Malay

Malay belongs to the family of Astronesian languages and it is today spoken in several countries across Asia in different varieties. Malay is spoken in Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia (Indonesian is a variety of Malay), Singapore, Philippines, and in the Muslim parts in the South of Thailand. Malay is the official language in both Malaysia and Brunei and it is a national language in Singapore.

There are 2 ways how to write Malay, either with Latin script (which is called Rumi) or with the Jawi script, which is a modified Arabic script. Today, almost all writing is done with the Rumi script and because of this the government is currently trying to keep alive and revive the use of Jawi script.

Displayed below is the alphabet of the Jawi script which is not commonly used anymore in Malaysia but usage of it is being pushed by the government: