World Language Map

Where is Sabah Malay spoken?

Sabah Malay is an Austronesian language, spoken in Malaysia. 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 Sabah Malay is spoken

Sabah Malay is spoken in one country: Malaysia.

Country
Malaysia

Sabah 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 Sabah Malay?

Wikidata gives about 3 million second-language speakers (Wikidata, with no source given, 2013). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Not endangered. Glottolog lists it as not endangered: it is still being passed on to children.

Where Sabah Malay sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies Sabah 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. East Borneo Malay
  7. Banjar-Berau-Brunei Malay
  8. Berau-Brunei Malay
  9. Bruneic Malay
  10. Sabah Malay

More about Sabah Malay

Codes: ISO 639-3 msi, Glottolog saba1263. Glottolog macroarea: Papunesia.

Questions about Sabah Malay

Where is Sabah Malay spoken?

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

How many people speak Sabah Malay?

Wikidata gives about 3 million second-language speakers (Wikidata, with no source given, 2013). 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 Sabah Malay in?

Glottolog places Sabah Malay in the Austronesian family, in the branch Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Malayic, Nuclear Malayic, East Borneo Malay, Banjar-Berau-Brunei Malay, Berau-Brunei Malay and Bruneic Malay.

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