Malay language

Malay (/məˈleɪ/;[8] Malay: Bahasa Melayu, Jawi: بهاس ملايو) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of Thailand. Altogether, it is spoken by 290 million people[9] (including 260 million in the "Indonesian" literary standard)[10] across Maritime Southeast Asia.

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Malay
Malay/Indonesian[1]
Bahasa Melayu بهاس ملايو‎
Pronunciation	[baˈha.sa məˈla.ju]
Native to	Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Southern Thailand, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Ethnicity	Malays (see also Malayophones)
Speakers	L1 – 77 million (2007)[2] Total (L1 and L2): 200–290 million (2009)[3]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayic Malay
Early forms	Old Malay Classical Malay Pre-Modern Malay
Standard forms	Indonesian (as Bahasa Indonesia) Malaysian Malay (as Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia)[lower-alpha 1]
Writing system	Latin (Malay alphabet) Arabic (Jawi script)[4] Arabic (Pegon script) (In Indonesia)[5][6] Thai alphabet (in Thailand) Malay Braille Historically Pallava script, Kawi script, Ulu scripts, Rejang script
Signed forms	Manually Coded Malay
Official status
Official language in	Brunei  Indonesia (as Indonesian)  Malaysia  Singapore
Recognised minority language in	Indonesia (beside the national standard of Indonesian, Local Malay enjoys the status of a regional language in Sumatra and Kalimantan (Borneo))  East Timor (beside Dili Malay, Indonesian used as a working language and a trade language with Indonesia)[7]  Thailand (as Pattani Malay, Syburi Malay, and Bangkok Malay)
Regulated by	Language Development and Fostering Agency in Indonesia Institute of Language and Literature in Malaysia Language and Literature Bureau in Brunei Malay Language Council in Singapore Brunei–Indonesia–Malaysia Language Council – MABBIM (a trilateral joint venture)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ms
ISO 639-2	may (B) msa (T)
ISO 639-3	msa – inclusive code Individual codes: zlm – Malay (individual language) ind – Indonesian zsm – Standard Malay abs – Ambon Malay mbf – Baba Malay pea – Baba Indonesian mhp – Balinese Malay bjn – Banjarese mfb – Bangka btj – Bacan bew – Betawi bve – Berau kxd – Brunei Malay ccm – Chetty Malay coa – Cocos Malay liw – Col goq – Gorap hji – Haji jax – Jambi Malay vkk – Kaur meo – Kedah Malay mfa – Kelantan-Pattani Malay kvr – Kerinci mqg – Kota Bangun Kutai mkn – Kupang Malay mfp – Makassar Malay xmm – Manado Malay min – Minangkabau mui – Musi zmi – Negeri Sembilan
Glottolog	nucl1806
Linguasphere	31-MFA-a
Malayophone countries, where Malay (including Malaysian and Indonesian) is spoken.   As official language, in any of its formal standards   As recognized minority or trade language

The language is pluricentric, several varieties of it are standardized as the national language (bahasa kebangsaan or bahasa nasional) of several nation states with various official names: in Malaysia, it is designated as either Bahasa Malaysia ("Malaysian") or also Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language"); in Singapore and Brunei, it is called Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language"); in Indonesia, an autonomous normative variety called Bahasa Indonesia ("Indonesian language") is designated the bahasa persatuan/pemersatu ("unifying language" or lingua franca)[11] whereas the term "Malay" (bahasa Melayu) is domestically restricted to vernacular varieties of Malay indigenous to areas of Central to Southern Sumatra and West Kalimantan.[lower-alpha 2]

Malay, also called Court Malay, was the literary standard of the pre-colonial Malacca and Johor Sultanates and so the language is sometimes called Malacca, Johor or Riau Malay (or various combinations of those names) to distinguish it from the various other Malayic languages. According to Ethnologue 16, several of the Malayic varieties they currently list as separate languages, including the Orang Asli varieties of Peninsular Malay, are so closely related to standard Malay that they may prove to be dialects. There are also several Malay trade and creole languages based on a lingua franca derived from Classical Malay as well as Makassar Malay, which appears to be a mixed language.