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Malay language
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The Malay language (ISO 639-1 code: ms) is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in Peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau Islands and parts of the coast of Borneo.
There are many hypotheses as to where the Malay language originated from. One of it is from Sumatra island, western archipelago of Indonesia, then it spread throughout Nusantara.
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The Malay language (ISO 639-1 code: ms) is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in Peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau Islands and parts of the coast of Borneo.
There are many hypotheses as to where the Malay language originated from. One of it is from Sumatra island, western archipelago of Indonesia, then it spread throughout Nusantara. Another hypothesis is it originated from the Sunda-Sulawesi languages, which spread from the Javanese Empire throughout the Nusantara. Malay is an official language of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore. In Indonesia and East Timor, the language is formally referred to as Bahasa Indonesia which literally translates as "Indonesian language", rather than Bahasa Melayu. It is also called Bahasa Kebangsaan (National Language) and Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu (Unifying Language) in Indonesia. In Malaysia, the language is now officially known as Bahasa Malaysia, ("Malaysian language".) Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand refer to the language as Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language").
Indonesia pronounced Bahasa Melayu its official language when it gained independence, calling it Bahasa Indonesia. However, the language had been used as the lingua franca throughout the archipelago since the 15th century. Since 1928, nationalists and young people throughout the Indonesian archipelago have declared it to be Indonesia's only official language, as proclaimed in the Sumpah Pemuda "Youth Vow." Thus it made Indonesia as the first country that use the Bahasa language Bahasa Indonesia as an official language.
In Malaysia, the term Bahasa Malaysia, which was introduced by the National Language Act of 1967, 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 Constitution, Bahasa Melayu is the official language of Malaysia. "Bahasa Kebangsaan" (National Language) was also used at one point during the 1970s. However, at present day, Malaysians prefer to identify their national language as Bahasa Malaysia once again.
Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia are separated by some centuries of different vocabulary development. The "Bahasa" in Indonesia is distinct by its vocabulary from the "Bahasa" as spoken in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Singapore and Brunei follow Malaysian-style Bahasa language. Similar to Malaysia in the mid 1990's, "Bahasa Melayu" is defined as Brunei's official language in the country's 1959 Constitution.
Some Malay dialects, however, show only limited mutual intelligibility with the standard language; for example, Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some fellow Malay Malaysians to understand, while Indonesian contains a lot of words unique to it that are unfamiliar to other speakers of the Bahasa language who are not from Indonesia.
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.
History
The history of the Malay language can be divided into four periods: Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, and Late Modern Malay.
Old Malay is unintelligible to a speaker of modern Malay. 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 Script 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 from influence of Islamic literature. The development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Persian and Hindi or Sanskrit vocabularies. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognizable to speakers of modern Malay.
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 in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this linguistic family.
Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the family, which includes 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 Palauan.
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.
Writing system
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 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 influences, Jawi was gradually replaced by the Rumi script.
Extent of use and dialects
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.
Phonology
Note: this article uses the orthography of Malaysian Malay. For Indonesian orthography, see Indonesian language.
Orthographic Note:
- The combination of is represented as ngg.
caption | Table of vowel phonemes of Malay | Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|
| Close | i | | u |
|---|
| Mid | e , | e | o , |
|---|
| Open | | a | a |
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caption | Table diphthongs of Malay| 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.
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 as .
Grammar
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).
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
- 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 (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 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.
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.
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.
Measure words cannot be translated into English. Examples are :
| measure word | used for measuring | literary translation | example |
|---|
| buah | thing (in general) | 'fruit' | dua buah meja (two tables), lima buah rumah (five houses) | | orang | person, human | 'person' | seorang lelaki (a man), enam orang petani (six farmers), seratus orang murid (a hundred students) | | butir | rounded object | 'grain' | sebutir telur (an egg) |
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 perform a grammatical function in a sentence. 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 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 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) | Kilang itu
(The factory) | bukan
(is not) | menghasilkan kereta Kancil,
(producing Kancil cars) | sebaliknya menghasilkan Proton Wira
(instead is producing Proton Wira) |
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).
Pluralization
Plurals are often expressed by means of reduplication, but only when the plural is not implied in the context. For example, the plural of "bawang", which means "onion", would be "bawang-bawang". This can be shortened to "bebawang", but this only applies to a limited number of words. Reduplication to mark pluralization is often in complementary distribution with numeral markers, for example "one thousand onions" would be "seribu bawang" and not "seribu bawang-bawang".
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.
Word order
The basic word order is Subject Verb Object. Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns follow the noun they describe.
Borrowed words
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).
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 usual among friends; similarly "Bye-bye" is often used when taking one's leave.
| Malay Phrase | IPA | English Translation | | Selamat datang | | Welcome (Used as a greeting) | | Selamat jalan | | Have a safe journey (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party staying) | | Selamat tinggal | | Goodbye (Lit translation: "Good stay", used by the party going) | | 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 | | Jumpa lagi | | See you again | | Siapakah nama awak?/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 Munirah, then you would introduce yourself by saying "Nama saya Munirah", which translates to "My name is Munirah") | | Apa khabar? | | How are you? / What's up? (literally, "What news?") | | Khabar baik | | Fine, good news | | Saya sakit | | I'm sick | | Ya | | 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".) | | 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 person spoken to and/or with people around the speaker. For learners of Malay language, it is advised that you stick to formal personal pronouns when speaking Malay to Malays and Indonesians. You risk being considered as rude if you use informal personal pronouns in inappropriate situations. | | Saya benci awak | | I hate you | | Saya tidak faham (or simply "tak faham" colloquially) | | I do not understand | | Saya tidak tahu (or "tak tau" colloquially or "sik tau" in Sarawak) | | I do not know | | (Minta) maaf | | I apologise ('minta' is to request) | | 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 |
Colloquial and contemporary usage
Contemporary usage of Malay includes a set of slang words, formed by innovations of standard Malay words or incorporated from other languages, spoken by the urban speech community, 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. New plural pronouns have also been formed out of the original pronouns and the word orang ("people"), i.e. kitorang (kita + orang, the exclusive "we", in place of kami); korang (kau + orang, "you"); diorang or derang (dia + orang, "they").
The Malay-speaking community, especially in Kuala Lumpur, also code-switch between English and Malay in their speech, forming Bahasa Rojak. Examples of the borrowings are: Bestlah tempat ni (This place is cool);kau ni terror lah (How daring you are; you're fabulous). Consequently, this phenomenon has raised the displeasure of language purists in Malaysia, in their effort to uphold the proper use of the national language.
The following are some contractions used by Malay-speaking youths:
Non-formal
Word | Formal
Word | English
Translation |
|---|
| bleh | boleh | can, able to | | ko | engkau | you | | nape | kenapa | why | | gi | pergi | go | | kat | dekat/di | at | | ne | mana | where | | tau | tahu | know | | je | sahaja | only | | awek | gadis | girl/girlfriend | | balak | pemuda | boy/boyfriend | | skodeng | mengintai | peep | | cun | cantik | pretty | | jom | mari | let's go | | poyo/selenge | buruk | horrible | | blah | beredar | go away | | meh | mari | come | | apsal | apa pasal | why | | tak yah | tidak payah | not necessary | | pastu | selepas itu | after that | | amik | ambil | take | | pukimak | celaka | damn/fuck | | noki | pondan | faggot | | bongok | bodoh | idiot |
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 (Institute Dictionary)
- Kamus Pelajar (Student Dictionary)
- Kamus Oxford (Oxford Dictionary)
- Kamus Besar (Big Dictionary)
See also
- The list of Malay words and list of words of Malay origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project
External links
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- from
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- , Asmah Haji Omar, (Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society, 1989-2 pp.9-13 later designated J11)
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