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Definition of the malay language in English English dictionary
- Malaysian
- malay
- malayan
- the language
- {n} flemish
- Malay language
- Austronesian language with some 33 million first-language speakers in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and other parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. Because Malay was spoken on both sides of the Strait of Malacca, a crucial trade route between India and China, Malay-speaking groups were drawn into international commerce centuries before European penetration of the region, and Malay became a lingua franca in Indonesian ports, giving rise to a range of pidgins and creoles known as Bazaar Malay (Melayu Pasar). In 20th-century Indonesia, a standardized form of Malay was adopted as the national language, Indonesian; written in Latin letters, it is now spoken or understood by about 70% of the population. Similar standardizations of Malay comprise the national languages of Malaysia and Brunei. The oldest known Malay texts are 7th-century inscriptions from southern Sumatra in an Indic script (see Indic writing system); a continuous Malay literary tradition did not begin until the Islamization of the Malay Peninsula in the 14th century
Related Terms
the malay language
Hyphenation
the Ma·lay lan·guageTurkish pronunciation
dhi meyley länggwıcPronunciation
/ᴛʜē ˈmālā ˈlaɴɢgwəʤ/ /ðiː ˈmeɪleɪ ˈlæŋɡwəʤ/
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