Malay language

This article is about the language on which standard Indonesian and standard Malay are based. For the standard Malay used in Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore also called "Malay", see Malaysian Malay. For the vernacular varieties and dialects of Malay, see Malayic languages. For other uses, see Malay. Not to be confused with Malayalam.

Malay
Bahasa Melayu بهاس ملايو
A manuscript of the Hukum Kanun Melaka a primary legal text in Classical Malay, written in Jawi script.
Pronunciation	[baˈha.sa məˈla.ju]
Native to	Brunei, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Southeast Philippines, South Thailand
Ethnicity	Malays Various ethnic groups in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (see also Malayophones)
Speakers	L1: 90 million, perhaps 125 million including local Malay (2020–2023) L2: 180 million (2020)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayo-Sumbawan (?) Malayic Malay
Early forms	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Malayic Old Malay Classical Malay Pre-Modern Malay
Standard forms	Standard Malay (Malaysian Malay) Indonesian
Writing system	Latin (Malay alphabet) Arabic (Jawi script) Arabic (Pegon script) (in Indonesia) Thai alphabet (in Thailand) Malay Braille Historically: Pallava script, Kawi script, Ulu scripts, Rejang script, Hebrew script, Gangga script
Signed forms	Manually Coded Malay
Official status
Official language in	Brunei Indonesia (as Indonesian) Malaysia Singapore UNESCO (as Indonesian)
Recognised minority language in	East Timor (beside Dili Malay, Indonesian used as a working language alongside English, and a trade language with Indonesia) Indonesia (beside the national standard of Indonesian, Local Malay enjoys the status of a regional language in Sumatra and Kalimantan) Sri Lanka (as Sri Lankan Malay) Thailand (as Pattani Malay, Syburi Malay, and Bangkok Malay)
Regulated by	Agency for Language Development and Cultivation in Indonesia Institute of Language and Literature in Malaysia Language and Literature Bureau in Brunei Malay Language Council in Singapore MABBIM (a trilateral joint venture)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ms
ISO 639-2	may (B) msa (T)
ISO 639-3	msa – inclusive code Individual codes: zlm – Malay (individual language) ind – Indonesian zsm – Standard Malay abs – Ambon Malay mbf – Baba Malay pea – Baba Indonesian mhp – Balinese Malay bjn – Banjarese mfb – Bangka btj – Bacan bew – Betawi bve – Berau kxd – Brunei Malay ccm – Chetty Malay coa – Cocos Malay liw – Col goq – Gorap hji – Haji jax – Jambi Malay vkk – Kaur meo – Kedah Malay mfa – Kelantan-Pattani Malay kvr – Kerinci mqg – Kota Bangun Kutai mkn – Kupang Malay mfp – Makassar Malay xmm – Manado Malay min – Minangkabau mui – Musi zmi – Negeri Sembilan max – North Moluccan Malay pmy – Papuan Malay pel – Pekal msi – Sabah Malay sci – Sri Lanka Malay language pse – South Barisan Malay vkt – Tenggarong Kutai Malay
Glottolog	nucl1806
Linguasphere	31-MFA-a
Malay language sphere:   The regions where Malay language is official and spoken predominantly   The regions where Malay language spoken and recognized as minority language
Areas where Malay is spoken:   Indonesia   Malaysia   Singapore and Brunei, where Standard Malay is an official language   East Timor, where Dili Malay is a Malay creole language and Indonesian is used as a working language   Southern Thailand and the Cocos Isl., where other varieties of Malay are spoken

Malay (UK: /məˈleɪ/ mə-LAY; endonym: Bahasa Melayu, Jawi script: بهاس ملايو) is an Austronesian language native to several islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula on mainland Asia. The language is an official language of Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore, where the standardised forms are known as Standard Malay. Within the Malay language family, another standardised form which is known as Indonesian is the official language in Indonesia and also one of the working languages of Timor-Leste. Malay is the ethnic language of Malays in Sumatra, Borneo and surrounding islands in Indonesia, the Malay Peninsula, southeast Philippines, southern Thailand, and the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Altogether, it is spoken as a first language by about 80 million people and as a first or second language by close to 300 million.

The language is pluricentric and a macrolanguage, i.e., a group of mutually intelligible speech varieties, or dialect continuum, that have no traditional name in common, and which may be considered distinct languages by their speakers. Several varieties of it are standardised 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 Melayu ("Malay language") or in some instances, Bahasa Malaysia ("Malaysian language"); in Singapore and Brunei, it is called Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language") where it in the latter country refers to a formal standard variety set apart from its own vernacular dialect; 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) refers to vernacular varieties of Malay indigenous to areas of Central to Southern Sumatra and West Kalimantan as the ethnic languages of Malay in Indonesia.

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 the Malay Peninsula, 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.