Malayic Languages

The most prominent member is Malay, a pluricentric language given national status in Brunei and Singapore while also the basis for national standards Malaysian in Malaysia and Indonesian in Indonesia. The Malayic branch also includes local languages spoken by ethnic Malays (e.g. Jambi Malay, Kedah Malay), further several languages spoken by various other ethnic groups of Sumatra, Indonesia (e.g. Minangkabau) and Borneo (e.g. Banjarese, Iban) even as far as Urak Lawoi in the southwestern coast of Thailand.

Malayic
Geographic distribution	Maritime Southeast Asia
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian disputed: Malayo-Sumbawan or Greater North Borneo Malayo-Chamic Malayic
Proto-language	Proto-Malayic
Subdivisions	(disputed)
Glottolog	mala1538
Historical distribution of the Malayic languages in Maritime Southeast Asia (including Malay-based creoles):   The Ibanic and Western Malayic Dayak (Kanayatn/Kendayan-Salako) subgroups, also known collectively as "Malayic Dayak".   Other Malayic varieties; genetic relationships between them are still unclear.

The most probable candidate for the urheimat of the Malayic languages is western Borneo prior to spread in Sumatra.

The term "Malayic" was first coined by Dyen (1965) in his lexicostatistical classification of the Austronesian languages. Dyen's "Malayic hesion" had a wider scope than the Malayic subgroup in its currently accepted form, and also included Acehnese, Lampung and Madurese. Nothofer (1988) narrowed down the range of Malayic, but included the non-Malayic languages Rejang and Embaloh:

• Rejang
• Embaloh
• Salako
• Iban-Malayan
  • Iban
  • Malayan

The present scope of the Malayic subgroup, which is now universally accepted by experts in the field, was first proposed by K.A. Adelaar (1992, 1993), based on phonological, morphological and lexical evidence.

Malayic languages are spoken on Borneo, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Java and on several islands located in the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca.

Borneo

• Bamayo, Banjar, Berau, Brunei, Bukit, Kendayan, Keninjal, Kota Bangun Kutai, Tenggarong Kutai, Sarawak, Ibanic (Iban, Remun, Mualang, Seberuang)

Malay Peninsula

• Jakun, Kedah, Kelantan-Patani, Negeri Sembilan, Orang Kanaq, Orang Seletar, Perak, Pahang, Reman, Temuan, Terengganu, Urak Lawoi'

Sumatra

• Central Malay, Col, Haji, Jambi Malay, Kaur, Kerinci, Kubu, Lubu, Minangkabau, Musi, Pekal

Java

• Betawi

South China Sea/Strait of Malacca

• Bangka, Duano, Loncong, Orang Seletar,

Maluku

• Bacan Malay

Internal classification

While there is general consensus about which languages can be classified as Malayic, the internal subgrouping of the Malayic languages is still disputed.

Adelaar (1993)

Adelaar (1993) classifies the Malayic languages as follows.

Ross (2004)

Based on grammatical evidence, Ross (2004) divides the Malayic languages into two primary branches:

This classification is mirrored in the Glottolog (Version 3.4).

Anderbeck (2012)

Following Tadmor (2002), Anderbeck (2012) makes a distinction between Malay and Malayic in his discussion about the dialects of the Sea Tribes in Riau Archipelago. He tentatively classifies all Malayic languages as belonging to a "Malay" subgroup, except Ibanic, Kendayan/Selako, Keninjal, Malayic Dayak (or "Dayak Malayic") and the "fairly divergent varieties" of Urak Lawoi' and Duano.

Anderbeck's classification has been adopted in the 17th edition of the Ethnologue, with the sole exception of Duano, which is listed in the Ethnologue among the "Malay" languages.

Smith (2017)

In his dissertation on the languages of Borneo, Smith (2017) provides evidence for a subgroup comprising Malayic isolects in western Borneo and southern Sumatra, which he labels "West Bornean Malayic". However, he leaves other isolects unclassified.

Position within Austronesian

The inclusion of the Malayic languages within the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup is undisputed, and there is general consensus that the Chamic languages are closely related to Malayic. The wider affiliations of the Malayic languages are however controversial. There are two major proposals: Adelaar (2005) places Malayic within the Malayo-Sumbawan subgroup, which comprises the following languages:

Blust (2010) and Smith (2017) assign Malayic to the Greater North Borneo subgroup:

The Malayo-Sumbawan hypothesis is mainly based on phonological evidence with a few shared lexical innovations, while the Greater North Borneo hypothesis is based on a large corpus of lexical evidence.

Phonology

Proto-Malayic has a total of 19 consonants and 4 vowels.

There are 2 diphthongs:

• *-ay
• *-aw

Word structure

Proto-Malayic lexemes are mostly disyllabic, though some have one, three, or four syllables. Lexemes have the following syllable structure:

* [C V (N)] [C V (N)] [C V (N)] C V C 

Note: C = consonant, V = vowel, N = nasal

Phonological changes

Here are the phonological changes from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian to Proto-Malayic.

• *-əy, *-iw, *-uy > *-i; *-əw > *-u.
• *z > *j, *-D-, *-j- > *-d-.
• Final-obstruent devoicing of *-b, *-d, and *-g to *-p, *-t, *-k, except in the case of *-D > *-r.
• *-ə- before *-h > *-a-, e.g. *tanəq > *tanəh > *tanah "land". Before other consonants, Proto-Malayic preserved PMP *ə in final closed syllables (e.g. *daləm "inside"). This schwa is retained in Betawi (including the Indonesian slang), Bangka Malay and Palembang Malay, but was merged with *-a- elsewhere.
• *w- > *∅-.
• *q > *h, *h > *∅.
• *R > *r.
• C¹C² (with the first consonant is non-nasal) becomes C² in reduplications (affixes escaped this sound change).
• C¹C² (with the first consonant is heterorganic nasal) is changed to homorganic, e.g. *DəmDəm to *dəndəm.