Malay Language Guide

Official language in
Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore
Script
Latin, Arabic

Where it's spoken

Malay holds a different legal position in each of the three countries where it is the state language. The Federal Constitution of Malaysia provides that the national language shall be the Malay language, while protecting the right of any person to use — otherwise than for official purposes — or to teach or learn any other language; the National Language Acts add that the national language shall be used for official purposes. Singapore's constitution names Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English as its four official languages and makes Malay the national language. Brunei's constitution provides that the official language of Brunei Darussalam shall be the Malay language.

Malay belongs to the Malayic subgroup of the Austronesian family. The closely related varieties that carry national language status in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore are called Standard Malay — Bahasa Melayu Baku, or Bahasa Baku — while the one in Indonesia is called Indonesian; there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between all of them, and they are said to derive from the Malay of Johor in Peninsular Malaysia. Travellers should expect what they hear to differ from what they read, because for most speakers Standard Malay is a second language or dialect, existing in a diglossic relationship with a local variety.

The body that maintains the language in Malaysia is the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, publisher of the Kamus Dewan. It sits with the language bureaux of Brunei and of Indonesia in the joint council MABBIM.

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Script & pronunciation

The Federal Constitution leaves the script of the national language to Parliament, and the National Language Acts settle it: the script of the national language shall be the Rumi script, provided that this shall not prohibit the use of the Malay script, more commonly known as the Jawi script. Rumi is the alphabet that runs from A to Z and descends from the letters of ancient Rome; Jawi letters are Arabic letters with several added ones. Singapore's constitution takes a narrower line and says its national language shall be in the Roman script.

Both scripts are still in service. The Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka reference portal prints every Malay headword in Rumi and in Jawi side by side — tandas, the word this app uses for "Toilet", appears there as تاندس as well.

This app writes Malay in Rumi only. Most of its cards also add a line under the phrase in which the same text is split syllable by syllable: Ti-dak under Tidak ("No"), and Di ma-na tan-das? under Di mana tandas? ("Where is the toilet?").

The Rumi spelling now in use was not always there. Rumi spellings devised by English writers were in use in Malaya well before it, and the Romanised Malay Spelling of Wilkinson's dictionary was used officially in all public schools in Malaya from the early twentieth century. Za'ba's spelling followed in the nineteen-twenties, was used in the teaching of Malay in Malaya and in Brunei, and was known as the school spelling until Malaysia and Indonesia proclaimed a shared new Rumi spelling on the same day in the early nineteen-seventies, launched in Kuala Lumpur by the Prime Minister of Malaysia and in Jakarta by the President of Indonesia. That reform replaced Za'ba's spelling in Malaysia and the Soewandi spelling in Indonesia, which is why written Malay and written Indonesian resemble each other so closely today.

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Grammar essentials

Malay has two words for "not", and which one you need depends on what you are denying. The dictionary defines bukan as "other than what is really so, not true", with the example "Ini singa, bukan harimau" — a noun being denied. It also records bukan at the end of a sentence as a way of asking whether something is so. The word tidak is defined as "tiada; bukan" and illustrated before a verb, as in "Dia tidak datang bekerja hari ini". This app's card Tidak is "No", and Saya tidak faham ("I don't understand") puts tidak straight before the verb.

A question can be opened with adakah, which the dictionary glosses as "is there" and as a way of pressing a question — "is it so or not". That is the shape of this app's formal question Adakah anda boleh berbahasa Inggeris? ("Do you speak English?"). The dictionary also records tak as a short form of tidak, and this app's shorter, more colloquial questions hang it on the end: Ada tak? is "Do you have it?", Boleh tak? is "Can you do it?" and Tak boleh ke? is "Is it not allowed?"

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Politeness & etiquette

The dictionary marks saya as the first-person pronoun, more refined than aku, and this app's card Saya is "I / me". For "you" there are two words on the cards, and they are not interchangeable. Anda is defined as a second-person pronoun that does not distinguish rank, level or age; awak is marked as belonging to spoken language, and the dictionary illustrates the verb built on it with the sentence "when talking to older people it is not good for us to use awak and aku". This app uses Anda in its formal phrases and awak in its casual ones, as in Awak okay tak? ("Are you OK?").

Requests are softened with a word of their own. The dictionary defines sila as asking respectfully that someone do something, an invitation; this app's cards use it in Sila tunggu ("Please wait") and Sila cakap perlahan-lahan ("Please speak slowly"), and use Tolong ("Please") when the speaker wants help.

Greetings are built on selamat, which the dictionary describes as a wish for safety and well-being said in address, listing selamat datang and selamat malam among its examples, with a derived verb meaning to greet someone with selamat pagi or selamat petang. This app's greeting cards follow that pattern with Selamat pagi ("Hello / Good morning"), Selamat datang ("Welcome") and Selamat malam ("Good evening / Good night"). The everyday enquiry Apa khabar? ("How are you?") is built on khabar, which the dictionary marks as a word taken from Arabic.

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