Overview
Volume Editor
Malaysia is home to an incredible variety of languges. These range from some of the world's most widely spoken languages to those spoken by indigenous communities of only a few hundred speakers. Multilingualism is the norm. This linguistic complexity and diversity is reflected in the literary traditions.
Commencing with an explanation of the classification of languages, the volume covers each of the languages spoken by the language communities of Malaysia. The most widely spoken language, Malay, which is also the national language, is covered in particular depth, as are the policies and institutions that support its position. The Chinese, Indian and English languages, too, are covered, as are the indigenous languages of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Aslian languages of the Orang Asli. The history, development and characteristics of each language are examined.
The literary traditions of the various language communities are covered in the second half of the volume. While the Aslian, Sabah and Sarawak languages did not develop indigenous writing systems, highly developed oral literatures nevertheless emerged. In recent times, these too have been committed to writing. The Malay written tradition developed with the adoption of the Jawi script following Islamization, and resulted in finely crafted manuscripts, many of which survive today. Popular modern literature has developed, particularly in Romanized Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Insights into the traditional and modern literary genres are presented in visual format.