So What's in a Word

I refer to the letter by S.A.I. ,"Words tell their own tales", (nst 8 Oct) Bahasa Melayu was the lingual Franco, or Bahasa of the Malay Archipelago, spoken since the 15 century by more than 300 million people, not only from Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei,and Indonesia, but also from Southern Cambodia, Southern Thailand, Southern Myanmar, Cocos Island, Christmas Island,Sari Lenka, and South Africa, Although a word may sound Malay, but it could be pronounced differently, in different countries. Even the meaning of a word could be different, so I am not surprised if the word "membutuh" which means "memerlukan" or need, in Indonesian could have a different meaning in colloquial Malay.

Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu, are separated by some centuries of different vocabulary development, partly due to the influence of different colonial languages. Dutch and German in the case of Indonesia, and English in the case of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Some Malay dialects however show only limited mutual intelligibility with the standard language, for example the Northern Malays or the Kelantanese pronunciation, is difficult even for some fellow Malays in the South to understand. Each State has its own colloquial Malay accent.
Bahasa Indonesia contains a lot of words unique to it, that are unfamiliar to speakers of Malay. There are many ethnic dialects in Indonesia, however they have managed to standardised Bahasa Indonesia into one Official Language spoken in the same accent from Menado to Acheh. While we in Malaysia still speak Bahasa Melayu with our strong colloquial accent A decade ago there was a suggestion to use Bahasa Melayu Baku in schools with the pronouncation according tp the spelling of the word. This could have standardardised Bahasa Melayu as an Official language from Perlis to Sabah, but unfortunately that too has gone with the wind.
So I feel that it would be impossible to standardardise Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia, although it is Malay in origin. My only hope is that the Indonesian do not claim Bahasa Melayu as theirs as it originated from Bangka Island off the Southern Coast of Sumatra in the 7th century.From there it spread on to Jambi and Pelembang in Sumatra before going to Melaka.



NOR SHAHID MOHD NOR
PETALING JAYA