South Barisan Malay, also called Central Malay or Middle Malay, is a collection of related Malayic isolects spoken in the southwestern part of Sumatra. None of the Central Malay isolects has more than one million speakers.

Name

Traditionally, the term ''Middle Malay'' (a calque of Dutch ) is used when referring to this cluster. Later, to avoid misidentification with a temporal stage of

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...

(i.e. the transition between Old Malay and Modern Malay), the term ''Central Malay'' began to be used. McDonnell (2016) uses the term ''South Barisan Malay'' instead, referring to the southern region of the

Barisan Mountains The Bukit Barisan or the Barisan Mountains are a mountain range on the western side of Sumatra, Indonesia, covering nearly 1,700 km (1,050 mi) from the north to the south of the island. The Bukit Barisan range consists primarily of volca ...

where these isolects are spoken.

Varieties

Ethnologue groups together 12 isolects as part of Central Malay. * Benakat *

Bengkulu Bengkulu is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the former Bencoolen Residency area from the province of South Sumatra under Law No. 9 of 1967 and was fi ...

* Besemah * Enim * Kikim * Kisam * Lematang Ulu * Lintang *

Ogan Ogan may refer to: * Ogan (surname) * Ogan Ilir Regency * Ogan Komering Ilir Regency * Ogan Komering Ulu Regency * East Ogan Komering Ulu Regency * South Ogan Komering Ulu Regency * Ogan River, in South Sumatra, Indonesia * Ogham Ogham ( ...

* Rambang * Semendo * Serawai There has been little research on individual isolects within the cluster.

References

{{incubator, pse Malayic languages Languages of Indonesia