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Alphabet in Malay Language
Understanding the Malay alphabet is crucial to learn the Malay Language. Malay alphabet composition is applied in a daily conversation. With out the Malay alphabet, it is difficult to speak the Malay words and phrases properly even if a person can write those terms in Malay. Learn More
Like in any language, the far better a person articulate a letter in a word, the more understood you will be in conversing in the Malay language. Here are web links which guides you to the Malay alphabet and exactly how it really is pronounced in English.
 Learn Malay Language Online | ) |
 Learn Malayalam Language Online | ) |
Vowels in Malay Alphabet
| a | like 'a' in "father", except at the ends of words, where it's a schwa in Singapore and most parts of Peninsular Malaysia other than Kedah and Kelantan (e.g., "nama," the word for "name," has an 'a' as in "father" in the first syllable and a schwa in the second) |
| ê | like 'e' in "vowel" (schwa) |
| e, é | like 'e' in "bed"; usually, the difference between a schwa and an e is not indicated in writing |
| i | like 'ee' in "beet", sometimes like 'i' in "thin" in unstressed syllables; in final "ih" and "ik" combinations, like "eh." |
| o | like 'ow' in "low", but without the "w" sound |
| u | like 'oo' in "hoop", in open positions or like 'o' in “hope” in close positions, such as in final "uh" and "uk" combinations. |
Consonants in Malay Alphabet
| b | like 'b' in "bed" |
| c | like 'ch' in "China" |
| ch | old spelling of c |
| d | like 'd' in "dog" |
| f | like 'ph' in "phone" |
| g | like 'g' in "go" |
| h | like 'h' in "help"; initial "h" is not always pronounced in some dialects |
| j | like 'j' in "jug"; in older romanizations also the vowel i |
| k | like 'c' in "cat"; at ends of words, a glottal stop like the stop some people use to pronounce "something" as "sump'n." |
| kh | like 'ch' in "loch" or 'c' in "cat." |
| l | like 'l' in "love" |
| m | like 'm' in "mother" |
| n | like 'n' in "nice" |
| p | like 'p' in "pig"; unaspirated (i.e., no explosive sound) at the ends of words |
| q | like 'q' in "quest" (most commonly with "u", and only in Arabic borrowings) |
| r | like 'rh' in "rheumatism" |
| s | like 'ss' in "hiss" |
| sy | like 'sh' in "sheep" |
| t | like 't' in "top"; unaspirated (i.e., no explosive sound) at the ends of words |
| v | like 'ph' in "phone" (only used in loanwords) |
| w | like 'w' in "weight" |
| x | like 'cks' in "kicks" (only used in loanwords) |
| y | like 'y' in "yes" |
| z | like 's' in "hiss", like 'z' in "haze", like 'dg' in "edge" |
Semi Vowels/ Diphthongs in Malay Alphabet
| Malay word order is subject-verb-object like English. There are no plurals, grammatical gender, or verb conjugation for person, number or tense, all of which are expressed with adverbs or tense indicators: saya makan, "I eat" (now), saya sudah makan, "I already eat" = "I ate". | |
| A characteristic of Malay is that it is a so-called agglutinative language, which means that the suffixes are all attached to a base root. So a word can become very long. For example there is a base word hasil which means "result". But it can be extended as far as ketidakberhasilannya, which means his/her failure. | |
| Note that Malay has two words which are equivalent to the English "we". If you intend to include the person(s) you are addressing, the word to use is kita. If the subject does not include your listener(s), then the correct word would be kami. | |
| Malay can be written using two scripts; the Roman alphabet, known as Rumi as well as an Arabic-derived script known as Jawi. Today, Rumi is the more commonly used script, and is the official Malay script used in Singapore and Malaysia. In Brunei, Rumi and Jawi are co-official, though Rumi is by far the more commonly used script in daily life. |
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