The Malay Language

Malay (also know as Bahasa Malaysia or "language of Malaysia") is spoken by around 18 million people worldwide. Roughly 10 million speakers of Malay live in Malaysia, where it is the official language. Other large populations of Malay speakers can be found in Brunei (Malay is the official language), Indonesia (Sumatra), Myanmar, Singapore (Malay is a co-official language), Thailand and the United States.1

Malay is an Austronesian language; it belongs to the Western, or Indonesian, branch of the language family. Standard Malay, which became the official language of Malaysia in 1968, is based on the dialect found in the southern Malay Peninsula (the so-called Bahasa Riau dialect).2 Despite its official status in Malaysia, Malay has not yet become the country's lingua franca. English, as a language of international commerce, is still quite common among Malaysia's large Chinese and Indian populations.

Malay has been greatly expanded through its borrowings from languages such as "Arabic (in particular many religious terms), Sanskrit, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms)".3 Malay's orthography and grammar are regulated by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka or Institute of Language and Literature Malaysia.

Below are some brief but important facts about the country of Malaysia and its people.

Capital: Kuala Lumpur; Note: Putrajaya is referred to as the administrative capital
Currency: Ringgit (MYR)
Government Type: Constitutional monarchy
Population: 23,522,482 (July 2004 est.)
Internet Country Code: .my
Internet Hosts: 107,971 (2003)
Internet Users: 8,692,100 (2003)>

For additional demographic information on Malaysia and its people, please see the following link:
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/my.html

For information on The Malay Writing System, please see our Quick Facts Library

  1. "Malay: a language of Malaysia (Peninsular)" Ethnologue.com
    http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=MLI
    [Accessed December 17, 2004]
  2. "Malay language" Wikipedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahasa_Melayu
    [Accessed December 17, 2004]
  3. "Malay language" Wikipedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahasa_Melayu
    [Accessed December 17, 2004]