Austronesian peoples

Before Melaka · Chronicle · 10 min read

Those Who Were Already Here

The land beneath our feet is older than any ethnic name — and that name itself proves a point

When Yijing recorded the name "Malayu" by a river in Sumatra, people had already been living on the Peninsula for tens of thousands of years. They were not "Pre-Malays" or "Early Malays" — the language they spoke belonged to a completely different language family, sharing roots with modern Khmer and Mon, and having absolutely nothing to do with Malay. This article presents two timelines: one for language, and one for people. Mixing these two up creates true confusion.