 'Bahasa Melayu' is specified as the Brunei's official language by the country's 1959 Constitution.
However, many Malay dialects are not as mutually intelligible: for example, Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some Malaysians to understand, while Indonesian tends to have a lot of words unique to it which will be unfamiliar to other speakers of Malay.
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 dialect of Hokkien (Min Nan), which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca.
Classification and related languages
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 on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this linguistic family.
Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the family (including the Languages of the Philippines and Malagasy), which is further subdivided into Outer Hesperonesian languages and Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian of which Malay is a member. Malay's closest relatives therefore include Javanese, Acehnese, Chamorro and Palau (Belau), Gilbertese, Nauruan, Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan and Tuvaluan.
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. Many cognates are kinship terms, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities. For example, ''lima'' is practically the universal term for "five".
Writing system
Malay is normally written using Latin alphabet called Rumi, although a modified Arabic script called Jawi also exists. 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. Latin alphabet, however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes.
Historically, Malay language has been written using various types of script. Before the introduction of Arabic script in the Malay region, Malay was written using Pallava, Kawi and Rencong script. 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 Sultanate of Malacca, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region.
During the period of Western colonization, the Portuguese, Dutch and British introduced Latin script and its use has since spread throughout the Malay region until today. Until the 1960s there were two separate systems of Romanization, one based on English and used in Malaya and one based on Dutch and used in Indonesia, in each case as an alternative to Jawi. In 1962 [check date] a common system was introduced by treaty between the two countries, which is now the sole official script.
Extent of use
In the colonial period a distinction was drawn between the standard literary Malay of the south of the Malay peninsula and the "bazaar Malay" which was the lingua franca of the islands (modern Indonesia), which was influenced by Javanese and other languages of the archipelago. To some extent this is reflected in the differences between official Malay (''bahasa Melayu'') and official Indonesian (''bahasa Indonesia'').
The extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Bahasa Melayu 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.
In Singapore, Malay was historically the ''lingua franca'' among people of different races and nationalities. Although this has largely given way to English, Malay still retains the status of national language and the national anthem, Majulah Singapura, is entirely in Malay.
Most residents of the five southernmost provinces of Thailand — a region that, for the most part, used to be part of an ancient Malay kingdom called Pattani — speak a dialect of Malay called Yawi (not to be confused with Jawi), which is similar to Kelantanese Malay, but the language has no official status or recognition.
Due to earlier contact with the Philippines, Malay words — such as ''dalam hati'' (sympathy), ''luwalhati'' (glory), ''tengah hari'' (midday), ''sedap'' (delicious) — have evolved and been integrated into Tagalog and other Philippine languages.
By contrast, Indonesian has successfully become the ''lingua franca'' for its disparate islands and ethnic groups, in part because the colonial language, Dutch, is no longer commonly spoken. (In East Timor, which was governed as a province of Indonesia from 1976 to 1999, Indonesian is widely spoken and recognized under its Constitution as a 'working language'.)
Phonology
| Bilabial | Labio- Dental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar or palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives and affricates | 'p' [] | 'b' [] | 't' [] | 'd' [] | 'c' [] | 'j' [] | 'k' [] | 'g' [] | 'q' [] | ' | ||||||
| Nasals | 'm' [] | 'n' [] | 'ny' [] | 'ng' [] | ||||||||||||
| Fricatives | 'f' [] | 'v' [, ] | 'ts' [] | 'dz' [] | 's' [] | 'z' [] | 'sy' [, , sj] | 'kh' [] | 'h' [] | |||||||
| Approximants | 'w' [] | 'y' [] | ||||||||||||||
| Trill | 'r' [] | |||||||||||||||
| Tap | 'r' [] | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral | 'l' [] | |||||||||||||||
'Orthographic Notes':
★ The 'k' at the end of a word in native Malay words is pronounced as a glottal stop.
★ The combination of [] is represented as 'ngg'.
★ The letter 'x' is variously pronounced as [], [] or [].
| Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | 'i' [] | 'u' [] | |
| Mid | 'e' [, ] | 'e' [] | 'o' [, ] |
| Open | 'a' [] | 'a' [] |
| Orthography | IPA |
|---|---|
| 'ai' | [, ] |
| 'au' | [, ] |
| 'ua' | [] |
There are two vowels represented by the letter "e", i.e. [, ] and []. Learners of Malay are expected to distinguish between the two sounds while learning each new word. (Before the joint spelling reform of 1972 between Malaysia and Indonesia, the two nations marked the difference in vowels. For unknown reasons, it was decided to drop the marking when the spellings were united.)
In some parts of Peninsular Malaysia, especially in the central and southern region, most words which end with the letter ''a'' tends to be pronounced as [].
Grammar
Word Formation
Malay is an agglutinative language, and new words are formed via 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).
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'' (cooking, 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'' (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
★ '' ajar'an' '' = teachings
★ '' 'bel'ajar '' = is studying
★ '' 'meng'ajar '' = to teach
★ '' 'di'ajar '' = (something) is being taught
★ '' 'di'ajar'kan' '' = (someone) is being taught (something)
★ '' 'mempel'ajar'i' '' = to study (something)
★ '' 'dipel'ajar'i' '' = is being studied
★ '' 'pel'ajar '' = student
★ '' 'peng'ajar '' = teacher
★ '' 'pel'ajar'an' '' = subject
★ '' 'peng'ajar'an' '' = lesson, moral of story
★ '' 'pembel'ajar'an' '' = learning
★ '' 'ter'ajar '' = taught
★ '' 'terpel'ajar '' = well-educated
★ '' 'berpel'ajar'an' '' = 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, kingdom) |
| 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 other letters will replace it, most commonly with the letters in the bracket or m, ng, ny and 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'' (to be paired) |
| be(R)-...-kan | ''tajuk'' (title) | ''bertajukkan'' (to be titled, to entitle) | |
| me(N)-...-kan | ''pasti'' (certain) | ''memastikan'' (to ensure) | |
| me(N)-...-i | ''teman'' (companion) | ''menemani'' (to accompany) | |
| mempe(R)-...-kan | ''guna'' (use) | ''mempergunakan'' (to misuse, to utilise) | |
| mempe(R)-...-i | ''ajar'' (teach) | ''mempelajari'' (to study) | |
| ke-...-an | ''hilang'' (disappear) | ''kehilangan'' (to lose) | |
| di-...-i | ''sakit'' (pain) | ''disakiti'' (is being hurt) | |
| 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- | ''bijak'' (clever) | ''sebijak'' (as clever as) | |
| 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 language 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.
Compound word
In Malay, new words can be formed by joining two or more root words. Compound words, when 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'' (personel), and ''kerjasama'' (cooperation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.
Reduplication
There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely
★ Full reduplication
★ Partial reduplication
★ Rhythmic reduplication
★ Reduplication of meaning
Measure words
Another distinguishing feature of Malay is its use of measure words (''penjodoh bilangan''). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Bengali.
Part of Speech
In Malay, there are 4 parts of speech:
★ Nouns
★ Verbs
★ Adjectives
★ Function words
Function words
There are 16 types of function words in Malay which performs a grammatical function in a sentence. [2] Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.
Negations
There are two negation words in Malay, that is ''bukan'' and ''tidak''. ''Bukan'' is used to negate noun phrases and preposition in a predicate, whereas ''tidak'' is used to negate verbs and adjective phrases in a predicate.
| Subject | Negation | Predicate |
|---|---|---|
| ''Lelaki yang berjalan dengan Fazila itu'' (That boy who is walking with Fazila) | ''bukan'' (is not) | ''teman lelakinya'' (her boyfriend) |
| ''Surat itu'' (The letter) | ''bukan'' (is not) | ''daripada teman penanya di Perancis'' (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ''Karangannya'' (His composition) | ''bukan'' (is not) | ''baik sangat'', (very good,) | ''tetapi dia mendapat markah yang baik'' (but he received good marks) |
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 gender. In order to specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective has to be added: ''adik lelaki'' 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).
Pluralisation
Plurals are often expressed by means of reduplication, but only when the plural is not implied in the context. For example, "cup", which is 'cawan', would be 'cawan-cawan'. This can be shortened to 'cecawan', but this only applies to a list of words.
There are exceptions to this rule. Although "person" is ''orang'', "people" is not ''orang-orang'', but normally 'banyak orang' (literal translation: many persons). "One thousand people" is ''seribu orang'', as the numeral makes it unnecessary to mark the plural form. Besides expressing plurals, reduplication can also be used to create new words that differ in meaning before reduplication takes place, for instance ''hati'' means "heart" or "liver" (depending on context) whereas ''hati-hati'' means "to be careful" and it is often used as a verb. For foreigners who are learning Malay, reduplication is not as easy as it seems to be because one can say ''orang'' ("person") or ''orang-orang'' ("scarecrow"). Some write duplicates with a "2", e.g. ''orang2'' for ''orang-orang''.
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. Some of these affixes are ignored in daily conversations.
Word order
The basic word order is Subject Verb Object. Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns follow the noun they describe.
Adopted words
The Malay language has many words adopted from Arabic (mainly religious terms), Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms). Some examples follow:
★ aksi - ''action'' (from Dutch ''actie'')
★ almari - ''cupboard'' (from Portuguese ''armário'')
★ anggur - ''grape'' (from Persian انگور/''angur'')
★ bahasa - ''language'' (from Sanskrit ''bhāshā'')
★ bandar - ''town'' (from Persian بندر/''bandr'')
★ bangku - ''stool'' (from Portuguese ''banco'')
★ bendera - ''flag'' (from Portuguese ''bandeira'')
★ bihun - ''rice vermicelli'' (from Hokkien ''bi-hun'')
★ biola - ''violin'' (from Portuguese ''viola'')
★ biskut - ''biscuit'' (from English)
★ bomba - ''fire brigade'' (from Portuguese ''bomba'', "pump", or ''bombeiro'', "fireman", lit. "pumper")
★ boneka - ''doll'' (from Portuguese ''boneca'')
★ buat - ''do'' (from Sanskrit ''wuat'')
★ buku - ''book'' (from Dutch ''boek'')
★ bumi - ''earth'' (from Sanskrit ''bhumi'')
★ cawan - ''cup'' (from Mandarin ''cháwǎn'')
★ dakwah - ''sermon'' (from Arabic ''da3wah'')
★ dewan - ''hall'' (from Persian دیوان/''diwan'')
★ duka - ''sadness'' (from Sanskrit ''duhkha'')
★ dunia - ''world'' (from Arabic ''dunyā'')
★ falsafah - ''philosophy'' (from Arabic ''falsafah'')
★ gandum - ''wheat'' (from Persian گندم/''gandm'')
★ garfu - ''fork'' (from Portuguese ''garfo'')
★ gereja - ''church'' (from Portuguese ''igreja'')
★ gratis - ''for free'' (from Portuguese)
★ guru - ''teacher'' (from Sanskrit)
★ had - ''limit'' (from Arabic ''hadd'')
★ huruf - ''word character/letter'' (from Arabic ''urūf'')
★ ini - ''this'' (from Persian این)
★ jawab - ''to answer'' (from Arabic ''jawāb'')
★ jendela - ''window'' (from Portuguese ''janela'')
★ Khamis - ''Thursday'' (Arabic ''al-khamis'')
★ kamus - ''dictionary'' (from Arabic ''qāmūs'')
★ kapal - ''ship'' (from Tamil கப்பல்/''kappal'')
★ katil - ''bed'' (from Tamil கட்டில்/''kattil'')
★ kaunter - ''counter'' or ''desk'' (from English)
★ keju - ''cheese'' (from Portuguese ''queijo'')
★ kemeja - ''shirt'' (from Portuguese ''camisa'')
★ kepala - ''head'' (from Sanskrit ''kapala'' "skull")
★ kereta - ''carriage, car'' (from Portuguese ''carreta'')
★ komputer - ''computer'' (from English)
★ kongsi - ''share'' (from Hokkien 公司/''kong-si'')
★ kuda - ''horse'' (from Hindi ''kudh'')
★ kuil - ''temple'' (from Tamil கோவில்/''kovil'')
★ kurma - ''date'' (from Persian خرما/''Khurma'')
★ lif - ''lift, elevator'' (from English))
★ limau - ''lemon/orange'' (from Portuguese ''limão'' "lemon")
★ lori - ''lorry, truck'' (from English)
★ maaf - ''sorry'' (from Urdu ''māf'' "forgiveness")/(from Arabic ''Mafu'')
★ maha - ''great'' (from Sanskrit)
★ makmal - ''laboratory'' Arabic
★ mangga - ''mango'' (from Portuguese ''manga'')
★ manusia - ''human being'' (from Sanskrit ''manuya'')
★ mentega - ''butter'' (from Portuguese ''manteiga'')
★ mee/mi - ''noodles'' (from Hokkien ''mi'')
★ meja - ''table'' (from Portuguese ''mesa'')
★ misai - ''moustache'' (from Tamil மீசை/''meesai'')
★ miskin - ''poor'' (from Arabic ''miskiin'')
★ muflis - ''bankrupt'' (from Arabic ''muflis'')
★ nujum - ''astrologer'' (from Arabic ''al-nujum'')
★ nanas/nenas - ''pineapple'' (from Portuguese or Arabic ''ananás'')
★ paderi - ''priest (Christian)'' (from Portuguese ''padre'')
★ pau - ''bun'' (from Hokkien 包/''pau'')
★ pesta - ''party'' (from Portuguese ''festa'')
★ pita - ''tape'' (from Portuguese ''fita'')
★ putera - ''prince'' (from Sanskrit ''putra'' "son")
★ raja - ''king'' (from Sanskrit ''rāja'')
★ roda - ''wheel'' (from Portuguese ''roda'')
★ roti - ''bread'' (from Sanskrit ''roi'')
★ sabun - ''soap'' (from Arabic) ''sàbuun''
★ sains - ''science'' (from English)
★ - ''same'' (from Sanskrit)
★
★ sama-sama - ''together'' (derived from ''sama'' via reduplication)
★ sekolah - ''school'' (from Portuguese ''escola'')
★ sengsara - ''suffering'' (from Sanskrit ''sasara'')
★ sepatu - ''shoe'' (from Portuguese ''sapato'')
★ soldadu - ''soldier'' (from Portuguese ''soldado'')
★ syariah - ''Islamic law'' (from Arabic ''shāri`ah'')
★ syurga - ''Heaven'' (from Tamil சொர்கம்/''sorgam'')
★ syukur - ''thankful'' (from Arabic ''shukr'')
★ singahsana - ''location'' (from Sanskrit ''singahsanam'')
★ sistem - ''system'' (from English)
★ suka - ''happiness'' (from Sanskrit ''sukha'')
★ tangki - ''tank'' (from Portuguese ''tanque'')
★ tauhu - ''beancurd'' (from Hokkien ''tao-hu'')
★ tarikh - ''date'' (from Arabic ''tārīkh'')
★ teh - ''tea'' (from Hokkien ''t'')
★ teko - ''teapot'' (from Hokkien ''t-ko'')
★ televisyen - ''television'' (from English)
★ tuala - ''towel'' (from Portuguese ''toalha'')
★ tukar - ''to exchange'' (from Portuguese ''trocar'')
★ Agama - ''Religion'' (from Sanskrit ''agama'')
★ unta - ''camel'' (from Urdu ''ūn'')
★ utara - ''north'' (from Sanskrit ''uttara'')
★ warna - ''colour'' (from Sanskrit ''varnam'')
★ waktu - ''time'' (from Arabic ''waqt'')
★ wira - ''hero'' (from Tamil வீரா/''veera'')
★ zirafah - ''giraffe'' (from Arabic ''zirāfah'')
Some Malay words have been borrowed into English. See the at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sister project.
Malay language has also heavily influenced the forms of colloquial English spoken in Malaysia (Manglish).
Some simple phrases in Malay
In Malaysia, to greet somebody with "Selamat pagi" or "Selamat sejahtera" would be considered very formal, and the borrowed word "Hi" would be more usually among friends; similarly "Bye-bye" is often used when taking one's leave.
| 'Malay Phrase' | IPA | 'English Translation' |
| Selamat datang | // | ''Welcome'' |
| Selamat jalan | // | ''Have a safe journey'' (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party staying) |
| Selamat tinggal | // | ''Goodbye'' (Somewhat equivalent to "stay safe", used by the party leaving) |
| Terima kasih | // | ''Thank you'' |
| Sama-sama | // | ''You are welcome'' (as in a response to Thank You) |
| Selamat pagi | // | ''Good morning'' |
| Selamat petang | // | ''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 | // | ''Greetings'' (formal) |
| Selamat malam | // | ''Good night'' (Use when ending a meet during the night. To greet someone at night, use 'Selamat Sejahtera') |
| Jumpa lagi | ''See you again'' | |
| Apakah nama anda?/Nama awak apa? | ''What is your name?'' | |
| Nama saya ... | ''My name is ...'' (The relevant name is placed in front. For example, if your name was ''Jessha'', then you would introduce yourself by saying "Nama saya ''Jessha''", which translates to "My name is ''Jessha''") | |
| Apa khabar? | ''How are you? / What's up?'' (literally, "What news?") | |
| Khabar baik | ''Fine,'' ''good'' | |
| Saya sakit | ''I am ill'' | |
| Ya | // | ''Yes'' |
| Tidak ("tak" colloquially) | ''No'' | |
| Saya sayang padamu | ''I love you'' (In a more of a family or affectionate sort of love, e.g.: mother to daughter) | |
| Saya cinta awak (/padamu) | ''I love you'' (romantic love) | |
| Saya tidak faham (or simply "tak faham" colloquially) | ''I do not understand'' | |
| Saya tidak tahu (or "tak tau" colloquially. Some say "sik tau") | ''I do not know'' | |
| (Minta) maaf | ''Sorry'' or ''Excuse Me'' ('minta' is to request. Begin with 'Minta Maaf' when trying to talk to strangers) | |
| Tumpang tanya | "May I ask...?" (used when trying to ask something) | |
| (Minta) tolong | ''Please help (me)'' ('Tolong!' on its own just means "help!") | |
| Apa | "what?" | |
| Tiada | "Nothing" |
Usage among the younger generation
While sending SMS messages on their mobile phones, or being logged into Internet chat rooms, Malay-speaking youths tend to abbreviate their words to save message space or simply be quick in sending their messages, e.g. 'x' - ''tak'', ''tidak'' (no; not); 'bkn' - ''bukan'' (not); 'bleh' - ''boleh'' (can, i.e. able to). They even alter the spellings of certain full words, e.g. 'ko' - ''(eng)kau'' (you); 'ye' - ''ya'' (yes). They even merge two words into a new one in place of a word of the same meaning in formal Malay, e.g. ''diorang'' (''dia'' and ''orang'').
There is a new set of slang spoken by the urban youth, which may not be familiar to the older generation, e.g. ''awek'' (girl); ''balak'' (guy); ''usha'' (survey); ''skodeng'' (peep); ''cun'' (pretty); ''poyo/slenge'' (horrible, low-quality) etc. The youth also tend to mix Malay with English words, forming Bahasa Rojak. Example of this pidgin is:'' 'Best'lah tempat ni'' (This place is cool);''kau ni 'terror' lah'' (How daring you are; you're fabulous). This issue has raised the displeasure of language purists in Malaysia, in their effort to uphold the proper use of the national language.
Dictionary
There are many different Malay dictionaries. In Malaysia, the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) dictionary is the chief arbiter for the language, and is considered the authority in defining Malay usage. Some other dictionaries are:
★ Kamus Dewan
★ Kamus Pelajar
★ Kamus Oxford
★ Kamus Besar
See also
★ The and at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project
★ Jawi, an adapted Arabic alphabet for Malay
★ Kamus Dewan, one of the best selling Malay language dictionaries in Malaysia.
★ Indonesian language
★ Differences between Malay and Indonesian
★ Malay-based creole languages
★ Manado Malay
★ Malaysian English, English language used formally in Malaysia.
★ Rojak language
★
★ Hamzah Fansuri, a famous Malay poet
★ List of English words of Malay origin
References
1. [1]
2. [2]
External links
★ The Extent of the Influence of Tamil on the Malay Language: A Comparative Study - Dr. T.Wignesan
★ Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
★ Basic Course in the Malay Language (GOH Peng Joo)
★ Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature Malaysia, in Malay only)
★ English - Malay Online Dictionary from Focus on Malaysia
★ Ethnologue report for Malay
★ Good Translation Service. English - Malay & Malay - English
★ Malay - Chinese Online Dictionary (ekamus)
★ Malay - English Online Dictionary (Dr Bhanot's)
★ Malay - English Online Dictionary (All Free Dictionaries)
★ Malay - English Online Dictionary (from Malay to English only) from Webster's Dictionary
★ Malay - English - Chinese Online Dictionary (cari.com.my)
★ Malay - English Text translation (LinguaWEB)
★ Malay language questions forum & small Malay - English - Finnish dictionary
★ Tatabahasa, Portal Pendidikan Utusan
★ The Malay Spelling Reform, Asmah Haji Omar, (Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society, 1989-2 pp.9-13 later designated J11)
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psst.. try this: add to faves
