Language diffusion
Though the spread of languages can occur in many ways, the migration of speakers remains the most important. The majority of languages spoken in Malaysia arrived in this way, although often the precise manner in which this occurred is disputed. Other methods of diffusion include prestige, for example in the case of Arabic and Sanskrit, and government intervention, which largely drove the introduction of English to Malaysia. The story of language diffusion is a continuing one.
- Information in the full article includes
- Earliest arrival: Austroasiatic languages
- The genesis of Malay
- Migration of other languages
- Recent diffusions
