Malay is spoken across Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and serves as the foundation of the region's communication. It is deeply ingrained in the culture, literature and history of Southeast Asia.
Malay
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Classification
Austronesian > Malayo-Polynesian
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Speakers
33 million
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Script
Roman
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Text direction
Left-to-right
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Official language
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei
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Other names
Bahasa Malaysia
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Also spoken
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand
Malay
Malay is a member of Malayo-Polynesian language group. Other languages in this language group include Tagalog, Maori and Malagasy to name but a few.
Standard Malay is spoken mostly as a second language by Malaysians. The government of Malaysia refers to the language either as Malay (officially) or Malaysian (unofficially). “Bahasa” is simply the word “language” in Malay.
It is also spoken in Singapore and Brunei (where it is called Bahasa Melayu/Malay language) and in Indonesia (where it is called Bahasa Indonesia/Indonesian language). Bahasa Indonesia and Standard Malay are 95% similar.
The alphabet used by Malay is based on the Latin alphabet, and is referred to as “Rumi” (as in Roman).
At Geo Language Services, our Malay translations are designed to be precise, culturally relevant, and contextually appropriate, ensuring your message is clear to Malay-speaking audiences.
Services offered for this language
Translation / Transcreation / Subtitling / Localization / Adaptation / Copywriting / Authoring / Proofreading / Revision / Editing / Translation quality assurance / Terminology / Linguistic validation / Glossary creation / Dubbing / Voice-overs / Transcription / Typesetting / Simultaneous interpreting / Consecutive interpreting / Conference interpreting / Telephone interpreting / Public service interpreting / Interpreting equipment hire / Foreign language consulting
Interesting fact
Malay includes some vivid words describing movement, such as Kontal-kontil, the movement of long earrings or skirts as someone walks, and jerangkang, which means "to fall over with your legs in the air."
How can we help you?
Let us know about your needs, and we’ll guide you through every step of the way.