Malay Translation Service

Malay is the official language of Malaysia. It is a member of the Austronesian family of languages which is in widespread use across the whole of Asia. It is the second largest language family in the world. Malay is also spoken in Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia. More than 75 million people speak Malay. There are lots of different dialects of Malay, of course, and the language takes a different form in the various countries in which it is spoken. For this reason, these countries have agreed an official standard. This language is called Riau Malay, a language from the Riau Archipelago, which was long thought to be where the Malay originated. There are a significant number of loanwords in Malay which reflect its history Arabic, Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese languages, and more recently, English.

Variants

Malay is written in the Jawi script. Arabs used to call Malay 'Jawi', a corruption of Java. Malaysia adopted the word and named the script in which the language is written the Jawi alphabet. It looks very similar to how Arabic is written but it has been specially adapted for the Malaysian language. Malay is an old language which has been used in various places since time immemorial. This has led to the rise of many variants, not only in Indonesia and Malaysia, but further afield.

Translations into and from Malay

If you need documents to be translated into and from Malay, you’ve come to the right place. Our specialists are native-speakers of the target language. The right translator for each text is selected by our experienced project managers. Whether it’s a medical, technical, legal, or marketing text, we’ll find the right match for your project.