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Ancient Malay
The Ancient Malay or Proto-Malay is the language believed to exist in prehistoric times, spoken by the early
Austronesian settlers in the region. Its ancestor, the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian language that derived from
Proto-Austronesian, began to break up by at least 2000 BCE as a result possibly by the southward expansion of
Austronesian peoples into the Philippines, Borneo, Maluku and Sulawesi from the island of Taiwan. Proto-Malay
language was spoken in Borneo at least by 1000 BCE and was, it has been argued, the ancestral language of all
subsequent Malay dialects. Linguists generally agree that the homeland of the Malayic-Dayak languages is in
Borneo, based on its geographic spread in the interior, its variations that are not due to contact-induced change, and
its sometimes conservative character. Around the beginning of the first millennium, Malayic speakers had
established settlements in the coastal regions of modern day South Central Vietnam, Tambelan, Riau Islands,
Sumatra, Malay peninsula, Borneo, Luzon, Maluku Islands, Bangka-Belitung Islands and Java.
The Pre-Classical Malay evolved and reached its refined form during
1303.
the golden age of the Malay empire of Melaka and its successor Johor
starting from the 15th century. As a bustling port city with a diverse population of 200,000 from different nations,
the largest in Southeast Asia at that time, Melaka became a melting pot of different cultures and languages. More
loan words from Arab, Persian, Tamil and Chinese were absorbed and the period witnessed the flowering of Malay
literature as well as professional development in royal leadership and public administration. In contrast with Old
Malay, the literary themes of Melaka had expanded beyond the decorative belles-lettres and theological works,
evidenced with the inclusion of accountancy, maritime laws, credit notes and trade licenses in its literary tradition.
Some prominent manuscripts of this category are Undang-Undang Melaka ('Laws of Melaka') and Undang-Undang
Laut Melaka (Melakan Maritime Laws). The literary tradition was further enriched with the translations of various
foreign literary works such as Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah and Hikayat Amir Hamzah, and the emergence of new
intellectual writings in philosophy, tasawuf, tafsir, history and many others in Malay, represented by manuscripts
like Sulalatus al-Salatin and Furu' Al-Masa'il.
Melaka's success as a centre of commerce, religion, and literary output has made it an important point of cultural
reference to the many influential Malay sultanates in the later centuries. This has resulted the growing importance of
Classical Malay as the sole lingua franca of the region. Through inter-ethnic contact and trade, the Classical Malay
spread beyond the traditional Malay speaking world and resulted in a trade language that was called Bahasa Melayu
pasar ("Bazaar Malay") or Bahasa Melayu rendah ("Low Malay") as opposed to Bahasa Melayu tinggi (High
Malay) of Melaka-Johor. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, perhaps influenced by contact
between Malay, Chinese and non-Malay natives traders. The most important development, however, has been that
pidgin Malay creolized, creating several new languages such as the Ambonese Malay, Manado Malay, Makassar
Malay and Betawi language. Apart from being the primary instrument in spreading Islam and commercial activities,
Malay also became a court and literary language for kingdoms beyond its traditional realm like Aceh, Banjar and
Ternate and also used in diplomatic communications with the European colonial powers. This is evidenced from
diplomatic letters from Sultan Abu Hayat II of Ternate to King John III of Portugal dated from 1521 to 1522, a letter
from Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah of Aceh to Captain Sir Henry Middleton of the East India Company dated 1602,
and a golden letter from Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh to King James I of England dated 1615.
4
The early phase of European colonization in Southeast Asia began with
the arrival of the Portuguese in 16th century and the Dutch in 17th
century. This period also marked the dawn of Christianization in the
region with its stronghold in Ambon, Banda and Batavia. In facilitating
early missionary works, religious books and manuscripts began to be
translated into Malay of which the earliest was initiated by a pious
Dutch trader, Albert Ruyll in 1611. The book titled Sovrat A B C and
written in Latin alphabet not only means in introducing Latin alphabet
but also the basic tenets of Calvinism that includes the Ten
Commandments, the faith and some prayers. This work later followed
by several Bibles translated into Malay; Injil Mateus dan Markus
(1638), Lukas dan Johanes (1646), Injil dan Perbuatan (1651), Kitab
Kejadian (1662), Perjanjian Baru (1668) and Mazmur (1689).
The era of Classical Malay also witnessed the growing interest among
foreigners in learning the Malay language for the purpose of
commerce, diplomatic missions and missionary activities. Therefore,
many books in the form of word-list or dictionary were written. The
oldest of these was a Chinese-Malay word list compiled by the Ming
Frontispiece of a copy of Sulalatus al-Salatin
officials during the heyday of Melaka Sultanate. The dictionary was
known as Ma La Jia Guo Yi Yu (Words-list of Melaka Kingdom) and
contains 482 entries categorized into 17 fields namely astronomy, geography, seasons and times, plants, birds and
animals, houses and palaces, human behaviours and bodies, gold and jewelleries, social and history, colours,
measurements and general words. In the 16th century, the word-list is believed still in use in China when a royal
archive official Yang Lin reviewed the record in 1560 CE. In 1522, the first European-Malay word-list was compiled
by an Italian explorer Antonio Pigafetta, who joined the Magellan's circumnavigation expedition. The Italian-Malay
word-list by Pigafetta contains approximately 426 entries and became the main reference for the later Latin-Malay
and French-Malay dictionaries.
References
[1] The Syair of Minye Tujuh (http:/ / www. kitlv-journals. nl/ index. php/ btlv/ article/ viewFile/ 31/ 30)
Bibliography
Abdul Rashid, Melebek; Amat Juhari, Moain (2006), Sejarah Bahasa Melayu, Utusan Publications &
Distributors, ISBN967-61-1809-5
Andaya, Leonard Y (2001), "The Search for the 'Origins' of Melayu" (http://sabrizain.org/malaya/library/
search.pdf), Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 32 (3) (University of Singapore)
Arkib Negara Malaysia (2012), Persada Kegemilangan Bahasa Melayu (http://www.arkib.gov.my/
persada_bahasa), retrieved 2012-09-27
Asmah, Haji Omar (2004), The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Languages & Literature, Editions Didlers Millet,
ISBN981-3018-52-6
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