This guide provides beginners who already know a little colloquial Malay with a properly graded course in simple spoken Malay to improve their grasp of the language. In 60 lessons, you learn the essential sentence structures of spoken Malay, using a vocabulary of about 1,000 words. Sentences in the first section of each lesson use these structures repeatedly so that you assimilate the grammar of the language almost unconsciously. Sixty conversations, based on a wide variety of everyday situations, ensure you acquire a fluency and confidence in the language. With an answer key for numerous exercises, this book is suitable both for self-study and in the classroom.

This book presents an in-depth linguistic description of one Papuan Malay variety, based on sixteen hours of recordings of spontaneous narratives and conversations between Papuan Malay speakers. ‘Papuan Malay’ refers to the easternmost varieties of Malay (Austronesian). They are spoken in the coastal areas of West Papua, the western part of the island of New Guinea. The variety described here is spoken along West Papua’s northeast coast. Papuan Malay is the language of wider communication and the first or second language for an ever-increasing number of people of the area. While Papuan Malay is not officially recognized and therefore not used in formal government or educational settings or for religious preaching, it is used in all other domains, including unofficial use in formal settings, and, to some extent, in the public media. After a general introduction to the language, its setting, and history, this grammar discusses the following topics, building up from smaller grammatical constituents to larger ones: phonology, word formation, noun and prepositional phrases, verbal and nonverbal clauses, non-declarative clauses, and conjunctions and constituent combining. Of special interest to linguists, typologists, and Malay specialists are the following in-depth analyses and descriptions: affixation and its productivity across domains of language choice, reduplication and its gesamtbedeutung, personal pronouns and their adnominal uses, demonstratives and locatives and their extended uses, and adnominal possessive relations and their non- canonical uses. This study provides a point of comparison for further studies in other (Papuan) Malay varieties and a starting point for Papuan Malay language development efforts.

Totally revised new edition Focuses on the everyday language Practices all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing Clear grammar points Exercises and revision lessons to check progress