The Malay language, one of the most widely used in Southeast Asia, is commonly assumed to be relatively young. In the course of its development it incorporated a great number of loan words, galvanising them into an organic unit so successfully that it became the chief linguistic vehicle of regional trade. Easy to use and understand, Malay soon functioned as a kind of merchants' Esperanto across the vast archipelago. With this groundbreaking piece of research, Dr Gyorgy Busztin postulates that the roots of Malay extend much deeper in time than previously thought. This study uncovers over one...