Malay Language Used in Local Names in the Southern Thai Peninsula

Abstract

The word “Malay” can have many meanings including the name of the people who once lived in Palembang in southern Sumatra, such as in Jambi or Minangkabau. These people had crossed the sea to the area which later became known as the Malay Peninsula. Thus, “Malay” can mean “strait crosser”, and in the Malay language a peninsula is called “Segara Masem,” which means “salty sea”. “Segara” or “Sakorn” denotes “body of water” or “sea” in Sanskrit (sâgara) while “Masem” stands for “salty” in the Malay language. 

The land they settled in is called “Ujung Tanah” which means “land with a pointed end”. “Ujung” can be translated to “pointed end” while “Tanah” denotes “land”. Together, these words mean the Malay Peninsula. Malays were not the first people to occupy the Malay Peninsula as there were other groups, such as Semang, Sakai, the Sea people or Chao Ley, and Orang Laut, also known as the Sea Gypsies.

The Malay language has the following characteristics: it is categorized into the Malayo-Polynesian language family and as an agglutinative language. The difference between Central Malay and the local Malay languages (such as the Malay language in the southern Provinces of Thailand) has also been mentioned. Furthermore, the local names in the Malay language in the south were studied and analyzed for the geographic, historic and folkloric origins. These studies show that the Malay language is important in the education and communication between the people of southern Thailand and those of the ASEAN countries which use this language as a means of communication.