Lexical development of Modern Malay: the Borneo contribution

Abstract

Since 1957, the year Malaysia (then the Federation of Malaya) achieved its independence, vigorous efforts have been made to develop its national language, Malay. Foremost is the coordinated planning activities of the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), Malaysia's national language agency. Although its activities cover a wide spectrum, including the production of textbooks and other, reading materials, the preparation of manuals on dictionaries and manual on spelling, grammar and pronunciation, and translation, the most impressive activity is in the realm of In the words of its present Director-lexical development. with two committees in 1959, the programme General, "Beginning developed into 24 committees in 1966 involving 264 scholars and professionals. Today the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka has coined 560,836 new terminologies in 300 fields/sub-fields, involving 1,479 experts" (Haji Jumaat Datuk Mohd Noor 1989: 173).