Everything about Malays Ethnic Group totally explained
Malays (
Malay:
Melayu) are an
ethnic group of
Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the
Malay Peninsula and parts of
Sumatra and
Borneo. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a
Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of
Indonesia and the
Philippines.
The
Malay language is a member of the
Austronesian family of languages.
History
The Malay people are believed to have originated in Borneo and then expanded outwards into Sumatra and later into the Malay Peninsula. These people were descendants of Austronesian-speakers who migrated from the
Philippines and originally from
Taiwan. The main foundation of this school of thought lies in the fact that the oldest Malay settlements have been discovered in Sumatra and not in the Malay Peninsula. This suggests an upward - south to north - migratory route. Malay culture reached its golden age during
Srivijayan times. Malays practiced
Buddhism,
Hinduism, and their native
Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century.
Etymology
According to the History of Jambi, the word Melayu originated from a river with name
Melayu River near to
Batang Hari River of today's Muara Jambi,
Jambi province of
Sumatra, Indonesia. The founder of
Malacca,
Parameswara was a prince of
Palembang which was once owned by a nation called "Malayu" back in the seventh century.
Yi Jing (635-713) clearly recorded in his journal book a nation of name 'Ma-La-Yu' existed. According to archaeological research of Jambi, large numbers of ancient artifacts and ancient architectures of Melayu have been found with photo evidence.
The word "Malay" was adopted into
English via the Dutch word "Malayo", itself from
Portuguese "Malaio", which originates from the Malay word "Melayu". According to one popular theory, the word Melayu means "migrating" or "fleeing", which might refer to the high mobility of these people across the region (cf.
Javanese verb 'mlayu' means "to run", cognate with Malay verb 'melaju', means "to accelerate") or perhaps the original meaning is "distant, far away" (cf. Tagalog 'malayo')
Another theory holds that the name refers to the Tamil word
Malai Yur which means "Land of Mountains" (
malai means mountain and
yur means land), a reference to the hilly nature of the
Malay Archipelago.
Alternate uses of the term
The name
Malay is sometimes used to describe the concept of a
Malay race, which includes all the ethnic groups inhabiting the
Malay Archipelago and which are not of older aboriginal stock.
The term
Melayu (Malay person in the Malay Language), in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, refers to a person who professes
Islam, habitually speaks the
Malay language, conforms to Malay custom and who has at least one ancestor from the Malay Peninsula or Singapore.
Ethnic group vs. cultural sphere
The term "Malay" can refer to the ethnic group who live in the Malay peninsula (which include the southernmost part of Thailand called
Patani and Satun) and east
Sumatra as well as the cultural sphere that encompass a large part of the archipelago.
The Malay ethnic group is the majority in
Malaysia and
Brunei and a sizable minority in
Singapore and
Indonesia. This people speak various dialects of
Malay language. The peninsular dialect is the standard speech among Malays in Malaysia and Singapore. Meanwhile, the
Riau dialect of eastern Sumatra has been adopted as a national tongue,
Indonesian (
Bahasa Indonesia), for the whole Indonesian population.The ethnic Malay have had a
Muslim culture since the 15th century.
In Malaysia, the majority of the population is made up of ethnic Malays while the minorities consist of southern Chinese (for example
Hokkien and
Cantonese), southern Indians (mainly
Tamils), non-ethnic Malay indigenous peoples (for example
Iban and
Kadazan), as well as
Eurasians.
Malay cultural influences filtered out throughout the archipelago, such as the monarchical state, religion (
Hinduism/
Buddhism in the first millennium AD,
Islam in the second millennium), and the Malay language. The influential
Srivijaya kingdom had unified the various ethnic groups in southeast Asia into a convergent cultural sphere for almost a millennium. It was during that time that vast borrowing of Sanskrit words and concepts facilitated the advanced linguistic development of Malay as a language. Malay was the regional
lingua franca, and Malay-based
creole languages existed in most trading ports in Indonesia.
Further Information
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