Malays (ethnic group)Malays (Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations. These locations are today part of the countries of Malaysia, Indonesia (eastern and southern Sumatra, Bangka Belitung Islands, West Kalimantan and Riau Islands), southern part of Thailand (Pattani, Satun, Songkhla, Yala and Narathiwat), Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
Spratly IslandsThe Spratly Islands (Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; Mandarin ; Kepulauan Spratly; Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed of islands, islets, cays, and more than 100 reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atolls, the archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, and southern Vietnam. Named after the 19th-century British whaling captain Richard Spratly who sighted Spratly Island in 1843, the islands contain less than of naturally occurring land area, which is spread over an area of more than .
Mandarin ChineseMandarin (ˈmændərɪn; ) is a group of Sinitic dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of China. Because Mandarin originated in North China and most Mandarin dialects are found in the north, the group is sometimes referred to as Northern Chinese (). Many varieties of Mandarin, such as those of the Southwest (including Sichuanese) and the Lower Yangtze, are not mutually intelligible with the standard language (or are only partially intelligible).
IndonesiaIndonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia (Republik Indonesia), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area, at . With around 280 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country.
BorneoBorneo (ˈbɔːrnioʊ; Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world, with an area of . At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda Islands, located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra. The island is politically divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, and Indonesia to the south. Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory. In the north, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak make up about 26% of the island.
Jawi scriptJawi (; Jawoë; Kelantan-Pattani: Yawi; d͡ʒä.wi) is a writing system used for writing Malay and several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Kerinci, Maguindanaon, Minangkabau, Tausūg, and Ternate. Jawi is based on the Arabic script, consisting of all of the original 31 Arabic letters, and six additional letters constructed to fit the phonemes native to Malay, and an additional phoneme used in foreign loanwords, but not found in Classical Arabic, which are ca /t͡ʃ/, nga /ŋ/, pa /p/, ga /ɡ/, va /v/, and nya /ɲ/.
ASEANASEAN, officially an abbreviation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia. It has a population of over 600 million and covers an area of . ASEAN generated a purchasing power parity (PPP) gross domestic product (GDP) of around trillion in 2022, constituting approximately 6.5% of global GDP (PPP).
Dutch East IndiesThe Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (Nederlands(ch)-Indië; Hindia Belanda), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Dutch government in 1800. During the 19th century, the Dutch fought many wars against indigenous rulers and peoples. At the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, the Dutch reign reached the greatest territorial extent in the early 20th century.
JavaJava ('dZa:v@,_'dZæv@; Jawa, ˈdʒawa; ꦗꦮ; ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's most populous island, home to approximately 56% of the Indonesian population. Indonesia's capital city, Jakarta, is on Java's northwestern coast. Many of the best known events in Indonesian history took place on Java.
Malay PeninsulaThe Malay Peninsula (Malay: Semenanjung Tanah Melayu) is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand, and the southernmost tip of Myanmar (Kawthaung). The island country of Singapore also has historical and cultural ties with the region. The indigenous people of the peninsula are Orang Asli and Malays, an Austronesian people.
