Shaped like a long finger pointing to the equator, Malaysia juts out into the very heart of sweltering South East Asia. While this position allowed it to politically dominate the heady era of the Spice Trade, its influence has since diminished, but the period left a lasting legacy – the spread of the Malay language.

Malay is one of 300 languages in the Austronesian family of languages which spreads from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east and from Taiwan in the north to New Zealand in the south.

The early origins of Malay still remain largely obscure. The oldest known Malay text is a stone inscription dating from the 7th century. There is little doubt however that by the 15th century it was the most widely spoken language in the region. The position of the Malay peninsula made this historically inevitable.

The monsoon pattern made it virtually impossible for traders from India and Arabia in the west and China in the east, to pass without a pause in the sheltered Malay ports. Eventually most trade was conducted at this half-way point. Silk and brocade, gold, silver, gemstones, medicinal roots, musk, fine porcelain, gilded chests and spices, were all available at this great emporium of the east.

While more than 80 languages hummed out from the laden junks at port, the language of trade and communication was Malay.

Up until the 15th century Malay was written in the Indian Sanscrit script. The decline of the Hindu and Buddhist empires and the subsequent rise in the influence of the Arab traders and missionaries resulted in the establishment of Islam in the region and the use of modified Arabic script known as Jawi for written Malay.

Driven by their lust for "Gold, Glory and God" the swashbuckling Europeans of Portugal, Holland and finally Britain, wrested control of the Eastern trade. While Malay continued to be the lingua franca of the region, its written form was to undergo yet another transformation – romanization. In 1972 the government of Malaysia, in agreement with the Government of Indonesia, introduced a common spelling system.

Today, Malay ranks as the fifth or sixth most widely spoken language in the world, with more than 200 million speakers. It is the national language of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei and an official language of Singapore. It is also spoken in southern Thailand and the southern Philippines.

Bahasa Malaysia is not a tonal language like Thai or Chinese nor has it guttural or nasal characteristics as have some European languages. It is generally regarded as one of the easier languages to learn. Anthony Burgess, the linguist and author, wrote, "It is like diving into a bath of pure logic. Everything is pared to a minimum".

Words do not change form according to whether they are singular or plural, masculine or feminine, past, present or future. Pronouns too remain unchanged, hence:

I chase him – Saya kejar dia

He chases me – Dia kejar saya

Malay is a phonetic language and there are few problems with pronunciation. Malay words are easily divided into syllables which are pronounced exactly as they are written. One exception is ‘c’ which is always pronounced ‘ch’ as in church. Therefore cucu is pronounced choochoo which incidentally means grandchild not train!

Another grammatical feature is repetition, which has various uses. If a noun is repeated it means there is more than one, or a variety, or it suggests similarity; rumah means house, rumah-rumah means houses.

When verbs are repeated it can mean that the action is being done repeatedly or else for fun for example, jalan means to walk, jalan-jalan means to take a stroll.

It is worth remembering that Malays count animals by tails not heads (as in seven heads of cattle). Do not be alarmed then should you hear the words ‘dua ekor kucing’ – two tail cat!