Lesson 1 Nama (name)

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A second reading (by Muhammad Nor Ismat, a native speaker)

Apa nama anda?
Nama saya John.
Dia kawan saya.
Apa namanya?
Namanya Peter.
Dia kawan saya.
Apa namanya?
Namanya Mary.

What is your name?
My name is John.
He is my friend.
What is his name?
His name is Peter.
She is my friend.
What is her name?
Her name is Mary.

Vocabulary
Apa = What
nama = name
anda = you or your
saya = I or my
kawan = friend
dia = he OR she
mereka = they
nama anda = your name
namanya = his/her name
nama saya = my name
kawan anda= your friend
kawannya = his/her friend

It's time now for me to ask you your name. Incidentally when you are asked your name in a social context in Malaysia you don't have to worry about whether you should give your first name, your family name or both your first name and family name together. Just give whatever you want though normally Malaysians give the name they would like friends to call them by and not the entire name.
Apa nama anda? (What is your name?)
Please type your name below then hit the Enter key.
Nama saya My name is (to be typed in)

Note on the pronunciation used:
Although in a number of states in Malaysia the final "a" in Apa, nama and saya is pronounced er (as in the second vowel in "butter") and represented by the phonetic symbol ə, I am here pronouncing it exactly as the "a" in the first syllable (which has the sound of "ah"). This is in keeping with the requirements of bahasa baku (standard Malay pronunciation) which, incidentally, has since been scrapped by the Malaysian government after its attempt at standardizing Malay pronunciation failed. As they say habits die hard and the Malays in some states are so used to pronouncing the final "a" as "er" that nothing can make them change their pronunciation.
In fact the learning of Bahasa Malaysia can be complicated by the fact that many states (Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Pinang, etc.) possess their own dialect or local accents. This is called bahasa daerah (or loghat) in Bahasa Malaysia.
By the way I prefer that you learn the Malay sounds bit by bit from each lesson instead of presenting you all the vowel and consonant sounds in the very first lesson. On the whole Malay pronunciation is not a problem for English language speakers. There are a small number of difficult sounds though and these are summarized in two entire lessons (Lessons 49 and 50).
May I mention that this course is just a humble effort of mine. Perhaps Malay linguists might be able to come up with something more scholarly. Email me and I'll be happy to put a link to your site here. - GPJ

If this lesson is not enough for you and you want to learn all about the intricacies of the Malay pronoun

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• 第二课 Bahasa (language)

• 第三课 Ini......(This is.....)

• 第四课 Orang Inggeris (Englishman or wom

• 第5课 Numbers (1-9)

• 第六课 Berapa (How many)

• 第七课 (Days of the Week）

• 第八课 Numbers (10-99)

• 第九课 telling the time

• 第十课 The 12 Months

• 马来语介绍及学习说明