This title is a historical, social, cultural and linguistic study of Indonesian culture. It traces the origins and pre-colonial development of the language and the emergence of classical Malay from the 14th century. It challenges many assumptions about the simplicity of the Indonesian language.



This important book, the first of its kind, is a historical, social, cultural and linguistic study of Indonesian. Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, and one of the most linguistically complex. Its ethnic groups speak more than 500 languages and of these Malay, renamed Indonesian, was chosen to be the sole national and official language.