Central Malay


Central Malay, also called Middle Malay or South Barisan Malay is a collection of related Malayic isolects spoken in the southwestern part of Sumatra. None of the Central Malay isolects has more than one million speakers.

Name

Traditionally, the term "Middle Malay" is used when referring to this cluster. Later, to avoid misidentification with a temporal stage of Malay language, the term "Central Malay" is used. McDonnell uses the term "South Barisan Malay" instead, referring to the southern region of Barisan Mountains where these isolects are spoken.

Varieties

Ethnologue groups together 12 isolects as part of Central Malay.
There have been few researches on individual isolects within the cluster.