This article is about the language on which Standard Indonesian and Malaysian are based. For the vernacular varieties and dialects of Malay, see Malayic languages. For the standard Malay used in Malaysia, see Malaysian Malay.
Not to be confused with Malayalam, a Dravidian language.
The language is pluricentric and a macrolanguage, i.e., several varieties of it are standardized as the national language (bahasa kebangsaan or bahasa nasional) of several nation states with various official names: in Malaysia, it is designated as either Bahasa Malaysia ("Malaysian") or also Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language"); in Singapore and Brunei, it is called Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language"); in Indonesia, an autonomous normative variety called Bahasa Indonesia ("Indonesian language") is designated the bahasa persatuan/pemersatu ("unifying language" or lingua franca) whereas the term "Malay" (bahasa Melayu) is domestically restricted to vernacular varieties of Malay indigenous to areas of Central to Southern Sumatra and West Kalimantan.[11][a]
Classical Malay, also called Court Malay, was the literary standard of the pre-colonial Malacca and Johor Sultanates and so the language is sometimes called Malacca, Johor or Riau Malay (or various combinations of those names) to distinguish it from the various other Malayic languages. According to Ethnologue 16, several of the Malayic varieties they currently list as separate languages, including the Orang Asli varieties of Peninsular Malay, are so closely related to standard Malay that they may prove to be dialects. There are also several Malay trade and creole languages (e.g. Ambonese Malay) based on a lingua franca derived from Classical Malay as well as Makassar Malay, which appears to be a mixed language.
^Uli, Kozok (10 March 2012). "How many people speak Indonesian". University of Hawaii at Manoa. Retrieved 20 October 2012. James T. Collins (Bahasa Sanskerta dan Bahasa Melayu, Jakarta: KPG 2009) gives a conservative estimate of approximately 200 million, and a maximum estimate of 250 million speakers of Malay (Collins 2009, p. 17).
^Dahlan, H. Abdullah Zaini. Kitabati, Practical Methods for Learning to Read & Write Pegon (Kitabati, Metode Praktis Belajar Membaca & Menulis Pegon). Zaini Press. Accessed April 19, 2023. https://ia903106.us.archive.org/22/items/etaoin/Kitabati.pdf.
^The abstract of this journal article is written in Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia), in Latin and in Pegon: Estuningtiyas, R. (2021). Rijal Dakwah: KH. Abdullah Syafi’ie (1910-1985). The International Journal of Pegon : Islam Nusantara Civilization, 5(01), 81-96. https://doi.org/10.51925/inc.v5i01.45
^Asmah Haji Omar (1992). "Malay as a pluricentric language". In Clyne, Michael J. (ed.). Malay as a pluricentric language Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyte. pp. 403–4. ISBN3-11-012855-1.
^Tadmor, Uri (2009). "Malay-Indonesian". In Bernard Comrie (ed.). The World's Major Languages (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 791–818.
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