Old Malay language

An Old Malay language called Kawi, inscriptions found at Pengkalan Kempas in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.

Old Malay language, sometimes called Classical Malay language, is an Austronesian language and one of the ancestors of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, including Indonesian and the languages of the Philippines. It originated in the now extinct Melayu Kingdom of Indonesian Sumatra. It was heavily influenced by Kawi, Javanese the official language of Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist as most Austronesians were followers of these religions throughout Maritime Southeast Asia which includes modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines .

History

Old Malay

The history of written Malay dates back at least 1,500 years ago. The oldest known text, dates back to 682 is the Kedukan Bukit Inscription found in the area of the former Kingdom of Melayu, located on the Jambi river, approximately 40 kilometres north of modern Palembang, (in Sumatra, Indonesia. Several other inscriptions dating from the 7th to 9th centuries have been found in Sumatra, western Java and other islands in the modern-day Indonesian archipelago. These texts are considered examples of Old Malay or Early Malay language. All these inscriptions were in the Kawi form of Javanese script.

Transitional period

In the transitional period, the "Early Modern Malay" was found at Terengganu in the 14th century, the word Batu Bersurat in Arabic and in within, there was a Malay Kawi text with Arabic influence, found in the inscribed stones of Pengkalan Kempas. The Batu Bersurat text has large number of Sanskrit terms which are now obsolete. This is a characteristic of the Old Malay, the grammatical system is similar to modern Malay language.

Malacca period

During the Sultanate of Malacca, the Malay language developed rapidly due to trade and the spread of both Islam and Islamic literature. This development changed the nature of the language with a massive influx of Arabic, Persian and later Tamil words. The development slowed down after 1511 with the fall of Malacca to Portuguese.

Modern Malay

Malay developed into a major language of Southeast Asia in the 19th century. The language has absorbed many loan words from Portuguese, Dutch, and later English. It became an official languages of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore after their independence.

References

• The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Languages & Literature by Prof. Dato' Dr Asmah Haji Omar (2004) ISBN 981-3018-52-6.

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