THE ARRIVAL OF THE SRIVIJAYANS ON THE PENINSULA, CREATING A NEW TRIBE AND A NEW LANGUAGE, NAMELY THE 15TH CENTURY MALAY TRIBE AND LANGUAGE
By: Hamly Hadi
(History Observer)
The arrival of the Srivijayans from Palembang on the peninsula in the 15th century (1402 AD). Prameswara and his followers, who fled from Palembang, founded the Malacca Kingdom. They were the first people to be called Malay by the Javanese, who had already settled on the peninsula. The term Malay refers only to the descendants of the people of Malacca and Johor, as a race must be biologically related, not merely culturally and linguistically similar.
In 1406, Prameswara and his followers converted to Islam, marking the beginning of the emergence of a Malay identity with Islamic nuances, characterized by their traditional clothing and cultural adaptations of the Middle East, China, and India. Through a decades-long acculturation process, the Malay language was born in 1440-1602 AD, which originated from the Banjar language of Sriwijaya, and was acculturated with hundreds of languages that existed in Malacca at that time.
The local people of Kedah, the local people of Kelantan, the local people of Terengganu, the local people of Pahang are actually not Malays, they only share Malay culture and language because of the influence of Malay people from Malacca, that’s why their accent is different from the original Malays in Malacca and Johor because they are not biologically Malay.
There are several other groups that are claimed to be Malay, namely ethnic groups who later came from Indonesia to the peninsula in the 17th-19th centuries, such as the Acehnese, Banjarese, Bugis, Minang, Bawean, Mandailing, Makassar and others. They are referred to as trading Malays.
The Portuguese attack on Malacca in 1511 spread the Malay people to various regions across the peninsula, including the islands of Sumatra and West Kalimantan. This allowed the Malay language and culture to influence the regions they visited, and the Malay language and culture spread beyond Malacca.**
Banjarmasin, January 13, 2026
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