Malay grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the Malay language (Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore) and Indonesian (Indonesia and Timor Leste). This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences. In Malay and Indonesian, there are four basic parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and grammatical function words (particles). Nouns and verbs may be basic roots, but frequently they are derived from other words by means of prefixes and suffixes.
For clarity, ⟨ê⟩ is used to denote schwa /ə/, while ⟨e⟩ is used to denote /e/, as both Malay and Indonesian in their orthography do not distinguish both phonemes and are written as ⟨e⟩ (Indonesian also uses accentless ⟨e⟩ for /ə/ and ⟨é⟩ for /e/ instead as in Javanese).
Word formation Malay is an agglutinative language, and new words are formed by three methods. New words can be created by attaching affixes onto a root word (affixation), formation of a compound word (composition), or repetition of words or portions of words (reduplication). However, the Malay morphology has been simplified significantly, resulting on extensive derivational morphology but also having minimal inflectional morphology. Because of this, Malay and Indonesian are together classified as partially isolating languages, like other languages spoken in the mainland Southeast Asia.
Affixes Root words are either nouns or verbs, which can be affixed to derive new words, e.g., masak (to cook) yields mêmasak (cooks, as a verb), mêmasakkan (cooks for), dimasak (cooked) as well as pêmasak (a cook), masakan (a meal, cookery). Many initial consonants undergo mutation when prefixes are added: e.g., sapu (sweep) becomes pênyapu (broom); panggil (to call) becomes mêmanggil (calls/calling), tapis (to sift) becomes mênapis (sifts).
Other examples of the use of affixes to change the meaning of a word can be seen with the word ajar (teach): ajar = teach ajar-an = teachings bêl-ajar = to learn, to study (the object is not necessary) mêng-ajar = to teach di-ajar = being taught (intransitive) di-ajar-kan = being taught (transitive) mêmpêl-ajar-i = to learn, to study (the object is necessary) dipêl-ajar-i = being studied pêl-ajar = student pêng-ajar = teacher pêl-ajar-an = subject, education pêng-ajar-an = lesson, moral of story pêmbêl-ajar-an = learning têr-ajar = taught (accidentally) têrpêl-ajar = well-educated, literally "been taught" bêrpêl-ajar-an = is educated, literally "has education"
There are four types of affixes, namely prefixes (in Malay: awalan), suffixes (akhiran), circumfixes (apitan) and infixes (sisipan). These affixes are categorised into noun affixes, verb affixes, and adjective affixes.
Noun affixes are affixes that form nouns upon addition to root words. The following are examples of noun affixes:
Type of noun affixes Affix Example of root word Example of derived wordPrefixpê(r)- ~ pên(g)-duduk (sit)pên-duduk (population)kê-hendak (want)kê-hendak (desire)juru-wang (money)juru-wang (cashier)InfixAll infixes in Malay are unproductive. --tunjuk (point)t-êl-unjuk (index finger, command) --kêlut (dishevelled)k-êm-êlut (chaos, crisis) --gigi (teeth)g-êr-igi (toothed blade)Suffix -anbangun (wake up, raise)bangun-an (building)Circumfixkê-...-anraja (king)kê-raja-an (kingdom)pêr-...-anpêng-...-ankêrja (work)pê-kêrja-an (occupation)
The prefix pêr- drops its r before r, l and frequently before p, t, k. In some words it is pêng-; though formally distinct in both phonologically and functionally, these are treated as variants of the same prefix in Malay grammar books.
Similarly, verb affixes are attached to root words to form verbs. In Malay, there are:
Type of verb affixes Affix Example of root word Example of derived wordPrefixbêr-ajar (teach) (l-deleting)bêl-ajar (to study)The root ajar preserves a historic and irregular initial l- after the suffixes bêr- and pêr-.mêng-tolong (help)mên-(t)olong (to help)di-ambil (take)di-ambil (be taken)mêmpêr-kêmas (tidy up, orderly)mêmpêr-kêmas (to arrange further)dipêr-dalam (deep)dipêr-dalam (be deepened)têr-makan (eat)têr-makan (to have accidentally eaten)Suffix -kanlêtak (place, keep)lêtak-kan (put it down) -ijauh (far)jauh-i (avoid)Circumfixbêr-...-anpasang (pair)bêr-pasang-an (in pairs)bêr-...-kandasar (base)bêr-dasar-kan (based on)mêng-...-kanpasti (sure)mêm-(p)asti-kan (to make sure)mêng-...-itêman (company)mên-(t)êman-i (to accompany)mêmpêr-...-kanguna (use)mêmpêr-guna-kan (to utilise, to exploit)mêmpêr-...-iajar (teach)mêmpêl-ajar-i (to study)kê-...-anhilang (disappear)ke-hilang-an (to lose)di-...-isakit (pain)di-sakit-i (to be hurt by)di-...-kanbenar (right)di-bênar-kan (is allowed to)dipêr-...-kankênal (know, recognise)diper-kênal-kan (is being introduced)
Adjective affixes are attached to root words to form adjectives:
Type of adjective affixes Affix Example of root word Example of derived wordPrefixtêr-kênal (know)têr-kênal (famous)sê-lari (run)sê-lari (parallel)Infix --serak (disperse)s-êl-erak (messy) --cêrlang (radiant bright)c-êm-êrlang (bright, excellent) --sabut (husk)s-êr-abut (dishevelled)Circumfixkê-...-anbarat (west)kê-barat-an (westernized)
In addition to these affixes, Malay also has a lot of borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and English. For example, maha-, pasca-, eka-, bi-, anti-, pro- etc.
Reduplication Reduplication (kata ganda or kata ulang) in the Malay language is a very productive process. It is mainly used for forming plurals, but sometimes it may alter the meaning of the whole word, or change the usage of the word in sentences.
Forms There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely Full reduplication (kata ganda penuh (Malaysian) or kata ulang utuh (Indonesian) or dwilingga) Partial reduplication (kata ganda separa (Malaysian) or kata ulang sebagian (Indonesian) or dwipurwa) Rhythmic reduplication (kata ganda berentak (Malaysian) or kata ulang salin suara (Indonesian)) Free-form reduplication
Full reduplication is the complete duplication of the word, separated by a dash (-). For example, buku (book) when duplicated form buku-buku (books), while the duplicated form of batu (stone) is batu-batu (stones).
Partial reduplication repeats only the initial consonant of the word, such as dêdaunan (leaves) from the word daun (leaf), and têtangga (neighbor) from the word tangga (ladder). The words are usually not separated by spaces or punctuation, and each is considered a single word.
Rhythmic reduplication repeats the whole word, but one or more of its phonemes are altered. For example, the word gêrak (motion) can be reduplicated rhythmically to form gêrak-gêrik (movements) by altering the vowel. The reduplication can also be formed by altering the consonant, e.g., in sayur-mayur (vegetables [bundled for the market]) from the root word sayur (vegetable/vegetables [what is found on plate]).
Free-form reduplication indicates multiplicity but does not follow any identified pattern of formation. This includes the words ipar-duai (brothers and sisters-in-law) and ulang-alik (back and forth), which are formed by components that may have a suprasegmental relationship.
Nouns Common derivational affixes for nouns are pêng-/pêr-/juru- (actor, instrument, or someone characterized by the root), -an (collectivity, similarity, object, place, instrument), kê-...-an (abstractions and qualities, collectivities), pêr-/pêng-...-an (abstraction, place, goal or result).
Gender Malay does not make use of grammatical gender. There are only a few words that use natural gender; the same word used for he and she is also used for his and her. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the genders. For example, adik can refer to a younger sibling of any gender. To specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective must be added: adik lêlaki/adik laki-laki corresponds to "brother" but really means "male younger sibling". There are some words that are gendered. For instance, putêri means "princess" and putêra means "prince"; words like these are usually borrowed from other languages (in this case, Sanskrit).
Number There is no grammatical plural in Malay. Thus orang may mean either "person" or "people". Plurality is expressed by the context, or the usage of words such as numerals, bêbêrapa "some", or sêmua "all" that express plurality. In many cases, it simply isn't relevant to the speaker. Because of this, both Malay and Indonesian effectively has general number, similar to many languages of East Asia and Southeast Asia.
Reduplication is commonly used to emphasize plurality. However, reduplication has many other functions. For example, orang-orang means "(all the) people", but orang-orangan means "scarecrow". Similarly, while hati means "heart" or "liver", hati-hati is a verb meaning "to be careful". Also, not all reduplicated words are inherently plural, such as orang-orangan "scarecrow/scarecrows", biri-biri "a/some sheep" and kupu-kupu "butterfly/butterflies", these are all words in their own rights and have nothing to do with plurality, as is the case with some animal names such as "kura-kura" for tortoise and "laba(h)-laba(h)" for spider. Some reduplication is rhyming rather than exact, as in sayur-mayur "(all sorts of) vegetables".
Distributive affixes derive mass nouns that are effectively plural: pohon "tree", pêpohonan "flora, trees"; rumah "house", pêrumahan "housing, houses"; gunung "mountain", pê(r)gunungan "mountain range, mountains".
Quantity words come before the noun: sêribu orang "a thousand people", bêbêrapa pê(r)gunungan "a series of mountain ranges", bêbêrapa kupu-kupu "some butterflies".
Pronouns Personal pronouns are not a separate part of speech, but a subset of nouns. They are frequently omitted, and there are numerous ways to say "you". Commonly the person's name, title, title with name, or occupation is used ("does Johnny want to go?", "would Madam like to go?"); kin terms, including fictive kinship, are extremely common. However, there are also dedicated personal pronouns, as well as the demonstrative pronouns ini "this, the" and itu "that, the".
Personal pronouns
From the perspective of a European language, Malay boasts a wide range of different pronouns, especially to refer to the addressee (the so-called second person pronouns). These are used to differentiate several parameters of the person they are referred to, such as the social rank and the relationship between the addressee and the speaker.
This table shows an overview over the most commonly and widely used pronouns of the Malay language:
+Common pronounspersonclusivityrespectsingularplural1st personexclusiveinformal, familiarakukami(we: they and I, s/he and I)standard, politesayainclusivekita(we/us: you and I, we and you) 2nd personfamiliarkamukalianpoliteA/anda(you)A/anda (sekalian/semua)(you, y'all) 3rd person colloquialdia ~ ia(s/he ~ it)dia orang(they) formal standardmêreka(they)
First person pronouns
Notable among the personal-pronoun system is a distinction between two forms of "we": kita (you and me, you and us) and kami (us, but not you). The distinction is increasingly confused in colloquial Indonesian, but not in Malay.
Saya and aku are the two major forms of "I"; saya (or its literally/archaic form sahaya) is used when speaking to some family members, elders, new acquaintances, and when speaking in a formal setting, whereas aku is used informally or casually (e.g. with friends). Depending on how important the usage of the appropriate pronoun is to both speakers, aku can be used when speaking to new acquaintances without being interpreted as disrespectful.