Comparison of Malay and English Texts in Brunei

Abstract

While Malay is the official language of Brunei, a status that is enshrined as the first component of the national Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB, ‘Malay Islamic Monarchy’) philosophy, English is also widely used in the country, both privately and also in official communication (McLellan, Noor Azam, & Deterding in The use and status of language in Brunei Darussalam: A kingdom of unexpected linguistic diversity. Springer, Singapore, pp. 9–16, 2016; Ożóg in Language use & language change in Brunei Darussalam. Ohio University Center for International Studies, Athens, OH, pp. 156–172, 1996), so it is of interest to examine how texts in these two languages compare when they are used to express the same ideas, particularly in official documents that aim to represent aspects of Brunei culture to international readers in the modern world. In this chapter, the structure of Malay and English texts are compared by examining parallel texts in Malay and English that have recently been published in Brunei.