Malay Language Differences Between Bahasa Malaysia And Bahasa

Malay Bahasa Melayu بهاس ملايو
Spoken in:	Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, southern Thailand, southern Philippines
Region:	--
Total speakers:	7–18 million
Ranking:	54
Genetic classification:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Malayo-Polynesian Sundic Malayic Malayan Local Malay Malay
Official status
Official language of:	Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore
Regulated by:	Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Hall of Language and Scripture)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ms
ISO 639-2(B)	may
ISO 639-2(T)	msa
SIL	MLI

The official standard for Malay, as agreed upon by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, is Bahasa Riau, the language of the Riau Archipelago, long considered the birthplace of the Malay language.

In Malaysia, it is known as Bahasa Melayu (though for a few years it was officially called Bahasa Malaysia) or Malay (formerly, Malaysian) language. Similarly, Indonesia adopted a form of Malay as its official language upon independence, naming it Bahasa Indonesia. In Singapore and Brunei it is known simply as Malay or Bahasa Melayu. The reason for adopting these terms is political rather than a reflection of linguistic distinctiveness, as Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia are in fact versions of the same language. An exception would be the dialect spoken in the Malaysian state of Kelantan, which has very difficult intelligibility with other forms of Malay. Javanese Malay 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 Melaka. The use of this interesting language is dying out however, with the Peranakan now choosing to speak either Hokkien or English.

Malay is an agglutinative language, meaning that the meaning of the word can be changed by adding the necessary prefixes or suffixes. Generally the root word tends to be a verb with quantitative prefixes added to nouns which are root words.

1 Differences between Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia

The differences between the two are comparable to the differences between British English and American English. Both are mutually intelligible, but with differences in spelling and vocabulary. Bahasa Indonesia differs from Bahasa Malaysia in having words of Javanese and Dutch origin. For example, the word for 'post office' in Bahasa Malaysia is "pejabat pos", whereas in Bahasa Indonesia it is "kantor pos", from the Dutch word for office, kantoor.

1.1 Orthography

In colonial times, the sound 'u' (as in 'moon') was represented in Bahasa Indonesia as 'oe', as in Dutch. In many proper names, the old 'Dutch' spelling was retained after the official spelling of this sound was changed to 'u' during the Japanese occupation (hence the spelling of the name of the first President, Sukarno as Soekarno). Similarly, until 1972, the sound 'ch' was represented in Bahasa Malaysia as 'ch', whereas in Indonesian, it continued to follow Dutch and used 'tj'. Hence the word for 'brand' or 'stamp' used to be written as chap in Bahasa Malaysia and tjap in Bahasa Indonesia, until a unified spelling system was introduced in 1972 (known in Indonesia as Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan or the 'Perfected Spelling') which removed most differences between the two varieties: Malaysian 'ch' and Indonesian 'tj' became 'c', Indonesian abandoned the spelling 'dj' (for the consonant at the beginning of the word 'Jakarta') to conform to the 'j' already in use in Malaysia. The old Indonesian 'j' for the semivowel sound at the beginning of the English 'young', which also still followed Dutch orthographic conventions, was replaced with 'y' as in Malaysia. Likewise, the velar fricative which occurs in many Arabic loanwords, which used to be written 'ch' in Indonesian, became 'kh' in both countries. Although the representations of speech sounds are now identical in the Indonesian and Malaysian varieties, a number of minor spelling differences remain, usually for historical reasons. For instance, the word for 'money' is written as 'wang' in Malaysia, but 'uang' in Indonesia.

1.2 Colloquialisms

In colloquial forms of the language, the word for 'not', tidak, is contracted to tak in both languages (well used in neighbouring parts of Indonesia such as Sumatra), while in Java the word enggak is used [with the 'e' representing a schewa sound, and the 'k' being unreleased]. Hence 'tidak ada' or 'don't have', becomes either 'tak ada' or 'enggak ada'.

1.3 Pronunciation

Pronunciation also tends to be very different, with East Malaysia and Indonesia speaking a dialect called Bahasa Baku, where the words are pronounced as spelt and enunciation tends to be clipped, staccato and faster than the Malay spoken in the Malay Peninsula which tends to pronounce the final 'a' in words as a schwa and is spoken at a more languorous pace. (Kepada (meaning: for) is pronounced in Baku as 'kepaDAH' and in Peninsula Malay as 'kePAde')

ENGLISH	BAHASA MALAYSIA	BAHASA INDONESIA
March	Mac - from English	Maret - from Dutch Maart
August	Ogos	Agustus - from Dutch Augustus
can	boleh	bisa
challenge	cabaran	tantangan
speak	bercakap	berbicara
shop	kedai	toko
ticket	tiket	karcis - from Dutch kaartje
pharmacy	farmasi	apotik - from Dutch apotheek
Monday	Isnin	Senin
Sunday	Ahad	Minggu - from Portuguese Domingo
restaurant	restoran	rumah makan - literally eating house
because	kerana	karena
hospital	hospital	rumah sakit from Dutch structure "ziekenhuis"
zoo	zoo	kebun binatang, derived from Dutch "dierentuin"
television	televisyen	televisi- from Dutch televisie
university	universiti	universitas - from Dutch universiteit
head office	ibu pejabat	kantor pusat
car	kereta	mobil

2 Extent of use

The extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Bahasa Malaysia became the sole official language of Malaysia in 1968, but English is still widely used, especially by the minority Chinese and Indian communities, and because of its importance as the language of international business, and the situation in Brunei is similar. By contrast, Bahasa Indonesia has successfully become the lingua franca for its disparate islands and ethnic groups, and because the colonial language, Dutch, is no longer spoken. (In East Timor, which was a province of Indonesia between 1976 and 1999, it is widely spoken, and recognised under its Constitution as a 'working language'.) In Singapore, Malay was historically the lingua franca among people of different races, but this has given way to English, but it retains the status of national language, and the national anthem, Majulah Singapura is entirely in Malay. In southern provinces of Thailand, Malay is spoken among the people remnant from ancient Malay kingdom called Pattani, but has no official status or recognition.

3 Loan Words

The Malay language has many words borrowed from Arabic (in particular many religious terms), Sanskrit, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms). Some examples follow:

bahasa - language (from Sanskrit)
bihun - rice vermicelli (from Hokkien beehoon)
bomba - fire brigade (from Portuguese bombeiros)
buku - book (from English)
dunia - world (from Arabic duniyya)
gereja - church (from Portuguese igreja)
keju - cheese (from Portuguese queijo)
komputer - computer (from English)
limau - lemon (from Portuguese limão)
mentega - butter (from Portuguese manteiga)
mee/mi - noodles (from Hokkien mee)
roti - bread (from Sanskrit)
sharia - Islamic law (from Arabic)
sistem - system (from English)
sains - science (from English)
tauhu - beancurd (from Hokkien tauhu)
teh - tea (from Hokkien teh)
teko - teapot (from Hokkien teh ko)

Loan words from Malay in English include ' durian'; ' sarong' ' orangutan' (from orang hutan or 'forest man'); ' amok' ('berserk'), as in 'to run amok'; 'compound' (from kampung or 'village'); and 'paddy', as in 'paddy-field' or 'rice paddy' (from 'padi', referring to the rice plant Oryza sativa). The term 'bint' for a young woman, from binte ('daughter of', itself a loan word from Arabic) has been in use since 1843 (ie. Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir - Hikayat Abdullah) and even earlier. The term bin is still being used; although, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, there have been attempts by some people to get national register not to accept the terms on grounds that it can cause problem due to similarity to Bin Laden.

Malay language has also heavily influenced the forms of colloquial English spoken in Singapore ( Singlish) and Malaysia ( Manglish). SMS influences have also been reported being used by student during examinations.

4 Some simple phrases in Malay

Selamat datang - Welcome
Terima kasih - Thank you
Selamat pagi (from sunrise until 11am)- Good morning
Selamat tengahari (from 11am until 1pm)- Good afternoon
Selamat petang (from 1pm until dusk) - Good evening
Selamat malam (from dusk) - Good night
Jumpa lagi - See you again
Apa khabar? - How are you?
Baik - Fine, good

5 See also

Jawi, an adapted Arabic alphabet for Malay.
Malay-based creoles
Malay dialects in Indonesia
Manado Malay

6 External link

Not to be confused with the Malayalam language, spoken in India.

Malayo-Polynesian languages Malaysia Languages of Malaysia

<Hide>

Home > Malay language