Languages and dialects of Malaysia: about 137 and counting

A school canteen in Kuching. One girl calls her friend in Malay, another answers in Hokkien, and a third laughs and speaks Iban with her cousin. The teacher cuts in with English.

The story

Malaysia is home to about 137 living languages, according to Ethnologue, counted in 2010. Of these, 41 are in the Peninsula. Sarawak alone has 45 languages and dialects, according to national statistics. The count changes depending on where one draws the line between a language and a dialect, so treat the numbers as a guide.

The languages come from four great families:

• Austronesian: Malay, Iban, the languages of the Kadazandusun, Bajau, Bidayuh, Melanau and many more. Iban is part of the Malayic branch, with Malay.
• Austroasiatic: the Aslian languages of some Orang Asli communities in the Peninsula.
• Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew and Foochow.
• Dravidian: Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu.

Some examples. About 790,000 people speak Iban, the main native language in Sarawak. Central Dusun has about 140,000 and Coastal Kadazan about 60,000 in Sabah. The Orang Asli languages fall into three groups, Negrito, Senoi and Malayic, divided into 18 subgroups. Some are fading, and Low Country Semang, once spoken in Penang, has already died out. Among the Chinese languages, Hakka is predominant in Sabah, and in Sarawak most Chinese speak Hokkien, Hokchew (Foochow) or Hakka. And English, mixed with Malay, Chinese and Tamil words, makes everyday Manglish.

Where you can still see it today

• Street signs and shop fronts: Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil together.
• School textbooks: Kadazandusun has its own education syllabuses.
• Markets and tamu: you can hear several languages at one stall.
• Festival stages: Kaamatan and Gawai are held in the community's own languages.
• Orang Asli communities, where some languages are fading.

What DNA can tell, and what it cannot

Language and DNA are separate stories. Language is learned. A person raised in Hokkien who has a Malay grandmother may have a very different DNA story from their speech. Population studies sometimes line up with language families, for example in the spread of Austronesian peoples across the islands, but languages can change faster than genes and spread without large movements of people.

So DNA cannot tell you which language you should speak, which community you belong to, or your religion or legal status.