The Malay language is part of the Austronesian language family and it is widely used in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia by over 270 million people, each country with its own variation. The two main variations are Bahasa Melayu (also referred to as Bahasa Malaysia, see below) and Bahasa Indonesia. Both these languages may sound similar but do differ quite a bit to the learned speaker.

As with any language, Malay has evolved from its original form and modern Malay speakers might not recognise Old Malay. Many words in Malay have been adopted and adapted from other languages, the earliest being Sanskrit, and later on it was heavily influenced by other languages as well including Arabic, Tamil, Hindi, and English.