The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who are native to the Malay peninsula, southern Thailand, Singapore and parts of Sumatra. It is the official language of Brunei, and one of the four official languages of Singapore. It is also used as a working language in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, is Bahasa Riau, the language of the Riau Archipelago, long considered the birthplace of the Malay language.

In Malaysia, it is known as Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia, which mean Malay, or Malaysian, language. The latter term, which was introduced by the National Language Act 1967, was predominant until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to the older term, which is used in the Malay version of the Federal Constitution. Indonesia adopted a form of Malay as its official language upon independence, naming it Bahasa Indonesia. In Singapore and Brunei it is known simply as Malay or Bahasa Melayu. The reason for adopting these terms is political rather than a reflection of linguistic distinctiveness, as standard Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia are largely mutually intelligible versions of the same language. However, many Malay dialects are not as mutually intelligible: e.g. Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some Malaysians to understand, while Javanese Malay tends to have a lot of words unique to it which will be unfamiliar to other speakers of Malay. The language spoken by the Peranakan (Straits Chinese, a hybrid of Chinese settlers from the Ming Dynasty and local Malays) is a unique patois of Malay and the Chinese Dialect of Hokkien, which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. The use of this interesting language is dying out however, with the Peranakan now choosing to speak either Hokkien or English.

Malay is an agglutinative language, meaning that the meaning of the word can be changed by adding the necessary prefixes or suffixes. Root words are either nouns or verbs, e.g. masak (to cook) yields memasak (cooks, is cooking, etc.), memasakkan (cooks, is cooking, etc. [something]), dimasak (cooked - passive) as well as pemasak (cook - person), masakan (cooking, cookery). Many initial consonants undergo mutation when prefixes are added: e.g. sapu (sweep) becomes penyapu (broom); panggil (to call) becomes memanggil (calls, is calling, etc.), tapis (sieve) becomes menapis (sieves, is sieving, etc.)

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	Organisasi Bahasa Melayu (Malay) di Bangsa Filipina (698 words) The goal of this organization (Organisasi Bahasa Melayu di Bangsa Filipina) is to facilitate the teaching of the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu) in the Philippines. Our proposal is that Malay be taught to elementary children for 2-3 grades (in addition to, or instead of, Tagalog), and that Malay become an elective for High School and College students. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: A Philippine Document from 900 A.D. Malay (Bahasa Melayu) (766 words) Malay, also known as Bahasa Melayu, is an Austronesian language spoken by the native Malay people on both sides of the Straits of Malacca that separate Sumatra from the Malay Peninsula. The official standard for Malay, as agreed upon by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, is Bahasa Riau (Language of the Riau Archipelago), considered to be the birthplace of the Malay language. Bahasa Malaysia became the sole official language of Malaysia in 1968, but English is still widely used, especially by the minority Chinese and Indian communities, because of its importance as the language of international business.
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