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History
According to The Encyclopedia of Malaysia, vol. Languages & Literature, p22, p23, the history of written Malay dates back at least 1500 years. The history of Malay language may be divided into four periods.
Old Malay
The oldest dated 682 CE, is the Kedukan Bukit Inscription found near Palembang, and several other inscriptions dating from 7th to 9th centuries have been found in Sumatra, western Java and others. These ancient texts are considered examples of 'Old Malay' or 'Early Malay'. All these inscriptions were in the form of Indian Pallava script, characterized by extensive Sanskrit loan words, which lasted until 17th century.
Transitional Period
In the transitional period, the ‘Early Modern Malay’ was found at Terengganu in the 14th century, the famous Batu Bersurat in Arabic, and in within, there was a Malay Kawi text of Javanese mixed with Arabic, found in the inscribed stones of Pengkalan Kempas. The Batu Bersurat text has large number of Sanskrit terms which are now obsolete. This is a characteristic of Old Malay, the grammatical system is similar to modern Malay.
Malacca Period
At the Sultanate of Malacca ,the Malay language develops rapidly in trade and the spread of Islam and Islamic literature . The development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Persian and later Hindi vocabularies. The development slows down after 1511 with the fall of Malacca to Portuguese.
Late Modern Malay
Malay had developed into a major language of Southeast Asia in the 19th century. The language absorbed many loan words from Portuguese, Dutch and later English. It became national languages of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore after independence.
References
- The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Languages & Literature by Prof. Dato' Dr Asmah Haji Omar (2004) ISBN 981-3018-52-6.
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