The
Old Malay language, also called
Classical Malay, is the ancestor of the modern
Malay language, including
Indonesian and
Malaysian. It developed in the now
Melayu Kingdom of
Sumatra. It was heavily influenced by
Sanskrit and
Kawi (
Old Javanese), and was grammatically quite similar to modern Malay.
History
Old Malay
Written Malay is attested from 1,500 years ago. The oldest known text, from 682 CE, is the
Kedukan Bukit Inscription found in the area of the former Kingdom of Melayu, located on the Jambi river, approximately 40 kilometres north of modern
Palembang, (in
Sumatra,
Indonesia. Since Old Malay was influenced by Hindu-Buddhist culture, there is some
sankrit loanwords in Old Malay vocabulary. are Several other inscriptions dating from the 7th to 9th centuries have been found in
Sumatra, western
Java, and other islands of the
Sunda archipelago. These texts are considered examples of
Old Malay or
Early Malay language. All these inscriptions were in the
Kawi form of the
Javanese script.
Transitional period
Early Modern Malay is attested from
Terengganu in the 14th century, with the
Batu Bersurat text, a Malay
Kawi text with Arabic influence inscribed on stones at
Pengkalan Kempas. The Batu Bersurat text has large number of Old Malay Sanskrit terms which are now obsolete.
Malacca period
During the
Sultanate of Malacca, the
Malay language developed rapidly due to trade and the spread of Islam and Islamic literature. This development changed the nature of the...
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