Editing Malay language (section)

==Classification==
{{See also|Austronesian languages#Comparison charts}}
Malay is a member of the [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] family of languages, which includes languages from [[Southeast Asia]] and the [[Pacific Ocean]], with a smaller number in continental [[Asia]]. [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]], a geographic outlier spoken in [[Madagascar]] in the [[Indian Ocean]], is also a member of this language family. Although these languages are not necessarily mutually intelligible to any extent, their similarities are often quite apparent. In more conservative languages like Malay, many roots have come with relatively little change from their common ancestor, [[Proto-Austronesian language]]. There are many [[cognate]]s found in the languages' words for kinship, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities.

Within Austronesian, Malay is part of a cluster of numerous closely related [[variety (linguistics)|forms of speech]] known as the [[Malayic languages]], which were spread across Malaya and the Indonesian archipelago by Malay traders from Sumatra. There is disagreement as to which varieties of speech popularly called "Malay" should be considered dialects of this language, and which should be classified as distinct Malay languages. The [[vernacular]] of Brunei—[[Brunei Malay]]—for example, is not readily intelligible with the [[standard language]], and the same is true with some lects on the Malay Peninsula such as [[Kedah Malay]]. However, both Brunei and Kedah are quite close.<ref>''[[Ethnologue]]'' 16 classifies them as distinct languages, ISO3 ''kxd'' and ''meo'', but states that they "are so closely related that they may one day be included as dialects of Malay".</ref>