NEW STRAITS TIMES
13 September 2016
WE refer to the article, “Debate On Origins Of Ma-lays” by Datuk Dr A. Murad Merican (NST, Aug 21). The article was an informed review of a lecture titled “The Malays: Their Origins, Migration And Travels” given by Prof Datuk Seri Dr Md Salleh Yaapar of Universiti Sains Malaysia at the International Islamic University Malaysia, Gombak.
Results from population genomic studies performed on Southeast Asia’s major populations showed that they shared similar ancestral components, although the proportion of these components substantially differed in each population. Despite the differences in cultures and religions, they shared the same basic genetic profile.
Using statistical analysis and intensive computational estimation, researchers identified the similarities of the genome regardless of their difference in historical and demographical events.
In addition, the theory of Malays from Yunnan or Taiwan may be contradicted by the results of phylogenetic analysis from these studies, in which the phylogenetic tree puts aboriginal Semang (Negrito) and Malays among the “earliest” branches compared with Chinese and Taiwanese.
These findings are in parallel with the theory Out Of Sundaland, by Dr Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University, which was based on DNA analysis, archeological and ethnological evidences suggesting Southeast Asia as an early centre of world civilisation called Sunda Shelf (Sundaland ) around 16,000 years ago. The climate and sea level changes caused human migrations to move further inland in Southeast Asia and started population dispersals to the west as far as Madagascar and east to the Pacific.
The use of Malayo-Polynesian or “Melayunesian”, instead of Austronesian to refer to the language family of Malays, has generated a lot of discussion among scholars. The term Austronesian is broadly defined to encompass identification of Malays. The Austronesian language family includes most of the languages spoken on the islands of the Pacific, with the exception of the indigenous Papuan and Australian languages.
With 1,268 languages, Austronesian is one of the largest and the most geographically far-spread language families of the world.
Meanwhile, the Malayo-Polynesian is a linguistic subgroup of Austronesian family that is dispersed throughout maritime Southeast Asia, Ma-dagascar and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, as well as a few regions on continental Asia.
Although covering a large geographical area, the Malayo-Polynesian languages are uniform in structure with two subfamilies, western Malayo-Polynesian and eastern Malayo-Polynesian.
The western Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by more than 200 million people from Madagascar, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
The eastern branch consists of the Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian groups of languages, which are spoken by five million people from the islands of Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Bismarck Archipelago and New Guinea.
Equally important is the fact that these communities share many of the inter-related traits of what can be termed as Malay cultural markings and indicators.
The spread of these cultural markings are influenced by their maritime existence. Therefore, Malayo-Polynesian is a more appropriate term to describe the linguistic origin of Malays instead of Austronesian.
In searching for the origins, migration and identity of Malays, the field of genomics provides compelling evidence supported by historical, linguistic, folkloric, geographical and geological as well as demographical materials and events. Taken together, it forms a more holistic and concrete picture.
The use of Malayo-Polynesian or “Melayunesian”, instead of Austronesian to refer to the language family of Malays, has generated a lot of discussion among scholars. The term Austronesian is broadly defined to encompass identification of Malays. The Austronesian language family includes most of the languages spoken on the islands of the Pacific, with the exception of the indigenous Papuan and Australian languages.
With 1,268 languages, Austronesian is one of the largest and the most geographically far-spread language families of the world.
Meanwhile, the Malayo-Polynesian is a linguistic subgroup of Austronesian family that is dispersed throughout maritime Southeast Asia, Ma-dagascar and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, as well as a few regions on continental Asia.
Although covering a large geographical area, the Malayo-Polynesian languages are uniform in structure with two subfamilies, western Malayo-Polynesian and eastern Malayo-Polynesian.
The western Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by more than 200 million people from Madagascar, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
The eastern branch consists of the Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian groups of languages, which are spoken by five million people from the islands of Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Bismarck Archipelago and New Guinea.
Equally important is the fact that these communities share many of the inter-related traits of what can be termed as Malay cultural markings and indicators.
The spread of these cultural markings are influenced by their maritime existence. Therefore, Malayo-Polynesian is a more appropriate term to describe the linguistic origin of Malays instead of Austronesian.
In searching for the origins, migration and identity of Malays, the field of genomics provides compelling evidence supported by historical, linguistic, folkloric, geographical and geological as well as demographical materials and events. Taken together, it forms a more holistic and concrete picture.
WAN NUR HATIN WAN ISA, DR REEVANY BUSTAMI AND PROFESSOR ZILFALIL ALWI, Malaysian Node of the Human Variome Project, Universiti Sains Malaysia
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