Malay Language

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1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Malay Language offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Malay Language at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Malay Language? Wrong! If the Malay Language is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Malay Language then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Malay Language? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Malay Language and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Malay Language wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Malay Language then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Malay Language site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Malay Language, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Malay Language, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox Language|name=Malay|nativename=, |states=Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, southern Thailand, southern Philippines, Australia, Netherlands (MP)|fam3=[Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages|fam4=Sunda-Sulawesi languages|fam5=Malayic languages|fam6=Malayan languages|fam7=Local Malay languages|script = Latin alphabet (official) and Jawi script; historically written in Pallava script, Old Kawi script and Rencong script|nation=,
,
|agency=MABBIM (Council of Language), Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature)]: ), is an Austronesian languages spoken by the Malays (ethnic group) who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island Islands in Australia, and even in the Netherlands. It is an official language of Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore. It is very similar to Indonesian language, known locally as Bahasa Indonesia, the official language of Indonesia.

In Malaysia, the language is officially known as Bahasa Malaysia, which translates as the "Malaysian language". The term, which was introduced by the National Language Act 1967, was predominant until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to "Bahasa Melayu," which is used in the Malay version of the Constitution of Malaysia. According to Constitution of Malaysia#Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, Bahasa Melayu is the official language of Malaysia. "Bahasa kebangsaan" (National language) was also used at one point during the 1970s. As of late, however, the name has been reverted back to "Bahasa Malaysia".

In spoken Malay and Malaysian English, the language is also referred to by the Acronym and initialism BM.

Indonesia adopted a form of Malay as its official language upon independence, naming it Bahasa Indonesia drawing inspiration from the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth's Oath) event in 1928 "Bahasa Indonesia: The Indonesian Language," George Quinn, Australian National University and although a large degree of mutual intelligibility exists, Indonesian is distinct in many ways from Malay as spoken in Malaysia. In Singapore and Brunei it is known simply as Malay or Bahasa Melayu. 'Bahasa Melayu' is specified as the Brunei's official language by the country's Brunei Constitution of 1959.

However, many Malay dialects are not as mutually intelligible: for example, Kelantan Malay pronunciation is difficult even for some Malaysians to understand, while Indonesian language tends to have a lot of words unique to it which will be unfamiliar to other speakers of Malay.

The language spoken by the Peranakan (Straits Chinese, a hybrid of Chinese settlers from the Ming Dynasty and local Malays) is a unique patois of Malay and the Chinese dialect of Hokkien (dialect) (Min Nan), which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca.

Classification and related languages Malay is a member of the Austronesian languages family of languages which includes languages from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia. Malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this linguistic family.

Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian languages branch of the family (including the Languages of the Philippines and Malagasy), which is further subdivided into Borneo-Philippines languages and Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages of which Malay is a member. Malay's closest relatives therefore include Javanese language, Acehnese, Chamorro language and Palauan language, Gilbertese, Nauruan, Hawaiian language, Maori language, Samoan language, Tahitian language, Tongan language and Tuvaluan language.

Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking. Many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common Austronesian languages ancestor. Many cognates are kinship terms, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities. For example, lima is practically the universal term for "five".

Writing system Historically, Malay language has been written using various types of script. Before the introduction of Jawi, a modified Arabic script for Malay language in the Malay region, Malay was written using Rencong, Pallava and Kawi script. Old Malay language was written using Pallava and Kawi script, as evident from several inscription stones in the Malay region. Starting from the era of kingdom of Pasai and throughout the golden age of Sultanate of Malacca, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region.

During the period of Western colonization, the Portuguese people, Dutch people and United Kingdom introduced Latin script and its use has since spread throughout the Malay region until today. Until the 1960s there were two separate systems of Romanization, one based on English and used in Malaysia and one based on Dutch and used in Indonesia, in each case as an alternative to Jawi. In 1962 date a common system was introduced by treaty between the two countries, which is now the sole official script.

Today, Malay is written using Latin alphabet called Rumi, although Jawi script is still used for some purposes in Malay cultures. Efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve Jawi script and to revive its use amongst Malays in Malaysia, and students taking Malay language examination in Malaysia have the option of answering questions using Jawi script. Rumi (Latin alphabet for Malay language), however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes.

Extent of use In the colonial period a distinction was drawn between the standard literary Malay of the south of the Malay peninsula and the "bazaar Malay" which was the lingua franca of the islands (modern Indonesia), which was influenced by Javanese and other languages of the archipelago. To some extent this is reflected in the differences between official Malay and official Indonesian.

The extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Bahasa Melayu is the national language in Malaysia by Constitution of Malaysia#Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia, and became the sole official language in West Malaysia in 1968, and in East Malaysia gradually from 1974. English continues, however, to be widely used in professional and commercial fields and in the superior courts. Other minority languages are also commonly used by the country's large ethnic minorities. The situation in Brunei is similar to that of Malaysia.

In Singapore, Malay was historically the lingua franca among people of different races and nationalities. Although this has largely given way to English, Malay still retains the status of national language and the national anthem, Majulah Singapura, is entirely in Malay.

Most residents of the five southernmost provinces of Thailand — a region that, for the most part, used to be part of an ancient Malay kingdom called Pattani kingdom — speak a dialect of Malay called Yawi (not to be confused with Jawi), which is similar to Kelantanese Malay, but the language has no official status or recognition.

Due to earlier contact with the Philippines, Malay words — such as dalam hati (sympathy), luwalhati (glory), tengah hari (midday), sedap (delicious) — have evolved and been integrated into Tagalog language and other languages of the Philippines.

By contrast, Indonesian has successfully become the lingua franca for its disparate islands and ethnic groups, in part because the colonial language, Dutch, is no longer commonly spoken. (In East Timor, which was governed as a province of Indonesia from 1976 to 1999, Indonesian is widely spoken and recognized under its Constitution as a 'working language'.)

Phonology {| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto:" align="center"|+caption | Table of consonant phonemes of Malay|-!! colspan="2" | Bilabial! colspan="2" ]-
Labiodental! colspan="2" | Dental consonant! colspan="2" | Alveolar consonant! colspan="2" | Postalveolar consonantor palatal! colspan="2" ]!colspan="2"| Uvular!colspan="2"]|- align="center"| Plosives and Affricate consonant| p | b | colspan="2" || t | d | colspan="2" ||c || j | k | g | colspan="2" | q | colspan="2" | '/k |- align="center"| Nasal consonant| colspan="2" | m | colspan="2" || colspan="4" | n | colspan="2" | ny | colspan="2" | ng |colspan="2"||colspan="2"||- align="center"| Fricative consonant|colspan="2"|| f || v | ts || dz | s || z | colspan="2" | sy , sj| colspan="2" | kh | colspan="2" ||colspan="2"|h |- align="center"| Approximant consonant| colspan="2" | w | colspan="2" || colspan="2" || colspan="2" || colspan="2" | y | colspan="2" ||colspan="2"||colspan="2"||- align="center"| Trill consonant| colspan="2" || colspan="2" || colspan="4" | r | colspan="2" || colspan="2" ||colspan="2"||colspan="2"||- align="center"| Flap consonant| colspan="2" || colspan="2" || colspan="4" | r | colspan="2" || colspan="2" ||colspan="2"||colspan="2"||- align="center"| Lateral consonant| colspan="2" || colspan="2" || colspan="4" | l | colspan="2" || colspan="2" ||colspan="2"||colspan="2"||}

Orthographic Notes:

The k at the end of a word in native Malay words is pronounced as a glottal stop.
The combination of is represented as ngg.
The letter x is variously pronounced as , or .

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto; text-align:center" align="center" width="50%"|+caption | Table of vowel phonemes of Malay|-! Height! Front! Central! Back|-!Close| i ||u |-! Mid|e |e |o |-! Open||a |a |}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto; text-align:center" align="center" width="50%"|+caption | Table diphthongs of Malay! Orthography! IPA|-| ai| |-| au| |-|ua||}

There are two vowels represented by the letter "e", i.e. and . Learners of Malay are expected to distinguish between the two sounds while learning each new word. (Before the joint spelling reform of 1972 between Malaysia and Indonesia, the two nations marked the difference in vowels. For unknown reasons, it was decided to drop the marking when the spellings were united.)

In some parts of Peninsular Malaysia, especially in the central and southern region, most words which end with the letter a tends to be pronounced as .

Grammar Word Formation Malay is an agglutinative language, and new words are formed via three methods. New words can be created by attaching affixes onto a root word (affixation), formation of a compound word (composition), or repetition of words or portions of words (reduplication).

Affixes Root words are either nouns or verbs, which can be affixed to derive new words, e.g. masak (to cook) yields memasak (cooks, is cooking, etc.), memasakkan (cooks, is cooking for etc.), dimasak (cooked - passive) as well as pemasak (cook - person), masakan (cooking, cookery). Many initial consonants undergo mutation when prefixes are added: e.g. sapu (sweep) becomes penyapu (broom); panggil (to call) becomes memanggil (calls, is calling, etc.), tapis (sieve) becomes menapis (sieves, is sieving, etc.)

Other examples of the use of affixes to change the meaning of a word can be seen with the word ajar (teach):

ajar = teach
ajar'an = teachings

belajar = is studying

mengajar = to teach

diajar = (something) is being taught

diajarkan = (someone) is being taught (something)

mempelajari = to study (something)

dipelajari = is being studied

pelajar = student

pengajar = teacher

pelajaran = subject

pengajaran = lesson, moral of story

pembelajaran = learning

terajar = taught

terpelajar = well-educated

berpelajaran = is educated

There are four types of affixes, namely prefixes (awalan), suffixes (akhiran), circumfixes (apitan) and infixes (sisipan). These affixes are categorized into noun affixes, verb affixes, and adjective affixes.

Noun affixes are affixes that form nouns upon addition to root words. The following are examples of noun affixes:

{]|-||me(N)-|tolong (help)|menolong (to help) - Active transitive] transitive] transitive|-|| -i|jauh (far)|jauhi (avoid) - Imperative transitive|-|Circumfix|be(R)-...-an|pasang (pair)|berpasangan (to be paired)|-||be(R)-...-kan|tajuk (title)|bertajukkan (to be titled, to entitle)|-||me(N)-...-kan|pasti (certain)|memastikan (to ensure)|-||me(N)-...-i|teman (companion)|menemani (to accompany)|-||mempe(R)-...-kan|guna (use)|mempergunakan (to misuse, to utilise)|-||mempe(R)-...-i|ajar (teach)|mempelajari (to study)|-||ke-...-an|hilang (disappear)|kehilangan (to lose)|-||di-...-i|sakit (pain)|disakiti (is being hurt)|-||di-...-kan|benar (right)|dibenarkan (is allowed to)|-||dipe(R)-...-kan|kenal (know, recognise)|diperkenalkan (is being introduced)|}

Adjective affixes are attached to root words to form adjectives:

{|class="wikitable"! style="background:#efefef;" | Type of adjective affixes! style="background:#efefef;" | Affix! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of root word! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of derived word|-|Prefix|te(R)-|kenal (know)|terkenal (famous)|-||se-|bijak (clever)|sebijak (as clever as)|-|Infix| -el-|serak (disperse)|selerak (messy)|-|| -em-|cerlang (radiant bright)|cemerlang (bright, excellent)|-|| -er-|sabut (husk)|serabut (dishevelled)|-|Circumfix|ke-...-an|barat (west)|kebaratan (westernized)|}

In addition to these affixes, Malay language also has a lot of borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and English. For example maha-, pasca-, eka-, bi-, anti-, pro- etc.

Compound word In Malay, new words can be formed by joining two or more root words. Compound words, when exist freely in a sentence, are often written separately. Compound words are only attached to each other when they are bound by circumfix or when they are already considered as stable words.

For example, the word kereta which means car and api which means fire, are compounded to form a new word kereta api (train). Similarly, ambil alih (take over) is formed using the root words ambil (take) and alih (move), but will link together when a circumfix is attached to it, i.e. pengambilalihan (takeover). Certain stable words, such as kakitangan (personel), and kerjasama (cooperation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.

Reduplication There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely

Full reduplication
Partial reduplication
Rhythmic reduplication
Reduplication of meaning

Measure words Another distinguishing feature of Malay is its use of measure words (penjodoh bilangan). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese language, Vietnamese language, Burmese language, and Bengali language.

Part of Speech In Malay, there are 4 parts of speech:

Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Function words

Function words There are 16 types of function words in Malay which performs a grammatical function in a sentence. Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.

Negations There are two negation words in Malay, that is bukan and tidak. Bukan is used to negate noun phrases and preposition in a predicate, whereas tidak is used to negate verbs and adjective phrases in a predicate.

{|class="wikitable"! style="background:#efefef;" |Subject! style="background:#efefef;" |Negation! style="background:#efefef;" |Predicate|-|Lelaki yang berjalan dengan Fazila itu
(That boy who is walking with Fazila)|bukan
(is not)|teman lelakinya
(her boyfriend)|-|Surat itu
(The letter)|bukan
(is not)|daripada teman penanya di Perancis
(from his penpal in France)|-|Pelajar-pelajar itu
(Those students)|tidak
(do not)|mengikuti peraturan sekolah
(obey school regulations)|-|Penguasaan Bahasa Melayunya
(His command of Malay language)|tidak
(is not)|sempurna
(perfect)|}

The negative word bukan however, can be used before verb phrases and adjective phrases if the sentence shows contradictions.

{|class="wikitable"! style="background:#efefef;" |Subject! style="background:#efefef;" |Negation! style="background:#efefef;" |Predicate! style="background:#efefef;" |Contradiction|-|Karangannya
(His composition)|bukan
(is not)|sangat baik,
(very good,)|tetapi dia mendapat markah baik
(but he received good marks)|}

Grammatical gender Malay does not make use of grammatical gender, and there are only a few words that use natural gender; the same word is used for he and she or for his and her. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes. For example, adik can both refer to a younger sibling of either gender. In order to specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective has to be added: adik lelaki corresponds to "brother" but really means "male younger sibling". There are some words that are gendered, for instance puteri means "princess", and putera means "prince"; words like these are usually absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from Sanskrit).

Pluralisation Plurals are often expressed by means of reduplication, but only when the plural is not implied in the context. For example, "cup", which is 'cawan', would be 'cawan-cawan'. This can be shortened to 'cecawan', but this only applies to a list of words.

There are exceptions to this rule. Although "person" is orang, "people" is not orang-orang, but normally 'ramai orang' (literal translation: many persons). "One thousand people" is seribu orang, as the numeral makes it unnecessary to mark the plural form. Besides expressing plurals, reduplication can also be used to create new words that differ in meaning before reduplication takes place, for instance hati means "heart" or "liver" (depending on context) whereas hati-hati means "to be careful" and it is often used as a verb. For foreigners who are learning Malay, reduplication is not as easy as it seems to be because one can say orang ("person") or orang-orang ("scarecrow"). Some write duplicates with a "2", e.g. orang2 for orang-orang.

Verbs Verbs are not inflected language for person or number, and they are not marked for tense; tense is instead denoted by time adverbs (such as "yesterday") or by other tense indicators, such as sudah, "already". On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and denote active and passive voices. Some of these affixes are ignored in daily conversations.

Word order The basic word order is Subject Verb Object. Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns follow the noun they describe.

==Adopted words==

The Malay language has many words adopted from Arabic language (mainly religious terms), Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil language, Persian language, Portuguese language, Dutch language, certain Chinese language and more recently, English language (in particular many scientific and technological terms). Some examples follow:

aksi - action (from Dutch Language actie)
almari - cupboard (from Portuguese language armário)
anggur - grape (from Persian language انگور/angur)
bahasa - language (from Sanskrit bhāshā)
bandar - town (from Persian language بندر/bandr)
bas - bus (from English language)
bangku - stool (from Portuguese language banco)
bendera - flag (from Portuguese language bandeira)
bihun - rice vermicelli (from Hokkien (dialect) bi-hun)
biola - violin (from Portuguese language viola)
biskut - biscuit (from English language)
bomba - fire brigade (from Portuguese language bomba, "pump", or bombeiro, "fireman", lit. "pumper")
boneka - doll (from Portuguese language boneca)
buat - do (from Sanskrit wuat)
buku - book (from Dutch language boek)
bumi - earth (from Sanskrit bhumi)
cawan - cup (from Mandarin (linguistics) cháwǎn)
dakwah - sermon (from Arabic da3wah)
dewan - hall (from Persian language دیوان/diwan)
duka - sadness (from Sanskrit duhkha)
dunia - world (from Arabic dunyā)
ekspress - express (from English language)
falsafah - philosophy (from Arabic falsafah)
gandum - wheat (from Persian language گندم/gandm)
garfu - fork (from Portuguese language garfo)
gereja - church (from Portuguese language igreja)
gratis - for free (from Portuguese language)
guru - teacher (from Sanskrit)
had - limit (from Arabic hadd)
huruf - word character/letter (from Arabic language urūf)
ini - this (from Persian language این)
jawab - to answer (from Arabic jawāb)
jendela - window (from Portuguese language janela)
Khamis - Thursday (Arabic al-khamis)
kamus - dictionary (from Arabic language qāmūs)
kapal - ship (from Tamil language கப்பல்/kappal)
katil - bed (from Tamil language கட்டில்/kattil)
kaunter - counter or desk (from English language)
keju - cheese (from Portuguese language queijo)
kemeja - shirt (from Portuguese language camisa)
kepala - head (from Sanskrit language kapala "skull")
kereta - carriage, car (from Portuguese language carreta)
komputer - computer (from English language)
kongsi - share (from Hokkien (dialect) 公司/kong-si)
kuda - horse (from Hindi kudh)
kuil - temple (from Tamil language கோவில்/kovil)
kurma - date (from Persian language خرما/Khurma)
lif - lift, elevator (from English language))
limau - lemon/orange (from Portuguese language limão "lemon")
lori - lorry, truck (from English language)
maaf - sorry (from Urdu māf "forgiveness")/(from Arabic Mafu)
maha - great (from Sanskrit)
makmal - laboratory Arabic
mangga - mango (from Portuguese language manga)
manusia - human being (from Sanskrit manuya)
mentega - butter (from Portuguese language manteiga)
mee/mi - noodles (from Hokkien (dialect) mi)
meja - table (from Portuguese language mesa)
misai - moustache (from Tamil language மீசை/meesai)
miskin - poor (from Arabic miskiin)
muflis - bankrupt (from Arabic muflis)
nujum - astrologer (from Arabic al-nujum)
nanas/nenas - pineapple (from Portuguese language or Arabic ananás)
paderi - priest (Christian) (from Portuguese language padre)
pau - bun (from Hokkien (dialect) 包/pau)
pesta - party (from Portuguese language festa)
pita - tape (from Portuguese language fita)
putera - prince (from Sanskrit putra "son")
raja - king (from Sanskrit rāja)
roda - wheel (from Portuguese language roda)
roti - bread (from Sanskrit roi)
sabun - soap (from Arabic) sàbuun
sains - science (from English language)
wikt:sama - same (from Sanskrit)

sama-sama - together (derived from sama via reduplication)

sekolah - school (from Portuguese language escola)
sengsara - suffering (from Sanskrit sasara)
sepatu - shoe (from Portuguese language sapato)
soldadu - soldier (from Portuguese language soldado)
syariah - Islamic law (from Arabic language shāri`ah)
syurga - Heaven (from Tamil language சொர்கம்/sorgam)
syukur - thankful (from Arabic shukr)
singahsana - location (from Sanskrit singahsanam)
sistem - system (from English language)
suka - happiness (from Sanskrit sukha)
tangki - tank (from Portuguese language tanque)
tauhu - beancurd (from Hokkien (dialect) tao-hu)
tarikh - date (from Arabic language tārīkh)
teh - tea (from Hokkien (dialect) t)
teko - teapot (from Hokkien (dialect) t-ko)
televisyen - television (from English language)
tuala - towel (from Portuguese language toalha)
tukar - to exchange (from Portuguese language trocar)
Agama - Religion (from Sanskrit agama)
unta - camel (from Urdu ūn)
utara - north (from Sanskrit uttara)
warna - colour (from Sanskrit varnam)
waktu - time (from Arabic language waqt)
wira - hero (from Tamil language வீரா/veera)
zirafah - giraffe (from Arabic language zirāfah)

Some Malay words have been borrowed into English language. See the Wiktionary:Category:Malay derivations at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sister project.

Malay language has also heavily influenced the forms of colloquial English spoken in Malaysia (Manglish).

Some simple phrases in Malay In Malaysia, to greet somebody with "Selamat pagi" or "Selamat sejahtera" would be considered very formal, and the borrowed word "Hi" would be more usually among friends; similarly "Bye-bye" is often used when taking one's leave.{||-| Malay Phrase || IPA ||English Translation|-|Selamat datang || // || Welcome|-|Selamat jalan || // || Have a safe journey (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party staying)|-|Selamat tinggal || // || Goodbye (Somewhat equivalent to "stay safe", used by the party leaving)|-|Terima kasih || // || Thank you|-|Sama-sama || // ||You are welcome (as in a response to Thank You)|-|Selamat pagi || // || Good morning|-|Selamat petang || // || Good afternoon/evening (note that 'Selamat petang' must not be used at night as in English. For a general greeting, use 'Selamat sejahtera')|-|Selamat sejahtera || // || Greetings (formal)|-|Selamat malam || // ||Good night (Use when ending a meet during the night. To greet someone at night, use 'Selamat Sejahtera')|-|Jumpa lagi || || See you again|-|Siapakah nama anda?/Nama awak apa? || || What is your name?|-|Nama saya ... || || My name is ... (The relevant name is placed in front. For example, if your name was Jessha, then you would introduce yourself by saying "Nama saya Jessha", which translates to "My name is Jessha")|-|Apa khabar? || || How are you? / What's up? (literally, "What news?")|-|Khabar baik || || Fine, good|-|Saya sakit || || I am ill|-|Ya || // || Yes|-|Tidak ("tak" colloquially) || || No|-|Saya sayang padamu || ||I love you (In a more of a family or affectionate sort of love, e.g.: mother to daughter)|-|Saya cinta awak (/padamu) || ||I love you (romantic love)|-|-Saya benci awak (/akanmu)|| || I hate you|-|Saya tidak faham (or simply "tak faham" colloquially) || ||I do not understand|-|Saya tidak tahu (or "tak tau" colloquially. Some say "sik tau") || ||I do not know|-|(Minta) maaf || ||Sorry or Excuse Me ('minta' is to request. Begin with 'Minta Maaf' when trying to talk to strangers)|-|Tumpang tanya || ||"May I ask...?" (used when trying to ask something)|-|(Minta) tolong || ||Please help (me) ('Tolong!' on its own just means "help!")|-|Apa || ||"what?"|-|Tiada || ||"Nothing"|}

Usage among the younger generation While sending Short message service messages on their mobile phones, or being logged into Internet chat rooms, Malay-speaking youths tend to abbreviate their words to save message space or simply be quick in sending their messages, e.g. x - tak, tidak (no; not); bkn - bukan (not); bleh - boleh (can, i.e. able to). They even alter the spellings of certain full words, e.g. ko - (eng)kau (you); ye - ya (yes). They even merge two words into a new one in place of a word of the same meaning in formal Malay, e.g. diorang (dia and orang).

There is a new set of slang spoken by the urban youth, which may not be familiar to the older generation, e.g. awek (girl); balak (guy); usha (survey); skodeng (peep); cun (pretty); poyo/slenge (horrible, low-quality) etc. The youth also tend to mix Malay with English words, forming Bahasa Rojak. Example of this pidgin is: 'Bestlah tempat ni (This place is cool);kau ni terror lah (How daring you are; you're amazing). This issue has raised the displeasure of language purists in Malaysia, in their effort to uphold the proper use of the national language.

Dictionary There are many different Malay dictionaries. In Malaysia, the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) dictionary is the chief arbiter for the language, and is considered the authority in defining Malay usage. Some other dictionaries are:

Kamus Dewan
Kamus Pelajar
Kamus Oxford
Kamus Besar