Malay is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei,Indonesia,Malaysia,and Singapore,and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of Thailand. Altogether,it is spoken by 290 million people across Maritime Southeast Asia.
The Iban language is spoken by the Iban,one of the Dayak ethnic groups,who live in Brunei,the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It belongs to the Malayic subgroup,a Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.
The earliest anatomically modern human skeleton in Peninsular Malaysia,Perak Man,dates back 11,000 years and Perak Woman dating back 8,000 years,were both discovered in Lenggong. The site has an undisturbed stone tool production area,created using equipment such as anvils and hammer stones. The Tambun rock art is also situated in Ipoh,Perak. From East Malaysia,Sarawak's Niah Caves,there is evidence of the oldest human remains in Malaysia,dating back 40,000 years.
Malaysian Mandarin (simplified Chinese:马来西亚华语;traditional Chinese:馬來西亞華語;pinyin:MǎláixīyàHuáyǔ;Wade–Giles:Ma3-lai2-hsi1-ya4 Hua2-yü3) is a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Malaysia by ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. Today,Malaysian Mandarin is the lingua franca of the Malaysian Chinese community.
The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay,a pluricentric language given national status in Brunei and Singapore while also the basis for national standards Malaysian in Malaysia and Indonesian in Indonesia. The Malayic branch also includes local languages spoken by ethnic Malays,further several languages spoken by various other ethnic groups of Sumatra,Indonesia and Borneo even as far as Urak Lawoi in the southwestern coast of Thailand.
The Mah Meri are an ethnic group native to western part of Peninsular Malaysia. They are one of the 18 Orang Asli groups named by the Malaysian government. They are of the Senoi subgroup. Most of the members of the Mah Meri tribe live along the coast of South Selangor from Sungai Pelek up to Pulau Carey,although there is at least one Mah Meri Community on the other side of the Klang River.
Gladys Asmah was a Ghanaian politician and Entrepreneur. She was a former Minister of Fisheries as well as a member of parliament for the Takoradi Constituency. She was also the former Minister for Women's Affairs under the former President Kufuor administration.
Kedah Malay or Kedahan or as it is known in Thailand,Syburi Malay is a Malayic language mainly spoken in the northwestern Malaysian states of Perlis,Kedah,Penang,and northern Perak and in the southern Thai provinces of Trang and Satun. The usage of Kedah Malay was historically prevalent in southwestern Thailand before being superseded by the Thai language. Enclaves of Kedah Malay can be found in Kawthaung District in Myanmar;Ranong and Krabi in upper southern Thailand;Jaring Halus,Langkat and Aceh in Sumatra,Indonesia and up north in Bangkok,central Thailand,where most of the Kedah Malay speakers are descendants of historical settlers from Kedah.
Sarawak Malay is a Malayic language native to the State of Sarawak. It is a common language used by natives of Sarawak and also as the important mother tongue for the Sarawakian Malay people.
Kedahan Malays or commonly known as Orang Utara ('Northerners'),are a sub-group of Malays native to northern Malay Peninsula in areas of both current and historical area of Kedah. They are among the oldest ethnic groups in the Malay peninsula with a history dating back 2,800 years as proven by the discovery of sites in Bujang Valley and historical documents from India,China and Arabia. Kedahan Malays are one of the largest Malay sub-groups in Malaysia,comprising at least 15% of the total Malaysian Malay population including those with Kedahan ancestry.
Hikayat Amir Hamzah is a Malay literary work that chronicles the hero by the name Amir Hamzah. This book is one of the two Hikayat mentioned in Sejarah Melayu as one of the Hikayat used to encourage Malay warriors in their fight against invading Portuguese in Malacca in 1511.
This article explains the phonology of Malay and Indonesian based on the pronunciation of Standard Malay,which is the official language of Brunei,Singapore and Malaysia,and Indonesian,which is the official language of Indonesia and a working language in Timor Leste. There are two main standards for Malay pronunciation,the Johor-Riau standard,used in Brunei and Malaysia,and the Baku,used in Indonesia and Singapore.
Sa’ban is one of the remoter languages of Borneo,on the Sarawak–Kalimantan border. The language is known as hmeu Sa'ban in the Sa'ban language.
The Indonesian-Malaysian orthography reform of 1972 was a joint effort between Indonesia and Malaysia to harmonize the spelling system used in their national languages,which are both forms of the Malay language. For the most part,the changes made in the reform are still used today. This system uses the Latin alphabet and in Malaysia is called Joint Rumi Spelling,and in Indonesia Perfect Spelling or Enhanced Spelling. It replaced the Za'aba Spelling that was previously standard in Malaysia,Singapore and Brunei,and the Republican Spelling System in Indonesia.
Pahang Malay is a Malayic language spoken in the Malaysian state of Pahang. It is regarded as the dominant Malay dialect spoken along the vast riverine systems of Pahang,but co-exists with other Malay dialects traditionally spoken in the state. Along the coastline of Pahang,Terengganu Malay is spoken in a narrow strip of sometimes discontiguous fishing villages and towns. Another dialect spoken in Tioman island is a distinct Malay variant and most closely related to Riau Archipelago Malay subdialect spoken in Natuna and Anambas islands in the South China Sea,together forming a dialect continuum between the Bornean Malay and the Mainland Peninsular/Sumatran Malay.
Perak Malay is one of the Malay dialects spoken within the state of Perak,Malaysia. Although it is neither the official language nor the standard dialect in the whole state of Perak,its existence which co-exists with other major dialects in the state of Perak still plays an important role in maintaining the identity of Perak. In spite of the fact that there are five main dialects traditionally spoken in Perak,only one of which is intended by the name "Perak Malay". There are subtle phonetic,syntactic and lexical distinctions from other major Malay dialects. Perak Malay can be divided into two sub-dialects,Kuala Kangsar and Perak Tengah,named after the daerah (districts) where they are predominantly spoken.
This article lists important figures and events in the public affairs of British Malaya during the year 1940,together with births and deaths of prominent Malayans.
The Congress Spelling System is a spelling reform of Malay Rumi Script introduced during the third Malay Congress held in Johor Bahru and Singapore in 1956. The main characteristics of the system are the use of symbols in the Americanist phonetic notation,going by the dictum of one symbol for one phoneme,and the new proposition in the writing of diphthongs.
The Za'aba Spelling was the second major spelling reform of Malay Rumi Script introduced in 1924. The reform was devised by Zainal Abidin Ahmad or better known by the moniker Za'aba,a notable writer and linguist at Sultan Idris Teachers College. Za'aba's orthographic system principally dealt with the assignment of vowels in closed syllables,distinguished the schwa from the half-open vowel /e/ by a new grapheme ⟨ě⟩,and insisted on the use of hyphens to differentiate affixes or post-positional emphases from the infinitives. The system as devised by Za'aba emphasised the importance to represent the original pronunciation of Johor-Riau Malay,where various modern standards of Malay were derived,that he viewed as the most elegant form of Malay.
Asmah Laili was a Singaporean radio and television presenter and producer,who also became famous for her programs and publications on Malay cuisine.
