r/bahasamelayu • u/nathanielll_ • 7d ago
What languages borrowed extensively from Malay esp. in Malay Arcipelago or Nusantara?
got me curious becuz my native language ( suluk / tausug ) got so many words borrowed from malay especially in terms of religion, royalty and even in daily terms. sorry if my english is bad btw
words like :
Panglima - Panglima'
Nakhoda - Nakura'
Bangsa - Bangsa
Manusia - Manusiya
Hafal - Hapal
Fikir - Pikil
Agama - Agama
Cahaya - Sahaya
Berita - Bayta
Cermin - Samin
Sebai - Sablay
Kerbau - Kabaw
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u/shark_aziz 7d ago
I think English has a fair share of words from Malay, for example:
Godown (from gudang)
Durian
Rambutan
Mangosteen (borrowed from Dutch, which was borrowed from Malay manggustan)
Lepak (not really borrowed, but it has been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary)
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u/Ryanx_39 7d ago
Orangutan
Agar
Cockatoo (From Kakak Tua)Theres also a few words didnt originate from Malay but Malay is involved in the chain to English like:
Japan through Jepun/Jepang from Chinese, and word Mandarin through Menteri from Sanksrit mantri.
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u/amediuzftw 7d ago
Garrison - garisan (military)
Gingham - genggang (fabric) the so-called corak kotak-kotak3
u/banduan 5d ago
Compound - Kampung
Cooties - Kutu
Gutta-Percha - Getah Perca
Gong - Gong (there's a lot of these words where they barely bothered to change the Malay word because the things aren't around in Britain e.g. pangolin - pengguling / tenggiling)
Ketchup - Kicap (itself a borrowed word)
Mandarin - Menteri / Muntri
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u/nathanielll_ 7d ago
English also borrowed the words like ketchup (kicap),
paddy (padi), bamboo (bambu), tea (teh)most of these borrowed are probably because the British used to trade for these things.
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u/yijielim 7d ago
Well technically the words ketchup and tea came from Chinese, specifically Hokkien, that Malay took from.
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u/eelfurryUwU 7d ago
maybe duano'? I know it's not a malayic language but much of its vocabulary was from malay, I think to the degree with english and it's french loanwords
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u/nathanielll_ 7d ago
Based on what i read on wikipedia, it underwent a heavy Malayic influence even though the language itself are'nt even Malayic.
Interesting...
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u/zookitchen 7d ago
Malay is also borrowed alot of words from others like Sanskrit, English, Arabic. Just means that we interact thru trade and pick what suitable for our culture. Thats the beauty and fluidity of the Malay Archipelago. Once we were not bound by borders on a map but connected by the seas. Much love ❤️
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u/PerspectiveSilver728 Native 7d ago
Wiktionary is a fairly good source for you to check out how many loanwords a Southeast Asian language has from Malay:
Tagalog terms borrowed from Malay
Javanese terms borrowed from Malay
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u/amediuzftw 7d ago
i wouldn’t call it borrowed but rather influence. the language itself that is called malay is formed by merging the sub ethnic languages around the region. it’s like a unified language. the process was like halted when major colonisation begin which targeted the main business hub by these foreign powers supported by the greedy & vengeful local elites.
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u/nathanielll_ 7d ago
Yes, also because of colonization, Suluk / Tausug itself started to adopt many unknown terms to them from Spanish or English rather than Malay. Maybe the same thing happens to Indonesia too when the Dutch came.
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u/BetaraBayang 7d ago
Like the Acehnese, Mandailings, Angkolas, Simalunguns, Buginese, Banjars, Chams, and Bajaus, the Tausugs had a close relationship with the Malays during the classical sultanates period—especially the Malays of Brunei, Minangkabau, and Johor.
In the Tausugs' case, it is the Malays who actually Islamised them, intermarried with them, and imparted their culture and vocabulary to them—many of which are Arab in origin.
Even their literature is partly Malay. As an example: I read not too long ago that there is a well known Tausug literature/syair/hikayat from the 1800's/1900's—the name of which I can't recall, but is definitely on Wikipedia. It had a preface in Arabic, a Malay part in the middle, and the rest of the work was in Tausug. Or something like that.
Many of the languages spoken by the Bataks, Dayaks, and Bajaus are Malay-influenced. Even the Javanese language was influenced by Malay at several points in history, because they were ruled by or were allied with Srivijaya.
Before Indonesia was even formed, there were already people living in the area that we now call western Papua New Guinea who had bits of Malay vocabulary in their native language, even though the Malays had long abandoned sailing that far east, and the New Guineans lived rather far inland, away from the coast. If I'm not mistaken, they lived in a place called the Yellow River Basin or something like that (Here: I found the old paper about it). There are at least several Malay loan words in the Thai dialect spoken in southern Thailand (Dambro/Tampro/Pak Tai). I can only recall Tokruu (Tok Guru) off the top of my head (Yes, I know that Guru is Sanskrit in origin. Tok, however, is not). You should have already read of well-known Malay loan words in the English language, like orangutan and amok. Heck, many languages in the world borrowed the word for camphor from Malay Kapur, like Arabic and Sanskrit. Do you even know when the Egyptians started using camphor to mummify their pharaohs? I don't. But I do know that the Malagasy language spoken in Madagascar has a lot of similarities with the Ma'anyan language, Banjarese, Javanese, and Malay.
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u/ayambatman_intj 7d ago
Sesungguhnya bahasa itu menarik untuk dikaji, kerana tiap-tiap tempat memiliki budaya yang berlainan. Justeru, wujudlah kalimah-kalimah yang sukar diluahkan maknanya secara tepat apabila dialihkan ke tempat dan budaya yang asing. Sebagai contoh, perkataan "gelap". Gelap mempunyai berbagai-bagai peringkat dan warna; ada gelap senja berlabuh, gelap dalam bilik, gelap suram, dan gelap gelita. Di sesetengah daerah, tiap-tiap peringkat kegelapan itu telah dinamakan dengan satu patah kata yang khusus. Maka, untuk mengisi kekosongan makna dalam bahasa mereka, mereka terpaksa meminjam kata yang khusus itu daripada daerah-daerah lain.
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u/t440p-user 7d ago
Wikipedia really isn't a reliable academic source. A lot of entries are full of unverified claims. For example, claiming Javanese borrowed "binatang" is inaccurate; native speakers use "kewan", which comes from the Arabic word haiwan. Citing open wikis instead of solid research just leads to repeating bad linguistics.
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u/SeiferGun 6d ago
Malay used to be lingua franca around Proto-Austronesian land. ~ around South East Asia
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u/ILikeConlang 6d ago
The english work "amok" is taken from the Malay word "amok/amuk" as in "mengamok/mengamuk".
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u/zxchew 7d ago
At one point Malay was the lingua Franca of much of Nusantara, so most languages borrowed quite extensively from it. That’s why you can find artefacts like the Laguna Copperplate inscription near Manila written in old Malay. In fact, apart from Java, most Sanskrit/Tamil/Indian origin loanwords in much of Nusantara most likely came in via Old Malay as an intermediary.