A. Proto-Austronesian Language
Malay is the most widely spoken language in the Austronesian language family. The Austronesian languages can most likely be traced back to a common ancestor (Proto-Austronesia) in what is now Taiwan, around 5200 years ago.
Various dialects arose from Proto-Austronesian. One of them being Proto-Malayo Polynesian which began splitting into various languages around 4,000 years ago as Austronesian people expanded to the South from Taiwan. The Malayo-Polynesian sub-branch includes most of the Austronesian languages outside of Taiwan.
B. Proto-Malayic Language
A Proto-Malayic language, the ancestor of all Malay dialects probably originated on the island of Borneo more than 2,000 years ago before its speakers migrated West to Sumatra and Malay Peninsula.
C. Old Malay
The beginning of the Common Era which was after the year 1 CE or 1 AD was a time of great Indian influence in the region and during this time, Old Malay emerged. Old Malay was highly influenced by Sanskrit and written in Indian script known as Pallava. The oldest known inscriptions of Old Malay are the Kedukan Bukit, which were found in Sumatera and date back to the 7th century CE. The oldest Old Malay manuscript that still exists today is the Tanjung Tanah. It was a legal text from the 14th century CE, still before Islam was widespread in the area.
D. Classical Malay
Islam soon became dominant in the area and trade with the Muslim world increased resulting in a lot of Arabic and Persian vocabulary entering the language and resulting the adoption of the Jawi script. Jawi is a version of Arabic script that was modified to suit the Malay language.
During the Malacca Sultanante, which was like a kingdom and her successor the Johore Sultanante, Malay became widely used as a lingua franca. Islamic literature greatly affected the language with more Arabic and Persian words entering Malay. Because Malacca was a busy international port with people from various kingdoms, Malay also absorbed vocabulary from different languages such as Tamil and Chinese languages. During this classical period, Malay evolved into something relatively similar to modern bahasa Melayu and bahasa Indonesia of today.
There were two forms of Malay that became widespread during this period. First, there was the formal Classical Malay which was the state language and the language of courts and literature. Second, there was Bazaar Malay or bahasa Melayu Pasar, the low language spoken by traders as a lingua franca throughout the archipelago. Bazaar Malay is thought to have been a pidgin language featuring vocabulary from Malay but influenced by other languages such as Chinese languages.
There were also local Malay dialects that varied from place to place.
E. Pre-Modern Malay
In the 19th century, European colonial powers were dominating the region with the Dutch in Indonesia and British in Malaysia. During this time period, improvements of the printing press made Malay books and newspapers more widely available to the common people. So that, literary Malay or Classical Malay was no longer just the language of the courts and the elite. The literary language of the Malacca and Johore Sultanates, in other words, Classical Malay was recognized by the British and the Dutch as the standard form of the language and became the language of Education.
One notable change during the colonial period was the adoption of the Rumi writing system, the use of Roman characters to write Malay instead of Jawi script. English loanwords began to trickle into Malay, in regions controlled by the British.
F. Modern Malay
The abundance of Malay literature in the 19th century sparks new enthusiasm for the language. Malay linguists began their efforts to standardize and modernize the language. In 1936, the Malay scholar Za'aba published a series of books called 'Pelita Bahasa' in which he updated the grammar of Classical Malay forming the basis of bahasa Melayu and bahasa Indonesia. In both Malaysia and Indonesia, the standard form of Malay became an important part of their respective nationalist movements and their struggles for independence.
When Indonesia declared independence in 1945, bahasa Indonesia became the national language and when Malaysia became independent in 1957, bahasa Melayu became the national language.
G. Malay Dialects
Bahasa Melayu is the standard form of Malay used in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. It is the form of language taught at school but there are numerous Malay dialects that vary not only from country to country but also from state to state and town to town with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary.
The Malay spoken in Sabah and Sarawak tends to be similar to the Malay spoken in Brunei and Singapore but different from the dialects in West Malaysia. Some states in West Malaysia are known for being quite divergent. For example the dialect of Kelantan. Kelantan borders Thailand to the north where a similar dialect is spoken. The difference is that everyone in Kelantan learned standard Malay at school but in southern Thailand, everyone learns Thai at school. This makes cross dialect communication harder for speakers of Malay in Thailand. But for speakers of other Malay dialect, standard Malay is a unifying force and speaking a little more formally can help people bridge communication gaps.
Standard Malay is also the form of Malay learned by non-Malays at schools. So, standard Malay is sometimes the language of inter-ethnic communication though some people choose to speak English instead.
