Malay

How Malay moved from Sanskrit to Arabic influence

Old Malay borrowed from Sanskrit and was written in Pallava and Kawi scripts; Srivijaya, a maritime empire based on Sumatra from the 7th to the 11th centuries, carried it through the Malay Peninsula and the archipelago as a traders' language. The Terengganu Inscription Stone, dated to about 1303, is the earliest evidence of Classical Malay and of Jawi writing in the Malay world.

Under the Malacca Sultanate, from 1402 to 1511, Classical Malay took in a great deal of Arabic vocabulary, along with more Sanskrit and Tamil, and grew recognisable to modern speakers. After the Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511, the court moved to Johor and kept Classical Malay as its literary and administrative language. Malay literary centres scattered, and new works came out of Aceh, Java, Makassar, the Moluccas and Champa. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 then split the region, and both colonial powers used Malay to centralise and modernise, drawing on each other's scholarship.

Where do Rumi and Jawi each apply

The Latin alphabet, called Rumi in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, is official in Malaysia and Singapore. Rumi and Jawi, an Arabic-based script, are co-official only in Brunei and Malaysia, where names of institutions must appear in both in Brunei and in parts of Malaysia. Jawi gradually replaced the older Indian-derived scripts from the era of Pasai onward, and Rumi replaced Jawi from the 17th century under Dutch and British influence.

What status it has in each member

Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia makes Malay the national language, sometimes called Bahasa Malaysia. It became the sole official language in Peninsular Malaysia in 1968 and in East Malaysia gradually from 1974, while English stayed in business and in the superior courts. Brunei uses Standard Malay beside its own vernacular, Brunei Malay, which is not readily intelligible with the standard. In Singapore, where Malay was once the lingua franca, English has largely taken over, but Malay remains the national language, the anthem Majulah Singapura is sung entirely in it, and parade commands in the military, police and civil defence are given only in Malay.