zsm ISO 639

Bahasa Malaysia, بهاس مليسيا‎ (Bahasa Malaysia) Autonyms

Malay, Standard

  • Geography

    MY Widespread.
  • Language Cloud

A language of Malaysia

zsm
Bahasa Malayu, Bahasa Melayu Malaysia, Formal Malay, Malay, Malaysian Malay, Malayu, Melayu, Melayu Baku
Bahasa Malaysia, بهاس مليسيا‎ (Bahasa Malaysia)
Few L1 speakers. L2 includes most Malaysian population.
Widespread.
1 (National). Statutory national language (1963, Constitution (amended), Article 153A(1)).
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Malayic, Malay
None known. Lexical similarity: more than 80% with Indonesian [ind]. A member of macrolanguage Malay [msa].
SVO.
Also use English [eng]. Also use Mandarin Chinese [cmn]. Also use Tamil [tam].
Used through secondary education and in some tertiary institutions. Taught in all primary and secondary schools; taught as subject in schools using Chinese [cmn] or Tamil [tam] as the language of instruction. Taught in tertiary schools. Fully developed. Bible: 1733–2016.
Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab]. Braille script [Brai]. Latin script [Latn].
On Peninsular Malaysia, Standard Malay [zsm] exists in a diglossic relationship with Local Malay [zlm]. Standard Malay (derived from court Malay), both in terms of its linguistic structure as well as its sociolinguistic function, has its closest counterpart not in a particular Local Malay dialect but in Standard Indonesian [ind].
OLAC resources in and about Malay, Standard
Malay, Standard
1 (National)
Formal domains, religion, government.
Taught in all primary and secondary schools, used as the only language of instruction in grades 1 and 2, then, with English, used for teaching Malay, religion (Islamic studies), physical education, the arts and trades. Taught in tertiary schools.
Non-indigenous. L2 only.
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Malay, Standard
Few L1 speakers. L2 speakers include ethnic Malays and some others, particularly the older generation.
Widespread.
1 (National)
Taught in all primary schools in early grades only. Taught as subject in secondary schools.
Non-indigenous. In Singapore, Standard Malay [zsm] exists in a diglossic relationship with Local Malay [zlm].
View other languages of Singapore