Table Of ContentColloquial
Malay
Colloquial Malay is easy to use and completely up to date!
Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class
use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and
spoken Malay. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
What makes this new edition of Colloquial Malay your best choice
in personal language learning?
• Interactive – lots of exercises for regular practice
• Clear – concise grammar notes
• Practical – useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
• Complete – including answer key and reference section
Whether you’re a business traveller, or about to take up a daring
challenge in adventure tourism; you may be studying to teach or even
looking forward to a holiday – if you’d like to get up and running with
Malay, this rewarding course will take you from complete beginner
to confidently putting your language skills to use in a wide range of
everyday situations.
Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately
on two CDs or in MP3 format, or comes included in the great value
Colloquial Malay paperback and CDs complete course. Recorded by
native speakers, the audio material complements the book and will
help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.
The Colloquial SerieS
Series adviser: Gary King
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Colloquial 2s series: The Next Step in Language Learning
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All these Colloquials are available in book & CD packs, or separately. You can order
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Colloquial
Malay
The Complete Course
for Beginners
Zaharah Othman
First published 1995
This second edition first published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1995 Sutanto Atmosumarto and Zaharah Othman
© 2012 Zaharah Othman
The right of Zaharah Othman to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Zaharah Othman.
Colloquial Malay: the complete course for beginners / Zaharah Wan. — 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Colloquial 2s series: the next step in language learning)
Previous ed.: 1995.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Malay language—Conversation and phrase books—English. 2. Malay language—
Spoken Malay. I. Title.
PL5108.O85 2012
499′.2883421—dc23
2011020908
ISBN: 978-0-415-57252-1 (pack)
ISBN: 978-0-415-57250-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-57251-4 (CD)
ISBN: 978-0-203-85613-0 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-57253-8 (MP3)
Typeset in Avant Garde and Helvetica
by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
Contents
Malay transcription and pronunciation vii
1 Berkenalan 1
Getting acquainted
2 Maaf, saya tak faham 16
Sorry, I don’t understand
3 Mau ke mana? 35
Where to?
4 Nak keluar makan? 51
Want to go out and eat?
5 Membeli-belah 64
Shopping
6 Jangan! 78
Don’t!
7 Bila sampai? 90
When did you arrive?
8 Selamat Hari Raya 106
Happy Eid
9 Saya sakit kepala 125
I have a headache
10 Ada macam-macam 140
There are all sorts of things
11 Amboi, tinggi sungguh menara ni! 154
Wow, this tower is so tall!
12 Tak apa! 166
Never mind!
13 Entahlah! 174
I don’t know!
14 Helo, boleh saya bantu? 185
Hello, can I help?
vi Contents
15 Tiket dibeli minggu lepas 195
The tickets were bought last week
Key to exercises 207
Malay–english glossary 220
index 228
Malay transcription and pronunciation vii
Malay transcription
and pronunciation
The Malay language, Bahasa Melayu, is an Austronesian language,
spoken in countries such as Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore,
central eastern Sumatra in Indonesia, and parts of the Philippines
and southern Thailand. Written in roman characters and without the
problematic elements of tone and gender found in other languages,
a student of the Malay language will find it easier to learn. All syllables
are pronounced almost equally and speakers of the Malay language
speak at a more flowing pace, almost singsong to the ear. Perhaps
the most challenging aspect of learning Malay would be the use of
classifiers or measure words, peculiar only to a handful of languages
in Asia, such as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese and
Bengali. Another challenging aspect is the usage of prefixes and
suffixes.
In this edition of Colloquial Malay, attempts have been made to
teach Malay as it is spoken, as opposed to the way it is written. Malay
spoken across the region varies in dialect and accent; in Indonesia
it has a more staccato sound with a very distinct roll of the r, while
in Brunei Darussalam, the Malay spoken there is more similar to that
spoken in Sabah. Singapore Malay, while very similar to the Malay
spoken in Malaysia, has a rather distinct Singaporean element only
detectable by Malay speakers in the region. Within the Malay Peninsula
itself, there are many different accents with some words having
different meanings colloquially. Thus to have a truly Colloquial Malay
from the region is an impossible task.
It is impossible to learn a language without knowing its culture.
Therefore, where possible, applicable and relevant, there are culture
points, which usually follow a text.
While the basic elements of grammar in Malay remain the same,
its verb forms, nouns, adjectives and adverbs, prefixes, suffixes and
viii Malay transcription and pronunciation
the reduplication of words, sentence structure, spelling and pronun-
ciation may differ slightly.
This book has taken into account Malay as spoken every day, as
it evolves with the challenges of the modern world and the ever
increasing use of borrowed words, especially from Arabic, Sanskrit,
Chinese, Indian and Portuguese.
Similar to the English language, Malay uses a rising intonation for
yes-no questions.
In Malay, there are five vowels, a, e, i, o and u, and 34 consonants.
The vowels do not have an exact equivalent in English, while out
of the 34 consonants, six can be roughly pronounced as in English.
They are f, m, n, l, s and y. Pronunciation of the Malay consonants
and vowels is dealt with later in this section.
Word stress
There is no stress in the Malay word. Speakers of Malay do not depend
on stress to emphasise something but use intonation to express
emotions and attitudes. The Malay word is segmented into syllables
which receive almost equal stress, e.g. pa/pan (two syllables), ma/
ka/nan (three syllables), ke/sim/pu/lan (four syllables).
Malay speakers tend to shorten their words, dropping prefixes
and suffixes, all of which are understood in context. Here are some
examples of such words:
tetapi (but) tapi
sahaja (only) saja
tetamu (guest) tamu
kakak (elder sister) kak
abang (elder brother) bang
Kamu hendak pergi ke mana? (Where do you want to go?)
Kamu nak ke mana?
John mencuci muka. (John washes his face)
John cuci muka.
In some words, a glottal stop // can occur at the end, especially when
it ends with k, for example, kakak, but there are a few words which
Malay transcription and pronunciation ix
do not end with k but are actually pronounced as if there were a k.
The glottal stop, or rather the voiceless glotta plosive, is a type of
consonant sound used in many spoken languages and in Malay it is
represented by the letter k.
Here are a few examples:
nasi: pronounced as nasi(k)
bapa: pronounced as bapa(k)
pula: pronounced as pula(k)
juga: pronounced as juga(k)
bawa: pronounced as bawa(k)
ambil: pronounced as ambi(k)
Intonation
In Malay, as in English, a statement can be turned into a question
simply by using a rising intonation at the end of the statement,
especially in sentences requiring a yes/no answer.
Examples
Dia beli kereta baru. He bought a new car.
Dia beli kereta baru? He bought a new car?
John suami Mary. John is Mary’s husband.
John suami Mary? John is Mary’s husband?
A falling intonation is used for questions with question tags, e.g. what,
who, when.
Examples
apa dia kata? What did he say?
Bila heidi pergi? When did Heidi go?
Siapa guru kamu? Who is your teacher?
Pronunciation
In Malay there are five basic vowel phonemes: a, e, i, o and u.
Diphthongs or glides are made by combining one with another.
