History of Malay
Spoken by over 200 million people in Southeast Asia, Malay is now the fifth most widely spoken world language. Written Malay dates back at least 1500 years, making it as old as English. The history of the language may conveniently be divided into four periods, in the course of which it has undergone many changes and, more recently, standardization. While local dialectal differences remain, these have become less pervasive since Malay was made the national language in 1957.
- Information in the full article includes
- Old Malay
- Early Modern Malay
- Late Modern Malay
- Contemporary Malay
