| Malaysian Malay | |
|---|---|
| Standard Malay Bahasa Melayu Piawai بهاس ملايو ڤياواي | |
| Bahasa Melayu Malaysia بهاس ملايو مليسيا Bahasa Malaysia بهاس مليسيا | |
| Pronunciation | [baˈha.səmə.la.jumə'lej.sjə],[baˈha.səmə'lej.sjə] |
| Native to | Malaysia,Singapore,Brunei |
| Speakers | Native: Few (2022)[1] L2: Spoken by the vast majority of those inMalaysia, although most learn a localMalay dialect or another native language first. |
Early forms | Old Malay
|
| Latin (Rumi) Arabic (Jawi)[4] Malaysian Braille | |
| Manually Coded Malay | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |
|
| Regulated by | Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Malaysian Institute of Language and Literature) Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei (Brunei Language and Literature Bureau)[5] Majlis Bahasa Melayu Singapura (Singapore Malay Language Council)[6] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | zsm |
| Glottolog | stan1306 |
| Linguasphere | 33-AFA-ab |
 Countries where Malaysian Malay is spoken: Malaysia Singapore and Brunei, where Standard Malay is an official language | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Malaysian Malay (Malay:Bahasa Melayu Malaysia) orMalaysian (Bahasa Malaysia)[7] – endonymically known asStandard Malay (Bahasa Melayu piawai) or simplyMalay (Bahasa Melayu, abbreviated toBM) – is a standardized form of theMalay language used inMalaysia and also used inSingapore andBrunei (as opposed to thevariety used inIndonesia, which is referred to as the"Indonesian" language). Malaysian Malay isstandardized from the Johor–Riau dialect ofMalay, particularly a branch spoken in the state ofJohor south of theMalay Peninsula.[8] It is spoken by much of the Malaysian population, although most learn avernacularMalay dialect oranother native language first.[1]
Article 152 of Malaysia's Constitution as drafted in 1957 (revisedin 1963) merely mentions "Malay" (Bahasa Melayu) as the designation of its "national language" without any further definition,[9] but the termbahasa Malaysia (lit. 'Malaysian language') is used in official contexts from time to time.[10] The latter term was endorsed byTunku Abdul Rahman during his premiership.[11]
The exact wording of either names above can be politically contentious. Between 1986 duringMahathir Mohamad's tenure and 2007, the termbahasa Malaysia was replaced by "bahasa Melayu";[12] even in 1999 theDewan Bahasa dan Pustaka rejected the publication of some short stories as the preface to the publication used the termbahasa Malaysia instead ofbahasa Melayu.[13] In 2007, to recognize thatMalaysia is composed of many ethnic groups (and not only the ethnicMalays), the termbahasa Malaysia became the government's preferred designation for the national language.[10][14][15][16] TheMinistry of Education's official communications usedbahasa Malaysia from 2011 to 2015 but has preferredbahasa Melayu in its syllabi as of 2023.[17][18]
In Singapore, "the Malay language" in the "Roman script" is afforded the status of national language in part 13 ofits constitution's general provisions.[19] The termbahasa Melayu is used continuously in Singapore's educational literature[20] and is considered to be identical to Malaysian Malay.[21]: 81
The national standard variety of Malay employed in formal communications ofBrunei dubbed "Standard Brunei Malay"[22] (or internally "Standard Malay"[23]) is observed to largely follow the Malaysian standard; the main differences being minor variation in pronunciation and some lexical influence fromBrunei Malay, the local non-standard vernacular variety of Malay.[21]: 72 [22]
TheLatin alphabet, known in Malay asRumi (Roman alphabet), is prescribed bylaw as the official script of Malaysian Malay, and theArabic alphabet calledJawi (or Malay script) is not legally prescribed for that purpose. Rumi is official while efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve the Jawi script and to revive its use in Malaysia.[24][25][26] The Latin alphabet, however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, for both official and informal purposes.
While literary Malay throughout the region has mostly absorbed fromSanskrit,Tamil,Hindustani (Hindi–Urdu),Arabic,Persian,Portuguese andSinitic languages; the variety spoken within British colonies that eventually make up Malaysia following the1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty borrowed majorly fromEnglish (in particular many scientific and technological terms) compared toDutch as spread within theEast Indies.
SinceMalayan independence and laterFederation formation, its ownDewan Bahasa dan Pustaka followed apurist approach in lexicography away from Western loanwords (even favouring established roots like Sanskrit and Arabic) as well asneologizing from native roots.[27] In recent years, Malaysian has also been influenced lexically by theIndonesian variety largely through the popularity of neighbouring mass media like dramas, soap operas, and music – akin to theeffect of American media towards other Englishes like those of Britain and Australia.[28]
Colloquial and contemporary usage of Malay includes modern Malaysian vocabulary, which may not be familiar to the older generation, such as:
New plural pronouns have also been formed out of the original pronouns popularly nowadays and the wordorang (person), such as:
In addition, Arabic terms that is originally used in Standard Malay nowadays has been popularly changed where some of the words and pronunciations in the involved terms have been added by the local conservative Muslims by disputing the terms suggested by theDewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), claiming that the involved terms with implementation of the additional words and pronunciations is the real correct terms as same as stated in the Qur'an, where it is predominantly used by the local Muslim netizens in the social medias nowadays. The several involved terms in comparison to Standard Malay that is popularly used, such as:
Code-switching between English and Malaysian and the use of novel loanwords is widespread, formingBahasa Rojak. Consequently, this phenomenon has raised the displeasure oflinguistic purists in Malaysia, in their effort to uphold use of the prescribedstandard language.
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At the same time, greater importance and more time must be given to the use of the national language in the schools and elsewhere. I would rather prefer to call it the Malaysian language (or bahasa Malaysia), rather than the national language (or bahasa kebangsaan)...
Perkara 152 Perlembagaan Persekutuan menjelaskan bahawa bahasa Melayu yang dikenali juga sebagai bahasa Malaysia adalah bahasa rasmi yang tidak boleh dipertikai fungsi dan peranannya sebagai Bahasa Kebangsaan.
