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Malays (ethnic group)

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Malay
Melayu

Total population

c. 22 million^{[citation needed]}

Regions with significant populations

Majority populations
Malaysia	12.3 million (2006 estimate)	^[1]
Brunei	0.25 million (2006 estimate)	^[2]
Minority populations
Indonesia	6.9 million (2000 census)	^[3]
Thailand	1.9 million (2006 estimate)	^[4]
Singapore	0.45 million (2000 census)	^[5]

Language(s)

Malay, Indonesian, Yawi, Thai

Religion(s)

Islam (approx. 99%^[6])

Related ethnic groups

Malaysian Malays, Malay Singaporean, Overseas Malays.

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.^{[citation needed]}

1 History
2 Etymology
- 2.1 Alternate uses of the term
3 Ethnic group vs. cultural sphere
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

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 praticed Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century.

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.

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.

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 practices Islam and Malay customs, speaks the Malay language, and whose ancestors are Malays. Despite not having Malay ancestry, a Eurasian, Chinese, Indian, European, Arab, Turk or Afghan can be considered Malay if he practices Islam and regards the Malay culture and language as his own.

Further information: Malaysian Malay

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.^{[citation needed]} The ethnic Malay have had a Muslim culture since the 15th century.^[7]

In Malaysia, the majority of the population is made up of ethnic Malays while the minorities consist of southern Chinese (e.g. Hokkien and Cantonese), southern Indians (mainly Tamils), non-ethnic Malay indigenous peoples (e.g. 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.