Malay belongs to the Malay-Polynesian language family. Since14th century, as more and more Malays followed Islam, they began to use an Arabic script called Jawi. /kloc-In the 9th century, the British designed the Malay script which is widely used now according to the Latin alphabet, while the Indonesian script was designed by the Dutch. There is no difference between Indonesian and Malay except spelling. The grammar of Malay is fundamentally different from western European languages. Malay is an analytical language without prefixes and suffixes, and the corresponding functions are realized by adding words. The plural form of nouns is realized by simply saying nouns twice. For example, rumah-rumah means house. However, nouns followed by numerals are restored to singular form, adding a unit of quantity, which is similar to the English structure of seven cows. There are many such quantitative units (penjodoh bilangan) in Malay, for example, animals (ekor- head and tail), people (orang-man), flowers, jewelry, silk thread and even fishing nets. Two cats are Duekor Kuching in Malay, and two children are Duorang Kanak-Kanak in Malay.

Many borrowed words in Malay come from Sanskrit and Arabic. Loanwords from Malay in English are: orangutan (ape), checkered cloth (striped or checkered cotton cloth), sarong (apron), bamboo (bamboo), rattan (rattan), kapok (kapok), rice (rice) and kapok (killer).