History of The Malay Language - Pre-Modern Malay (19th Century CE)

Pre-Modern Malay (19th Century CE)

19th century was the period of strong Western political and commercial domination in Southeast Asia. The Dutch East India Company had effectively colonized the East Indies, the British Empire held several colonies and protectorates in Malay peninsula, Sarawak and North Borneo, the French possessed part of Indo-China, the Portuguese established their outposts in Timor, while the Spaniards and later the Americans gained control over the Philippines. The Dutch and British colonists, realizing the importance in understanding the local languages dan cultures particularly Malay, began establishing various centres of linguistic, literature and cultural studies in universities like Leiden and London. Thousands of Malay manuscripts as well as other historical artefacts of Malay culture were collected and studied. The use of Latin script began to expand in the fields of administration and education whereby the influence of English and Dutch literatures and languages started to penetrate and spread gradually into the Malay language.

At the same time, the technological development in printing method that enabled mass production at low prices increased the activities of authorship for general reading in the Malay language, a development that would later shifted away Malay literature from its traditional position in Malay courts. In addition, the report writing style of journalism began to bloom in the arena of Malay writing. A notable writer of this time was Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir with his famous works Hikayat Abdullah, Kisah Pelayaran Abdullah ke Kelantan and Kisah Pelayaran Abdullah ke Mekah. Abdullah's authorship marks an early stage in the transition from the classical to modern literature, taking Malay literature out of its preoccupation with folk-stories and legends into accurate historical descriptions.

Many other well known books were published such as two notable classical literary work, Sulalatus Salatin and Taj Al-Salatin. There were other famous religious books of the era which were not only published locally but also in countries like Egypt and Turkey. Among the earliest examples of Malay newspapers are Soerat Kabar Bahasa Malaijoe of Surabaya published in 1856, Bintang Timor of Padang published in 1965 and Jawi Peranakan of Singapore published in 1876. There was even a Malay newspaper published in Sri Lanka in 1869, known as Alamat Langkapuri. Earlier in 1821, the first Malay magazine was published in Melaka known as Bustan Arifin and in 1856, a Malay magazine titled Bintang Oetara was published in Amsterdam.

In education, the Malay language of Melaka-Johor was regarded as the standard language and became the medium of instruction in schools during colonial era. Starting from 1821, Malay-medium Schools were established by the British colonial government in Penang, Melaka and Singapore. These were folllowed by many others in Malay states of the peninsular. This development generated the writings of text books for schools, in addition to the publication of reference materials such as Malay dictionaries and grammar books. Apart from that, an important position was given towards the use of Malay in British administration, which requires every public servant in service to pass the special examination in Malay language as a condition for a confirmed post, as gazetted in Straits Government Gazette 1859. In Indonesia, the Dutch colonial government recognized the Melaka-Johor Malay used in Riau as High Malay and promoted it as a medium of communication between the Dutch and local population. The language was also taught in schools not only in Riau, but also East Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and East Indonesia.