History of the Malay language

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Old Malay
)

Rencong script, a writing system found in central Sumatra, Indonesia.[1]
The text reads (Voorhoeve's spelling): "haku manangis ma / njaru ka'u ka'u di / saru tijada da / tang [hitu hadik sa]", which is translated by Voorhoeve as: "I am weeping, calling you; though called, you do not come" (hitu adik sa- is the rest of 4th line.)

Austronesian settlers in Southeast Asia. This form would later evolve into Old Malay when Indian cultures and religions began penetrating the region, most probably using the Kawi and Rencong scripts, some linguistic researchers say. Old Malay contained some terms that exist today, but are unintelligible to modern speakers, while the modern language is already largely recognisable in written Classical Malay of 1303 CE.[2]

Malay evolved extensively into Classical Malay through the gradual influx of numerous elements of Arabic and Persian vocabulary when Islam made its way to the region. Initially, Classical Malay was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Malay kingdoms of Southeast Asia. One of these dialects that was developed in the literary tradition of

Malacca in the 15th century, eventually became predominant. The strong influence of Malacca in international trade in the region resulted in Malay as a lingua franca
in commerce and diplomacy, a status that it maintained throughout the age of the succeeding Malay sultanates, the European colonial era and the modern times. From the 19th to 20th century, Malay evolved progressively through significant grammatical improvements and lexical enrichment into a modern language with more than 800,000 phrases in various disciplines.

Proto-Malayic

Proto-Malayic is the language believed to have existed in prehistoric times, spoken by the early Austronesian settlers in the region. Its ancestor, the

Bangka-Belitung Islands and Java-Bali Islands.[4]

Old Malay (7th to 14th century)

Old Malay
Kedukan Bukit Inscription (683), found in Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia is the oldest surviving specimen of the Malay language.[5]
Language codes
ISO 639-3omy
Glottologoldm1243
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The beginning of the common era saw the growing influence of Indian civilisation in the archipelago. With the penetration and proliferation of

Kedukan Bukit Inscription from South Sumatra, Indonesia and several other inscriptions dating from the 7th to 10th centuries discovered in Sumatra, Java, Indonesia other islands of the Sunda archipelago, as well as Luzon, Philippines. All these Old Malay inscriptions used either scripts of Indian origin such as Pallava, Nagari or the Indian-influenced old Sumatran characters.[9]

The Old Malay system is greatly influenced by

biara, which lasts until today. In fact, some Malays regardless of personal religion have names derived from Sanskrit
such as the names of Indian Hindu gods or heroes include Puteri/Putri, Putera/Putra, Wira and Wati.

It is popularly claimed that the Old Malay of the Srivijayan inscriptions from South Sumatra, Indonesia, is the ancestor of the Classical Malay. However, as noted by some linguists, the precise relationship between these two, whether ancestral or not, is problematic and remains uncertain.[10] This is due to the existence of a number of morphological and syntactic peculiarities, and affixes that are familiar from the related Batak language but are not found even in the oldest manuscripts of Classical Malay. It may be the case that the language of the Srivijayan inscriptions is a close cousin rather than an ancestor of Classical Malay.[11] Moreover, although the earliest evidence of Classical Malay had been found in the Malay Peninsula from 1303, Old Malay remained in use as a written language in Sumatra right up to the end of the 14th century, evidenced from Bukit Gombak inscription dated 1357[12] and Tanjung Tanah manuscript of Adityavarman era (1347–1375).

Classical Malay (14th to 18th century)

Jawi writing
in the Malay world.

The period of Classical Malay started when

Arabic and Persian vocabulary as well as the integration of major Islamic cultures with local Malay culture. The earliest instances of Arabic lexicons incorporated in the pre-Classical Malay written in Kawi was found in the Minye Tujoh inscription dated 1380 CE from Aceh in Sumatra. Nevertheless, pre-Classical Malay took on a more radical form more than half a century earlier as attested in the 1303 CE Terengganu Inscription Stone as well as the 1468 CE Pengkalan Kempas Inscription, both from the Malay Peninsula. Both inscriptions not only serve as the evidence of Islam as a state religion but also as the oldest surviving specimen of the dominant classical orthographic form, the Jawi script. Similar inscriptions containing various adopted Arabic terms with some of them still written the Indianised scripts were also discovered in other parts of Sumatra and Borneo.[13][14]

the Malay Annals
(1612), the only available account of the history of the Malay Sultanate in the fifteenth century.

The pre-Classical Malay evolved and reached its refined form during the golden age of the Malay empire of

the Malay Annals and Hikayat Hang Tuah.[14][17]

Malacca's success as a centre of commerce, religion, and literary output has made it an important point of

Sir Henry Middleton of the East India Company dated 1602, and a golden letter from Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh to King James I of England dated 1615.[21]

Leydekker's Malay translation of the Book of Judges in the Jawi script (1733).

This era also witnessed the growing interest among foreigners in learning the Malay language for the purpose of commerce, diplomatic missions and missionary activities. Therefore, many books in the form of word-list or dictionary were written. The oldest of these was a Chinese-Malay word list compiled by the

Ming officials of the Bureau of Translators during the heyday of Malacca Sultanate. The dictionary was known as Man-la-jia Yiyu (滿剌加譯語, Translated Words of Malacca) and contains 482 entries categorised into 17 fields namely astronomy, geography, seasons and times, plants, birds and animals, houses and palaces, human behaviours and bodies, gold and jewelleries, social and history, colours, measurements and general words.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][excessive citations] In the 16th century, the word-list is believed still in use in China when a royal archive official Yang Lin reviewed the record in 1560 CE.[35] In 1522, the first European-Malay word-list was compiled by an Italian explorer Antonio Pigafetta, who joined the Magellan's circumnavigation expedition. The Italian-Malay word-list by Pigafetta contains approximately 426 entries and became the main reference for the later Latin-Malay and French-Malay dictionaries.[36]

The early phase of European colonisation in Southeast Asia began with the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, the Dutch in the 17th century followed by the British in the 18th century. This period also marked the dawn of

Calvinism that include the Ten Commandments, the faith and some prayers. This work later followed by several Bibles translated into Malay; Injil Mateus dan Markus (1638), Lukas dan Johannes (1646), Injil dan Perbuatan (1651), Kitab Kejadian (1662), Perjanjian Baru (1668) and Mazmur (1689).[38]

Pre-Modern Malay (19th century)

The 19th century was the period of strong

Dutch literatures
and languages started to penetrate and spread gradually into the Malay language.

A page of Hikayat Abdullah written in Jawi script, from the collection of the National Library of Singapore. A rare first edition, it was written between 1840 and 1843, printed by lithography, and published in 1849.

At the same time, the technological development in printing method that enabled mass production at low prices increased the activities of authorship for general reading in the Malay language, a development that would later shift away Malay literature from its traditional position in Malay courts.[39] In addition, the report writing style of journalism began to bloom in the arena of Malay writing.

A notable writer of this time was

Abdullah Munsyi with his famous works Hikayat Abdullah (1840), Kisah Pelayaran Abdullah ke Kelantan (1838) and Kisah Pelayaran Abdullah ke Mekah (1854). Abdullah's work marks an early stage in the transition from classical to modern literature, taking Malay literature out of its preoccupation with folk-stories and legends into accurate historical descriptions.[40] In fact, Abdullah himself also assisted Claudius Thomsen, a Danish priest, in publishling the first known Malay magazine, the Christian missionary themed Bustan Ariffin in Malacca in 1831, more than a half a century early than the first known Malay newspaper.[41]
Abdullah Munsyi is considered the "Father of Modern Malay Literature", being the first local Malay to have his works published.

A manuscript of Gurindam Dua Belas (1847), moral and religious guidance written in Jawi script.

Many other well-known books were published throughout the archipelago such as three notable classical literary works, Gurindam Dua Belas (1847), Bustanul Katibin (1857) and Kitab Pengetahuan Bahasa (1858) by

Riau-Lingga-born Raja Aisyah Sulaiman, granddaughter of Raja Ali Haji
himself with her famous book Hikayat Syamsul Anwar (1890). In this book, she expresses her disapproval regarding her marriage and her attachment to the tradition and the royal court.

The scholars of the Riau-Lingga also established the Rusydiyah Club, one of the first Malay literary organisations, to engage in various literary and intellectual activities in the late 19th century. It was a group of Malay scholars, who discussed various matters related to writing and publishing. There were also other famous religious books of the era that were not only published locally but also in countries like Egypt and Turkey.

Among the earliest examples of Malay newspapers are Soerat Kabar Bahasa Malaijoe of Surabaya published in Dutch East Indies in 1856, Jawi Peranakan of Singapore published in 1876 and Seri Perak of Taiping published in British Malaya in 1893. There was even a Malay newspaper published in Sri Lanka in 1869, known as Alamat Langkapuri, considered the first Malay newspaper ever published in the Jawi script.

In education, the Malay language of Malacca-Johor was regarded as the standard language and became the medium of instruction in schools during the colonial era. Starting in 1821, Malay-medium schools were established by the British colonial government in Penang, Malacca and Singapore. These were followed by many others in the Malay states of the peninsula. This development generated the writing of textbooks for schools, in addition to the publication of reference materials such as Malay dictionaries and grammar books. Apart from that, an important impetus was given toward the use of Malay in British administration, which requires every public servant in service to pass the special examination in the Malay language as a condition for a confirmed post, as published in Straits Government Gazette 1859.

In Indonesia, the Dutch colonial government recognised the Malacca-Johor Malay used in

East Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and East Indonesia.[41]

Modern Malay (20th century to present)

The flourishing of pre-modern Malay literature in 19th century led to the rise of intellectual movement among the locals and the emergence of new community of Malay linguists. The appreciation of the language grew, and various efforts were undertaken by the community to further enhance the usage of Malay as well as to improve its abilities in facing the challenging modern era. Among the efforts done was the planning of a

Tanjung Malim, Perak in 1922 intensified these efforts. In 1936, Za'ba, an outstanding Malay scholar and lecturer of the SITC, produced a Malay grammar book series entitled Pelita Bahasa that modernised the structure of the Classical Malay language and became the basis for the Malay language that is in use today.[43] The most important change was in syntax
, from the classical passive form to the modern active form. In the 20th century, other improvements were also carried out by other associations, organisations, governmental institutions and congresses in various part of the region.

Writing has its unique place in the history of self-awareness and the nationalist struggle in Indonesia and Malaysia. Apart from being the main tools to spread knowledge and information, newspapers and journals like Al-Imam (1906), Panji Poestaka (1912), Lembaga Melayu (1914), Warta Malaya (1931),

Malay nationalism
.

During the first Kongres Pemuda of Indonesia held in 1926, in the Sumpah Pemuda, Malay was proclaimed as the unifying language for Indonesia. In 1945, the language which was named "bahasa Indonesia", or Indonesian in English, was enshrined as the national language in the constitution of the newly independent Indonesia. Later in 1957, the Malay language was elevated to the status of national language for the independent Federation of Malaya (later reconstituted as Malaysia in 1963). Then in 1959, the Malay language also received the status of national language in Brunei, although it only ceased to become a British protectorate in 1984. When Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965, Malay became the national language of the new republic and one of the four official languages. The emergence of these newly independent states paved the way for a broader and widespread use of Malay (or Indonesian) in government administration and education. Colleges and universities with Malay as their primary medium of instructions were introduced and bloomed as the prominent centres for researches and production of new intellectual writings in Malay.[44] Following East Timor independence from Indonesia, the Indonesian language has been designated by the country's 2002 constitution as one of two 'working languages' (the other being English).

"..Kami poetra dan poetri Indonesia mendjoendjoeng bahasa persatoean, bahasa Melajoe,.." (Indonesian for "We, the sons and daughters of Indonesia, vow to uphold the nation's language of unity, the Malay language")

— The draft for the third part of

Bahasa Melajoe was revised to Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) in 1928.[45]

Indonesian as the unifying language for Indonesia is relatively open to accommodating influences from other Indonesian ethnic group languages, Dutch as the previous coloniser, and English as an international language. As a result, Indonesian has wider sources of loanwords, as compared to Malay as used in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. It has been suggested that the Indonesian language is an artificial language made official in 1928.[46] By artificial this means that Indonesian was designed by academics rather than evolving naturally as most common languages have, to accommodate the political purpose of establishing an official unifying language of Indonesia. By borrowing heavily from numerous other languages it expresses a natural linguistic evolution; in fact, it is as natural as the next language, as demonstrated in its exceptional capacity for absorbing foreign vocabulary. This disparate evolution of Indonesian language led to a need for an institution that can facilitate co-ordination and co-operation in linguistic development among countries with Malay language as their national language. The first instance of linguistic co-operation was in 1959 between Malaya and Indonesia, and this was further strengthened in 1972 when MBIM (a short form for Majlis Bahasa Indonesia-Malaysia – Language Council of Indonesia-Malaysia) was formed. MBIM later grew into MABBIM (Majlis Bahasa Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia – Language Council of Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia) in 1985 with the inclusion of Brunei as a member and Singapore as a permanent observer. Other important institution is Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka established in 1956. It is a government body responsible for co-ordinating the use of the Malay language in Malaysia and Brunei.

The dominant orthographic form of the Modern Malay language based on the Roman or

Perfected Spelling System
) in Indonesia. With the introduction of this new common spelling system, all administrative documents, teaching and learning materials and all forms of written communication is based on a relatively uniform spelling system and this helps in effective and efficient communication, particularly in national administration and education.

Despite the widespread and institutionalised use of the

Pattani in Thailand and Kelantan in Malaysia. The script is used for religious and Malay cultural administration in Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis and Johor. The influence of the script is still present in Sulu and Marawi in the Philippines, while in Indonesia the Jawi script is still widely used in Riau and Riau Island province, where road signs and government buildings signs are written in this script.[47]

See also

References

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  2. ^ Teeuw 1959, p. 149
  3. ^ Andaya 2001, p. 317
  4. ^ Andaya 2001, p. 318
  5. ISBN 9781588395245
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  6. ^ Abdul Rashid & Amat Juhari 2006, p. 27
  7. ^ Arkib Negara Malaysia 2012
  8. ^ Morrison 1975, pp. 52–59
  9. doi:10.1163/22134379-90003689
    .
  10. ^ Sneddon 2003
  11. ^ Teeuw 1959, pp. 141–143
  12. ^ Teeuw 1959, p. 148
  13. ^ Collins 1998, pp. 12–15
  14. ^ a b Abdul Rashid & Amat Juhari 2006, p. 29
  15. ^ Sneddon 2003, pp. 74–77
  16. ^ Collins 1998, p. 20
  17. ^ Collins 1998, pp. 15–20
  18. ^ Sneddon 2003, p. 59
  19. ^ Sneddon 2003, p. 84
  20. ^ Sneddon 2003, p. 60
  21. ^ Collins 1998, pp. 23–27, 44–52
  22. ISBN 978-1-136-84879-7
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  23. S2CID 129174700
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  24. JSTOR 607921
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  25. ISBN 978-962-209-662-2
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  26. ISBN 978-962-209-661-5
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  27. ISBN 978-1-137-01233-3
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  28. ISBN 978-0-226-46713-9
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  29. ^ 黃慧敏 [Ng Fooi Beng] (2003). 新馬峇峇文學的研究 (Master's thesis) (in Chinese). 國立政治大學 [National Chengchi University]. p. 21.
  30. ^ 杨贵谊 (8 May 2003). 四夷馆人编的第一部马来语词典: 《满拉加国译语》. www.nandazhan.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  31. ^ 安煥然‧明朝人也學馬來話. iconada.tv (in Chinese). 3 August 2014.
  32. ^ 安煥然‧明朝人也學馬來話. opinions.sinchew.com.my (in Chinese). 3 August 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  33. ^ 安煥然‧明朝人也學馬來話. iconada.tv (in Chinese). 3 August 2014.
  34. ISBN 978-90-73084-24-7
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  35. ^ Collins 1998, p. 18
  36. ^ Collins 1998, p. 21
  37. hdl:1871.1/7ecbd1a4-986b-4448-a78d-3aeb2f13598d
    . Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  38. ^ Collins 1998, p. 55&61
  39. ^ a b Abdul Rashid & Amat Juhari 2006, p. 32
  40. ^ Sneddon 2003, p. 71
  41. ^ a b Abdul Rashid & Amat Juhari 2006, p. 33
  42. ^ Abdul Rashid & Amat Juhari 2006, p. 35
  43. ^ Ooi 2008, p. 332
  44. ^ Abdul Rashid & Amat Juhari 2006, p. 34&35
  45. ^ Kementerian Sosial RI 2008
  46. People's Representative Council
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  47. ^ "Peraturan Gubernur Riau Nomor 46 Tahun 2018 Tentang Penerapan Muatan Budaya Melayu Riau Di Ruang Umum". Article 11, Governor Regulation No. 46 of 2018 (PDF) (in Indonesian). Governor of Riau Province.

Bibliography

External links
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