Summary

Semai is a language of wider communication that originated inMalaysia. It belongs to theAustro-Asiatic language family. The language is used as a first language by all in the ethnic community. It is not known to be taught in schools.

Dashboard

• Geography

• Population

  Details

  This visualization shows the approximate size of this language community, using five general ranges for a quick visual sense of scale. Need exact figures?Upgrade to Essentials or Standard to see detailed population estimates for each language.

• Language Vitality

  Indigenous Language Vitality CountBar chart showing vitality levels of indigenous languages in Malaysia.
  1. Institutional
  2. Stable
  3. Endangered
  4. Extinct
  Details

  This graph shows the vitality of Semai.

  • Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
  • Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
  • Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
  • Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.

  These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; seeLanguage Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages onDevelopment andEndangerment for more discussion.

• Digital Language Support

  

  Details

  This graph shows the level of digital support for this language (as measured by the method describedhere.

  • Still — this language shows no signs of digital support
  • Emerging — the language has some content in digital form and/or encoding tools
  • Ascending — the language has some spell checking or localized tools or machine translation as well
  • Vital — the language is supported by multiple tools in all of the above categories and as well as some speech processing
  • Thriving — the language has all of the above plus virtual assistants

Family

It belongs to the Austro-Asiatic language family.

Existing Content

• Literature
• Dictionary
• Bible portions (1951–2011)
• External Resources
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Ethnologue Country Digests

Browse Country Digests

ExploreSemaiand131other languages used inMalaysiawithEthnologue: Languages ofMalaysia—a downloadable PDF document that provides detailed analysis presented in formats not available in the online version of Ethnologue. It includes:

• Comprehensive country overview.
• Statistical summaries by language status, size, and family.
• Alphabetical listing of languages in the country, with in-depth descriptions.
• Full-color language map(s) for visual reference.
• Listings by population, status, family, and region.
• Indexes of ISO 639 codes and alternate language names.

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