Dr. Jose P. Rizal has been honored with the sobriquet as ‘the pride of the Malay race,’ an appellation that declares him an ethnic Malay. There is, however, a biosphere of difference between ‘Malay race’ and ‘Malay world.’ Although scholars have contributed their own interpretations into the debate, the use of Malay, about a race, language, and territory, has also been influenced by the way colonists understood the term.
The Malays, as a race, refer to the people living on the eastern side of Sumatra, Indonesia, those that live on the littorals of Borneo, settlers of Malaysian peninsula, and the inhabitants of southern Thailand. They were bound, centuries ago, by a common language known as Malay. For clarity, historian and orthographers have grouped other adjacent territories as part of what is defined as the Malay region and labeled the collection as the Malay world.
Malay, historically, was one of the trade languages of precolonial southeast Asian world, alongside with Javanese and Sanskrit (Hindu), before the Spaniards colonized the country. An example of this was Enrique, the slave from Malacca Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan used in communicating with the Cebuanos.
The Malay words that have penetrated the Filipino language have interesting similarities, such as English ‘brain,’ translated to Filipino as ‘utak’ and Malay, ‘otak.’ Other loan-words with similar spelling and meaning include the following: debt (utang), five (lima), goat (kambing), garlic (bawang), open (buka or bukas), baby’s underclothes (lampin), eyes (mata), sky (langit), child (anak), duck (itik), plate (pinggan), house (balay), scissors (gunting), and road (dalan).
There are also Filipino-Malay words with phonological sameness but spelled with slight variations. Among the popular ones are ‘umbrella’ (payong in Filipino; payung in Malay), bronze cannon (lantaka, rentaka), island (pulo, pulau), sea (laot, laut), fort (kuta, kota), thousand (libo, libu), face (mukha, muka), bowl (mangkok, mangkuk), elbow (siko, siku), pig (baboy, babi), front (harapan, hadapan), stone (bato, batu), and small cat (kuting, kuching).
There are, however, variations, in the way foreign words are adopted or interpreted. In Malay, atip means roof, like in Filipino but evolved into atop in Visayan. In Cebuano, lantay refers to a bamboo bed but in Malay, lantai means floor (as in building story).
Some Pinoy terms, like pinggan (bowl), salawal (trousers), and salamat (thank you), originally came from Persian, translated to pingan, sarwaal, and salamah, respectively. Even the Cebuano word pangadyi (pray) comes from the Persian hajji (pilgrim).
In ‘Texts and Manuscripts: Description and Research’ (2010), I. Donoso Jimenez explained that the entry of Arabic via Spain and the Malaysia-Indonesian conduit connected ‘both edges of the Islamic World,’ citing a few familiar loan-words that now form part of the Filipino dialogue:
‘Arabic words were introduced to the Philippines directly or through Malay, but also through Spanish too, i.e., alahas (alhaja, al-haja), alkalde (alcalde, al-qadi), alkampor (alcanfor, al-kanfur), alkansiya (alcancia, al-kansiyya), aldaba (aldaba, al-dabba), almires (almirez, al-mihras), baryo (barrio, al-barri), kapre (capre, kafir), kisame (zaquizame, saaf fassami).
Other interesting words found in Tagalog (Filipino) and Visayan with Arabic provenance include ginger tea (salabat, non-alcoholic drink), judgment (hukom, hukm), liquor (alak, araq), talisman (agimat, azimah), and teacher (malim, mu-allim).
Beyond Arabic, Spanish, and Malay, the country, also via the Malaysia-Indonesian channels, has adopted Sanskrit, Javanese, and Chinese loan-words introduced by or through foreign merchants, migrants, product labels, traditions and practices, religious beliefs, written literatures, and daily conversations.
