Malay, Standard

Print

A language of Malaysia

ISO 639-3
zsm
Alternate Names
Bahasa Malayu, Formal Malay, Informal Malay, Malay, Malayu, Melayu, Melayu Baku
Population

Few L1 speakers. L2 includes most Malaysian population.

Location

Widespread in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak. Also in Brunei, Singapore.

Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (1963, Constitution (amended), Article 153A(1)).

Classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Malayic, Malay
Dialects

Lexical similarity: more than 80% with Indonesian [ind].

Typology

SVO

Language Use

Also use English [eng], Chinese [cmn], or Tamil [tam].

Language Development
Used through secondary education and in some tertiary institutions. Fully developed. Bible: 1733–1996.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Malay, Standard
Writing
Arabic script. Braille script. Latin script.
Other Comments

On Peninsular Malaysia, Standard Malay [zsm] exists in a diglossic relationship with Local Malay [zlm]. Standard Malay (derived from court Malay), both in terms of its linguistic structure as well as its sociolinguistic function, has its closest counterpart not in a particular Local Malay dialect but in Standard Indonesian [ind].

Also spoken in:

Expand All Collapse All