# Old Malay

The Old Malay is the first version of Malay language, during the indian colonization of Malay Islands.
The beginning of the common era saw the growing influence of Indian civilisation in the archipelago. With the penetration and proliferation of Old Tamil vocabulary and the influence of major Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, Ancient Malay evolved into the Old Malay. The Dong Yen Chau inscription, believed to be from the 4th century CE, was discovered in the northwest of Tra Kieu, near the old Champa capital of Indrapura, modern day Vietnam; however, it is considered to be written in Old Cham rather than Old Malay by experts such as Graham Thurgood. The oldest uncontroversial specimens of Old Malay are the 7th century CE Sojomerto inscription from Central Java, Kedukan Bukit Inscription from South Sumatra, Indonesia and several other inscriptions dating from the 7th to 10th centuries discovered in Sumatra, Java, Indonesia other islands of the Sunda archipelago, as well as Luzon, Philippines. All these Old Malay inscriptions used either scripts of Indian origin such as Pallava, Nagari or the Indian-influenced old Sumatran characters.
The Old Malay system is greatly influenced by Sanskrit scriptures in terms of phonemes, morphemes, vocabulary and the characteristics of scholarship, particularly when the words are closely related to Indian culture such as puja, bakti, kesatria, maharaja and raja, as well as on the Hindu-Buddhist religion such as dosa, pahala, neraka, syurga or surga (used in Indonesia-which was based on Malay), puasa, sami and biara, which lasts until today. In fact, some Malays regardless of personal religion have names derived from Sanskrit such as the names of Indian Hindu gods or heroes include Puteri/Putri, Putera/Putra, Wira and Wati.
It is popularly claimed that the Old Malay of the Srivijayan inscriptions from South Sumatra, Indonesia, is the ancestor of the Classical Malay. However, as noted by some linguists, the precise relationship between these two, whether ancestral or not, is problematic and remains uncertain. This is due to the existence of a number of morphological and syntactic peculiarities, and affixes that are familiar from the related Batak language but are not found even in the oldest manuscripts of Classical Malay. It may be the case that the language of the Srivijayan inscriptions is a close cousin rather than an ancestor of Classical Malay. Moreover, although the earliest evidence of Classical Malay had been found in the Malay Peninsula from 1303, Old Malay remained in use as a written language in Sumatra right up to the end of the 14th century, evidenced from Bukit Gombak inscription dated 1357 and Tanjung Tanah manuscript of Adityavarman era (1347–1375).
* ↑ Guy, John (2014). Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 21. ISBN 9781588395245.
* ↑ Abdul Rashid & Amat Juhari 2006, p. 27 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbdul_RashidAmat_Juhari2006 (help)
* ↑ Arkib Negara Malaysia 2012 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFArkib_Negara_Malaysia2012 (help)
* ↑ Morrison 1975, pp. 52–59 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMorrison1975 (help)
* ↑ Molen, Willem van der (2008). "The Syair of Minye Tujuh". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 163 (2/3): 356–375. doi:10.1163/22134379-90003689.
* ↑ Sneddon 2003 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSneddon2003 (help)
* ↑ Teeuw 1959, pp. 141–143 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFTeeuw1959 (help)
* ↑ Teeuw 1959, p. 148 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFTeeuw1959 (help)