| The history of Malay language is divided intofour | | | | centers. |
| periods : Old Malay, Early Modern Malay, Late | | | | This was also a time of flourishing |
| Modern Malay and Contemporary Malay.The | | | | classicalliterature. Adapting Arabic into Jawi script |
| above divisions excludes inconclusive "scholarly" | | | | enabled the Malays to record their experiences, |
| debates pertaining to pre-historic Malay in which | | | | religious laws and oral literature into a collection of |
| diverse origins of Austronesian speakers,from | | | | Malay classical literature. An example is the Malay |
| which Malay is derived, are proposed. | | | | Annals preserved by British Historian Sir Richard O. |
| Old Malay ( 682 -1500 C.E.) begins with records of | | | | Winstedt. |
| poems and thoughts on writing materials made | | | | Late Modern Malay ( c1850 - 1957 ) By this time |
| from plants described as the sharp cursive | | | | Malay has absorbed numerous loan words from |
| Rencong, an ancient script believed to be native | | | | the colonists namely: Portuguese, Dutch and |
| to South-east Asia. Unfortunately no evidence | | | | English. Standardized dictionaries and grammars |
| from that early period survived. When the Indians | | | | appeared together with a study of regional Malay |
| set their feet on the Malay Archipelago, they | | | | dialects and codification of literature. A prominent |
| brought along Vatteluttu or Pallava, an ancient | | | | figurein this field was Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad, |
| Tamilscript from South India. Pallava was accepted | | | | better known as Za'ba, exerted great influence on |
| as the Malay writing system and gradually evolved | | | | pre- independent Malay by codifying Malay |
| into an ancient royal Javanese script called Kawi. | | | | grammar and modifying the Jawi spelling system. |
| Even though Islam most probably introduced | | | | Malay was elevated to the status of the National |
| Arabic script to the Malay world as early as the | | | | language of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore |
| seventh century, Old Malay was very much under | | | | when all of these nations gained independence, a |
| Indian influence with its extensive use of Sanskrit | | | | process hastened by the Japanese Occupation. |
| vocabulary. The Malays tried to use Pallava and | | | | Contemporary Malay ( after 1957 ) Malaysia, |
| Kawi to express their new Islamic faith but | | | | Indonesia and Brunei set up their |
| foundboth to be unsuitable to pronounce the | | | | respectivenational language planning agencies, in an |
| verses of the Quran and Hadis. They thus | | | | effort to unify their different versions of Malay. |
| experimented and created Jawi script based on | | | | There were trials and errors and for a while, |
| Arabic. The Jawi script has been in used for more | | | | obstacle due to Indonesia's confrontation against |
| than 600 years by now and is synonymous with | | | | the formation of Malaysia. As relationship between |
| the Malay language itself. | | | | Indonesia and Malaysia normalized by 1966, |
| Early Modern Malay ( 1500-c1850 ) This was a | | | | theirlinguistic collaboration continued, resulting in a |
| time of turmoil and radical change. The Malacca | | | | common spelling system in 1972. Thanks to this |
| Sultanate as a patron of the Malay language | | | | project, instead of several spelling systems, today |
| played an important role in using the language to | | | | there is only one spelling system for Malay in |
| spread Islam thus changing Malay's pro-India | | | | Malaysia. |
| nature to pro-Arabic. Portuguese conquest of | | | | Above is a brief recap of the history of Malay |
| Malacca in 1511 and subsequent persecution of | | | | language covering a period of 1,500 years, ina |
| Moslems causedthem to disperse throughout the | | | | more digestible form. |
| Malay Archipelago, establishing new regional | | | | |