Classical Malay

Classical Malay (14th to 18th centuries)

The period of Classical Malay started when Islam gained its foothold in the region and the elevation of its status to a state religion. As a result of Islamisation and growth in trade with the Muslim world, this era witnessed the penetration of Arabic and Persian vocabulary as well as the integration of major Islamic cultures with local Malay culture. The earliest instances of Arabic lexicons incorporated in the pre-Classical Malay written in Kawi was found in the Minye Tujoh inscription dated 1380 CE from Aceh in Sumatra. Nevertheless, pre-Classical Malay took on a more radical form more than half a century earlier if the date 1303 CE of the Terengganu Inscription Stone is correct, it is also possible the date 1387 CE is the actual date, due to damage on the stone historians could not conclusively confirm; as well as the 1468 CE Pengkalan Kempas Inscription, both from the Malay Peninsula. Both inscriptions not only serve as the evidence of Islam as a state religion but also as the oldest surviving specimen of the dominant classical orthographic form, the Jawi script. Similar inscriptions containing various adopted Arabic terms with some of them still written in Indianised scripts were discovered in parts of Sumatra and Borneo. The peculiarity of Achehnese Arabic Malay orthography is expression of /ə/ by oubling the prevocalic consonant following the /ə/.