Editing Indonesian language (section)

=== Old Malay as ''lingua franca'' ===
[[File:Srivijaya Empire.svg|thumb|For centuries, [[Srivijaya]], through its expansion, economic power and military prowess, was responsible for the widespread of [[Old Malay]] throughout the [[Malay Archipelago]]. It was the working language of traders and it was used in various ports, and marketplaces in the region.<ref>[http://sea.lib.niu.edu/lang/malay.html Southeast Asia Digital Library: About Malay] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20070616131617/http://sea.lib.niu.edu/lang/malay.html |date=16 June 2007 }}</ref>|224x224px]]
[[Trade]] contacts carried on by various [[ethnic group|ethnic]] peoples at the time were the main [[vehicle]] for spreading the Old Malay language, which was the main [[communications]] medium among the traders. Ultimately, the Old Malay language became a [[lingua franca]] and was spoken widely by most people in the archipelago.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://melayuonline.com/ind/article/read/174/sriwijaya-dalam-telaah |title=Sriwijaya dalam Tela'ah |date=5 June 2007 |publisher=Melayu Online |access-date=1 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022105208/http://melayuonline.com/ind/article/read/174/sriwijaya-dalam-telaah |archive-date=22 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://melayuonline.com/eng/opinion/read/80/risen-up-maritime-nation |title=Risen Up Maritime Nation! |author=Bambang Budi Utomo |date=23 January 2008 |publisher=Melayu Online |access-date=1 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022091319/http://melayuonline.com/eng/opinion/read/80/risen-up-maritime-nation |archive-date=22 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The beginning of the common era saw the growing influence of Indian civilisation in the archipelago. With the penetration and proliferation of [[Sanskrit]] vocabulary and the influence of major [[Indian religions]] such as [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]], Ancient Malay evolved into the Old Malay. The oldest uncontroversial specimens of Old Malay are the 7th century CE [[Sojomerto inscription]] from [[Central Java]], [[Kedukan Bukit Inscription]] from [[South Sumatra]], [[Indonesia]] and several other inscriptions dating from the 7th to 10th centuries discovered in [[Sumatra]], [[Java]], other islands of the [[Sunda Islands|Sunda archipelago]], as well as [[Luzon]], [[Philippines]]. All these Old Malay inscriptions used either scripts of Indian origin such as [[Pallava script|Pallava]], [[Nāgarī script|Nagari]] or the Indian-influenced old Sumatran characters.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Molen |first=Willem van der |date=2008 |title=The Syair of Minye Tujuh |journal=Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde |volume=163 |issue=2/3 |pages=356–375 |doi=10.1163/22134379-90003689 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The Old Malay system is greatly influenced by [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] scriptures in terms of [[phonemes]], [[morpheme]]s, [[vocabulary]] and the characteristics of scholarship, particularly when the words are closely related to Indian culture. Further research stated that Old Malay and Modern Malay are forms of the same language,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Clavé |first1=Elsa |last2=Griffiths |first2=Arlo |date=2022-10-11 |title=The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: Tenth-Century Luzon, Java, and the Malay World |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.13185/ps2022.70202 |journal=Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=167–242 |doi=10.13185/ps2022.70202 |doi-broken-date=15 April 2025 |issn=2244-1093}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Adelaar |first=Alexander |author-link=K. Alexander Adelaar |title=The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar |date=2005 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9780415681537 |editor-last=Adelaar |editor-first=Alexander |editor-link=K. Alexander Adelaar |location=Abingdon |pages=1–42 |language=en |chapter=The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar: A historical perspective |editor-last2=Himmelmann |editor-first2=Nikolaus |editor-link2=Nikolaus P. Himmelmann}}</ref> in spite of some considerable differences between them.