Malay

About Malay

Malay, Bahasa Melayu, is the national language of Malaysia and Brunei and one of the four official languages of Singapore. Indonesian is a standard form of the same language, so speakers of the two understand each other well, though everyday words and spellings differ.

Malay is written in the Latin alphabet, mostly as it is spoken. c sounds like the ch in "church" and sy like sh. A final k is often not pronounced but cuts the vowel short, so tidak (no) sounds like "tida". Nouns have no plural ending, and a word is often doubled instead, as in kucing-kucing (cats). For a polite "you" use anda or, better, a title such as Encik (Mr) or Puan (Mrs).

FamilyAustronesian, Malayic
Native speakersabout 77 million (2007)
Official inMalaysia, Brunei, Singapore
ScriptLatin alphabet (Rumi), also Arabic-based Jawi
Codesms (ISO 639-1), msa (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Nationalencyklopedin (2007), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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