History of The Malay Language - Modern Malay (20th Century CE)

Modern Malay (20th Century CE)

The flourishing of pre-modern Malay literature in 19th century led to the rise of intellectual movement among the locals and the emergence of new community of Malay linguists. The appreciation of language grew and various efforts were undertaken by the community to further enhance the usage of Malay as well as to improve its abilities in facing the challenging modern era. Among the efforts done was the planning of a corpus for Malay language, first initiated by Pakatan Belajar-Mengajar Pengetahuan Bahasa (Society for the Learning and Teaching of Linguistic Knowledge), established in 1888. The society that was renamed in 1935 as Pakatan Bahasa Melayu dan Persuratan Buku Diraja Johor (The Johor Royal Society of Malay language and Literary works), involved actively in arranging and compiling the guidelines for spelling, dictionaries, grammars, punctuations, letters, essays, terminologies and many others. The establishment of Sultan Idris Training College (SITC) in Tanjung Malim, Perak in 1922 intensified these efforts. In 1936, Za'ba, an outstanding Malay scholar and lecturer of SITC, produced a Malay grammar book series entitled Pelita Bahasa that modernized the structure of the Classical Malay language and became the basis for the Malay language that is in use today. The most important change was in syntax, from the classical passive form to the modern active form. In the 20th century, other improvements were also carried out by other associations, organizations, governmental institutions and congresses in various part of the region.

Writing has its unique place in the history of self-awareness and the nationalist struggle in Indonesia and Malaysia. Apart from being the main tools to spread knowledge and information, newspapers and journals like Al-Imam (1906), Panji Poestaka (1912), Lembaga Melayu (1914), Warta Malaya (1931), Poedjangga Baroe (1933) and Utusan Melayu (1939) became the main thrust in championing and shaping the fight for nationalism. Writing, whether in the form of novels, short stories, or poems, all played distinct roles in galvanising the spirit of Malay nationalism and Indonesian National Awakening.

During the first Kongres Pemuda of Indonesia held in 1926, in the Sumpah Pemuda, Malay language was proclaimed as the unifying language for the nation of Indonesia. In 1945, the language which later renamed "Bahasa Indonesia" in 1928 became the national language as enshried in the constitution of an independent Indonesia. Later in 1957, Malay language was elevated to the status of national language for the independent Federation of Malaya (later reconstituted as Malaysia in 1963). Then in 1959, Malay language also received the status of national language in Brunei, although it only ceased to become a British protectorate in 1984. When Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965, Malay became the national language of the new republic and one of the four official languages. The emergence of these newly independent states paved the way for a broader and widespread use of Malay (or Indonesian) in government administration and education. Colleges and universities with Malay as their primary medium of instructions were introduced and bloomed as the prominent centres for researches and production of new intellectual writings in Malay.

"..Kami poetra dan poetri Indonesia mendjoendjoeng bahasa persatoean, bahasa Melajoe,.." (Indonesian for "We, the sons and daughters of Indonesia, vow to uphold the nation's language of unity, the Malay language")

— The draft for the third part of Sumpah Pemuda during the first Kongres Pemuda held in 1926. The term Bahasa Melajoe was revised to Bahasa Indonesia in 1928.

The Indonesian language as the unifying language for Indonesia is relatively open to accommodate influences from other Indonesian ethnics' languages, most notably Javanese as the majority ethnic group in Indonesia, Dutch as the previous colonizer, and English as the international language. As a result, Indonesian has wider sources of loanwords, as compared to Malay used in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. It was suggested that the Indonesian language is an artificial language made official in 1928. By artificial it means that Indonesian was designed by academics rather than evolving naturally as most common languages have, in order to accommodate the political purpose of establishing an official unifying language of Indonesia. By borrowing heavily from numerous other languages it expresses a natural linguistic evolution; in fact, it is as natural as the next language, as demonstrated in its exceptional capacity for absorbing foreign vocabulary. This disparate evolution of Indonesian language led to a need for an institution that can facilitate coordination and cooperation in linguistic development among countries with Malay language as national language. The first instance of liguistic cooperation was in 1959 between Malaya and Indonesia, and this was further strengthened in 1972 when MBIM (a short form for Majlis Bahasa Indonesia-Malaysia - Language Council of Indonesia-Malaysia) was formed. MBIM later grew into MABBIM (Majlis Bahasa Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia - Language Council of Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia) in 1985 with the inclusion of Brunei as a member and Singapore as a permanent observer. Other important institution is Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka established in 1956. It is a government body responsible for coordinating the use of the Malay language in Malaysia and Brunei.

The dominant orthographic form of Modern Malay language that based on Roman or Latin script, the Malay alphabet, was first developed in the early 20th century. As the Malay-speaking countries were divided between two colonial administrations (the Dutch and the British), two major different spelling orthographies were developed in the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya respectively, influenced by the orthographies of their respective colonial tongues. In 1901, Van Ophuijsen Spelling System (1901-1947) became the standard orthography for Malay Language in Dutch East Indies. In the following year, the government of the Federated Malay States established an orthographic commission headed by Sir Richard James Wilkinson which later developed the "Wilkinson Spelling System" (1904-1933). These spelling systems would later succeeded by the Republican Spelling System (1947-1972) and the Za'ba Spelling System (1933-1942) respectively. During the Japanese Occupation of Malaya and Indonesia, there emerged a system which was supposed to uniformise the systems in the two countries. The system known as Fajar Asia (or 'the Dawn of Asia') appeared to use the Republican system of writing the vowels and the Malayan system of writing the consonants. This system only existed during the Occupation. In 1972, a declaration was made for a joint spelling system in both nations, known as Sistem Ejaan Rumi Baharu (New Roman Spelling System) in Malaysia and Sistem Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan (Perfected Spelling System) in Indonesia. With the introduction of this new common spelling system, all administrative documents, teaching and learning materials and all forms of written communication is based on a relatively uniform spelling system and this helps in effective and efficient communication, particularly in national administration and education.

Despite the widespread and institutionalized use of Malay alphabet, Jawi script remains as one of the two official scripts in Brunei, and is used as an alternate script in Malaysia. Day-to-day usage of Jawi is maintained in more conservative Malay-populated areas such as Pattani in Thailand and Kelantan in Malaysia. The script is used for religious and Malay cultural administration in Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis and Johor. The influence of the script is still present in Sulu and Marawi in the Philippines while in Indonesia, Jawi script is still widely used in Riau and Riau Island province, where road signs and government buildings signs are written in this script.