Malay language

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Not to be confused with the Malayalam language, spoken in India.
Malay
Bahasa Melayu
بهاس ملايو
Spoken in: Malaysia, parts of Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, southern Thailand, southern Philippines 
Region: Southeast Asia
Total speakers: 20–30 million 
Ranking: 54
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian (MP)
  Nuclear MP
   Sunda-Sulawesi
    Malayic
     Malayan
      Local Malay
       Malay 
Official status
Official language of: Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore
Regulated by: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: ms
ISO 639-2: may (B)  msa (T)
ISO/FDIS 639-3: variously:
msa — Malay (generic)
mly — Malay (specific)
btj — Bacanese Malay
bve — Berau Malay
bvu — Bukit Malay
coa — Cocos Islands Malay
jax — Jambi Malay
meo — Kedah Malay
mqg — Kota Bangun Kutai Malay
xmm — Manado Malay
max — North Moluccan Malay
mfa — Pattani Malay
msi — Sabah Malay
vkt — Tenggarong Kutai Malay
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia, 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, and parts of the coast of Borneo. 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. The official standard for Malay, as agreed upon by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, is the form spoken in the Riau Islands just south of Singapore, long considered the birthplace of the Malay language.

In Malaysia, the language is known as Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia, which means the Malay, or Malaysian, language. The latter term, which was introduced by the National Language Act 1967, was predominant until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to the older term, which is used in the Malay version of the Federal Constitution. Indonesia adopted a form of Malay as its official language upon independence, naming it Bahasa Indonesia and although a degree of mutual intelligibility exists, Indonesian is considerably distinct from Malay as spoken in Malaysia. In Singapore and Brunei it is known simply as Malay or Bahasa Melayu. However, many Malay dialects are not as mutually intelligible: for example, Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some Malaysians to understand, while Javanese 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, which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. The use of this interesting language is dying out, however, with the Peranakan now choosing to speak either Hokkien or English.

Contents

[edit] 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 is a geographic outlier, spoken in the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean is also a member of this linguistic family.

Malay belong 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 are therefore Javanese, Acehnese, Chamorro and Palau (Belau).Gilbertese,Nauruan, Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan and Tuvaluan just to name a few.

Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking. Many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common Autronesian ancestor. Many cognates are kinship terms, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities.

For a cross-linguistic comparison, click here.

[edit] Writing system

Malay is normally written using the Latin alphabet, although a modified Arabic script called Jawi also exists.

[edit] Extent of use

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. Chinese, Indian and 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 have evolved and been integrated into Tagalog and other Philippine languages such as dalamhati (sympathy), luwalhati (glory), tanghali (midday), sarap (delicious), and many others.

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 recognised under its Constitution as a 'working language'.)

Malaysians are easily identified due to the fact that they change their speaking styles in accordance with the person being spoken to. They may adopt a completely different slang and accent when speaking to someone of a different race, or of a similar race. This is not, however, a form of discrimination - it is considered casual and endearing.

[edit] Phonology

Table of consonant phonemes of Malay
Bilabial Labio-
Dental		 Dental Alveolar Post-
Alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosives p [p] b [b] t [t] d [d] k [k] g [g] q [q]  
Nasals m [m] n [n] ny [ɲ] ng [ŋ]
Fricatives f [f] v [v, ʋ] dz [ð] z [z] sy [ʃ, ʂ, sj] kh [x] h [h]
Affricates c [tʃ] j [dʒ]
Approximants w [w] y [j]
Trills r [r]
Taps r [ɾ]
Laterals l [l]

Orthographic Notes:

  • The combination of [ŋg] is represented as ngg.
  • The letter x is variously pronounced as [ks], [s] or [z].
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 region, most words which end with the letter a tends to be pronounced as [ə].

[edit] Grammar

[edit] 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 repitation of words (reduplication).

[edit] 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 = teaching
  • belajar = is studying
  • mengajar = to teach
  • diajar = (something) is being taught
  • diajarkan = (someone) is being taught (something)
  • mempelajari = to study (something)
  • dipelajari = is being studied
  • pelajar = student
  • pengajar = teacher
  • pelajaran = subject
  • pengajaran = lesson, moral of story
  • pembelajaran = learning
  • 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)
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 (dissapear) 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, excellant)
-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-, juru-, pasca-, eka-, bi-, anti-, pro- etc.

[edit] 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 binded 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 (corporation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.

[edit] Reduplication

There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely

  • Full reduplication
  • Partial reduplication
  • Rhytmic reduplication
  • Reduplication of meaning

[edit] 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.

[edit] Part of Speech

In Malay, there are 4 parts of speech:

  • Nouns
  • Verbs
  • Adjectives
  • Function words

[edit] Function words

There are 16 types of function words in Malay which performs a grammatical function in a sentence. [1] Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.

[edit] 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 adjectives phrases in a predicate.

Subject Negation Predicate
Lelaki yang berjalan dengan Fazila itu
(That guy 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)
Kilang itu
(The factory)		 bukan
(is not)		 menghasilkan kereta Kancil,
(producing Kancil cars)		 sebaliknya menghasilkan Proton Wira
(instead is producing Proton Wira)

[edit] 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; no distinction is made between "girlfriend" and "boyfriend". 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 putri means "daughter", and putra means "son"; words like these are usually absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from Sanskrit).

[edit] Pluralization

Plurals are expressed by means of reduplication, but only when the plural is not implied in the context. Thus "person" is orang, and "people" is orang-orang, but "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"), orang-orang ("people"), or orang-orangan ("scarecrow"). Some write duplicates with a "2", e.g. orang2 for orang-orang.

[edit] 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-passive voices some are often ignored in daily conversations.

[edit] Word order

The basic word order is Subject Verb Object. Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns follow the noun they describe.

[edit] Borrowed words

The Malay language has many words borrowed from Arabic (mainly religious terms), Hindustani, Sanskrit, Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms). It has been said that there are only a handful of true malay words such as "Batu"(Rock). Some examples follow:

Some Malay words have been borrowed into English. See the list of words of Malay origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project.

Malay language has also heavily influenced the forms of colloquial English spoken in Malaysia (Manglish).

[edit] Some simple phrases in Malay

Malay Phrase 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
Siapakah nama anda?/Nama awak siapa? 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 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) 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!")

[edit] 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 slangs spoken by the urban youth, which may not be familiar to the older generation, e.g. awek (girl); balak (guy); usya (survey); skodeng (peep); cun (pretty); poyo (horrible, low-quality) etc. The youth also tend to mix Malay with English words, forming Bahasa Rojak. Example of this pidgin is: Bestlah 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Malay language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/a/l/Malay_language.html"