World Language Map

Where is Baba Malay spoken?

Baba Malay is an Austronesian language, spoken in Malaysia and Singapore. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Where Baba Malay is spoken

Baba Malay is spoken in 2 countries: Malaysia and Singapore.

Country
Malaysia
Singapore

Baba Malay has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak Baba Malay?

Wikidata gives about 12,000 speakers (Wikidata, with no source given, 2006). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Nearly extinct. Glottolog lists it as nearly extinct: only a few elderly speakers are left.

Where Baba Malay sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies Baba Malay as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Austronesian
  2. Malayo-Polynesian
  3. Malayo-Chamic
  4. Malayic
  5. Nuclear Malayic
  6. Vehicular Malay
  7. Baba Malay

Related languages

Other languages in the Vehicular Malay group:

More about Baba Malay

Codes: ISO 639-3 mbf, Glottolog baba1267. Glottolog macroarea: Eurasia.

Questions about Baba Malay

Where is Baba Malay spoken?

Baba Malay is spoken in Malaysia and Singapore. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak Baba Malay?

Wikidata gives about 12,000 speakers (Wikidata, with no source given, 2006). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.

Which language family is Baba Malay in?

Glottolog places Baba Malay in the Austronesian family, in the branch Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Malayic, Nuclear Malayic and Vehicular Malay.

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