Confusing a Malaysian accent for Singaporean or vice versa is always going to land you in hot water, but don’t even get them started on the roots of their respective spoken languages. The intense ...

Education minister Fadhlina Sidek said Bahasa Melayu was versatile, having absorbed words from regional dialects and other languages. “Maha kaya” is among 12 new Malay words to be added to Dewan ...

Illustration by Lam Yik Chun. Over the last two decades of using text messaging, I’ve come to believe that the 10th circle of hell comprises people who use ‘jelak’ without knowing its proper spelling, ...

When Malaysia’s education minister recently declared that the public needs to accept new Malay words because Bahasa Malaysia is a “living language”, one cannot help but wonder if this statement was ...

There’s a real fear of trying to pronounce all the intricacies of Malay words with my ‘ocker’ tongue. My distress at the laughter, from both sides of the culture. “Takde saiz itu lah kak.” I can work ...