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This form would later evolve into Old Malay when Indian cultures and religions began penetrating the region, most probably using the Kawi and Rencong scripts, some linguistic researchers say. Old Malay contained some terms that exist today, but are unintelligible to modern speakers, while the modern language is already largely recognisable in ...
The Latin Malay alphabet is the official Malay script in Indonesia (as Indonesian), Malaysia (also called Malaysian) and Singapore, while it is co-official with Jawi in Brunei. Historically, various scripts such as Pallava, Kawi and Rencong or Surat Ulu were used to write Old Malay, until they were replaced by Jawi during Islamic missionary ...
Pallavas developed the Pallava script based on Tamil-Brahmi. The main characteristics of the newer script are aesthetically matched and fuller consonant glyphs, similarly visible in the writing systems of Chalukya, [16] Kadamba, and Vengi at the time of Ikshvakus. Brahmi's design was slightly different from the scripts of Cholas, Pandyas, and ...
The script became prominent with the spread of Islam, supplanting the earlier writing systems. The Malays held the script in high esteem, believing it was a gateway to understanding Islam and its Holy Book, the Quran. The use of Jawi script was a key factor driving the emergence of Malay as the lingua franca of the region. [19]
The Rencong script (Dutch: Rèntjong-schrift) is another well-known naming system. "Rencong" is thought to be derived from the Old Malay word mèncong, which means oblique or italics. [8] [9] It could also be derived from the word runcing ('sharp'), as this script family was originally written with a sharp knife tip. [10]
It is the oldest surviving specimen of the Malay language, in a form known as Old Malay. [2] It is a small stone of 45 cm × 80 cm (18 in × 31 in). This inscription is dated 1 May 683 CE. This inscription was written in Pallava script. [3] [4] [5]
The first known attempt to use the Latin script or 'Rumi' for writing Malay words was by Duarte Barbosa in 1518 in Melaka, shortly after its conquest by the Portuguese in 1511. [4] A few years later, in 1522, the world's first Malay–European dictionary was compiled by Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian companion of Ferdinand Magellan.
The fact that the language in the inscription shares some basic grammar and vocabulary with Malay [1] has led some scholars to argue that the inscription contains the oldest specimen of Malay words in the form of Old Malay, [8] [9] [10] older by three centuries than the earliest Srivijayan inscriptions from southeastern Sumatra. [1]