Malay Language And Literature The Malay language is a member of the Malayan section of the Malayo-Polynesian class of languages, but it is by no means a representative type of the section which has taken its name from it.
Number of Malayo-Polynesian Family - languages spoken.
Cousins have shown conclusively the close relationships between the language of the Malagasy and those of the Malayo-Polynesian regions; similar connexions exist, especially in grammatical construction, between the Malagasy and Melanesian languages.
The aboriginal Hawaiians (sometimes called Kanakas, from a Hawaiian word kanaka, meaning " man ") belong to the Malayo-Polynesian race; they probably settled in Native Hawaii in the 10th century, having formerly lived in popula- Samoa, and possibly before that in Tahiti and the Marquesas.
The Hawaiian language is a member of the widely-diffused Malayo-Polynesian group and closely resembles the dialect of the Marquesas; Hawaiians and New Zealanders, although occupying the most remote regions north and south at which the race has been found, can understand each other without much difficulty.
