Brunei Darussalam's Official Language: A Cultural Identity

Brunei Darussalam, officially the State of Brunei, Abode of Peace, is a small country in Southeast Asia with a rich history and a diverse cultural landscape. The official language of Brunei is Standard Malay, which was established as the national language in the 1959 Constitution. Malay is widely used for official purposes, in courts, and as a medium of instruction in schools. However, there are several other languages spoken in the country, reflecting its multicultural population.

Standard Malay is the official language of Brunei Darussalam

Standard Malay is used in formal contexts such as teaching and official speeches, while Brunei Malay, the local dialect, is used in informal settings like conversations between friends and in local shops. Brunei Malay is the most widely spoken language in the country, with about 266,000 speakers. It shares many similarities with Standard Malay, with 84% of its words being cognate. However, there are some differences in pronunciation, such as the absence of the final schwa sound in words ending with 'a' instead of 'ə'.

The use of Standard Malay and Brunei Malay in the country can be described under the concept of diglossia, where Standard Malay holds the high role and Brunei Malay the low role. While Malay is the official language, English is also widely spoken in Brunei and is used in business and official dealings. It is the primary language of instruction in schools, and most of the population can speak English.

In addition to Malay and English, several other languages are spoken in Brunei due to its diverse population. These include Chinese languages, Arabic, Kedayan Malay dialect, Tutong Malay dialect, Murut, and Dusun. The Chinese minority speaks varieties of Chinese, such as Hakka, Cantonese, and Hokkien, while Mandarin serves as their lingua franca. Arabic, as the religious language of Muslims, is taught in schools and widely understood by the Muslim population.

Malay was written in Jawi script before switching to the Latin alphabet

The official language of Brunei Darussalam is Standard Malay, which is also the national language. Malay is a Malayic language spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Thailand. It has two alphabets: the Latin alphabet (Tulisan Rumi) and the Jawi script.

The Jawi script is a version of the Arabic script, consisting of all 31 original Arabic letters, six letters constructed to fit phonemes native to Malay, and one additional phoneme used in foreign loanwords. Jawi was developed during the advent of Islam in Maritime Southeast Asia, replacing the Brahmic scripts used during the Hindu-Buddhist era. The oldest evidence of Jawi writing is on the 14th-century Terengganu Inscription Stone, a text in Classical Malay that contains Malay, Sanskrit, and Arabic vocabularies.

Until the 20th century, Jawi was the standard script of the Malay language and was used in official correspondences, religious texts, and literary publications. With the arrival of Western influence through colonisation and education, Malay switched from Jawi to the Latin alphabet, which is currently in general usage. This switch occurred in the 17th century under the influence of the Dutch and British.

Today, Jawi is one of the two official scripts in Brunei, and it is also used in Malaysia and Indonesia. In Malaysia, Jawi is protected under the National Language Act 1963/67 and is used in religious and cultural administration in several states. In Brunei, Malay written in Jawi is taught in schools, particularly religious schools, and skill in using Jawi is promoted as part of the curriculum in these schools.

Brunei Malay is the most widely spoken language in the country

The official language of Brunei Darussalam is Standard Malay, which was established in the 1959 Constitution. However, the most widely spoken language in the country is Brunei Malay, also known as Melayu Brunei. It is the principal spoken language of the country and is used in informal contexts, such as at home, between friends, and in shops. It is also the lingua franca in parts of East Malaysia.

Brunei Malay is quite distinct from Standard Malay and other Malay dialects. While it shares a large proportion of its vocabulary with Standard Malay, with 84% of its words being cognate, it has several unique features. For instance, in Brunei Malay, the sound /h/ cannot occur in the initial position of a word, so the word "habis" (finish) in Standard Malay becomes "abis" in Brunei Malay. Additionally, Brunei Malay only has three vowels: /i/, /a/, and /u/.

The use of Brunei Malay is expanding, and it is encroaching on the territory of other indigenous minority languages in the country, most of which are now under threat of extinction. This expansion is partly due to the influence of mass media, which tends to use Brunei Malay. As a result, Brunei Malay is becoming the dominant language in the country, with Standard Malay being reserved for more formal domains such as teaching and official speeches.

The widespread use of Brunei Malay highlights the dynamic nature of language in society. While Standard Malay is the official language, the variation and evolution of language in everyday usage have led to the development and prevalence of Brunei Malay as the language of choice for many Bruneians in their daily lives.

English is widely used as a business and official language

English is the primary language of instruction in Brunei's education system, which has been bilingual since 1985. In primary schools, English is the medium of instruction for most subjects from the fourth year onwards. Additionally, a new rule mandates the use of English for teaching maths and science from the beginning of primary school.

English is also used in business as a working language. The Borneo Bulletin, an English-language newspaper, circulates in Brunei. All official documents that must be published by law in Malay are also required to be issued in an official English version.

The use of English in Brunei dates back to the country's time as a British protectorate from 1888 to 1984. Today, while formal English in Brunei is based on British English, American English is having an increasing influence, and Brunei English is becoming distinct in its own right.

Arabic is the religious language of Muslims

The official language of Brunei is Standard Malay, but Arabic is the religious language of Muslims and is taught in schools, particularly religious schools. As the liturgical language of Islam, Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments, and the media.

Arabic is the language of the Quran and is used by Islamic scholars in Brunei. Islam is the state religion of Brunei, and all adherents of the faith possess some proficiency in reading and speaking Arabic. Arabic is also used in institutes of higher learning in Brunei. All Muslim children are required by law to attend an Ugama School ('Religious School') for three hours five days per week from the ages of 7 to 15, and the curriculum of these schools promotes the learning of Arabic as well as skill using Jawi, the Arabic-based script for representing Malay.

Arabic is the third most widespread official language after English and French, and one of six official languages of the United Nations. It is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It is also the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims.

Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language. It is written with the Arabic alphabet, an abjad script that is written from right to left. Arabic has 28 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes. All phonemes contrast between "emphatic" (pharyngealized) consonants and non-emphatic ones.

Arabic is given more importance than any other language in Islam because it is the language of the Quran and Hadith, the main religious sources of Islam. Translations of the Quran into other languages are seen as interpretive texts and not the Quran itself. Classical Arabic, as spoken by Muhammad, is believed to be "pure" and "undefiled."

Muslims believe in a command to pray five times a day, known as salah, which often consists of partially reciting passages from the Quran. The vast majority of Muslims do not speak Arabic natively, so many believe in the necessity of learning the language to participate in daily prayer.

Arabic is a deep and wide language and is the common and universal language for prayer. It is the creation of Allah and has its own rhythm. The complete Quran cannot be translated, and it is the only divinely preserved revelation.

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