Historical language contact between Malay speakers and speakers of other languages has given rise to contact varieties of Malay, both within the Indonesian archipelago and outside. These varieties include languages which have arisen in trade centers of eastern Indonesia which are spoken natively by significant numbers of the local population, pidgin languages which have arisen in the traditional Malay homeland for communication with non-Malay groups, and languages which have arisen in communities of Malay speakers transplanted outside of the Malay world. In addition to these historical varieties, regional varieties of Indonesian (itself a Malay variety) are developing throughout the nation as local lingua francas for communication between communities, and even within a community for reasons of prestige.
This study examines patterns of language contact as they relate to Malay varieties. In particular, the question of creolization is considered, which has been the source of some debate in the field. Theories of creolization are presented and their relevance to the development of Malay varieties is discussed. In particular, the question of whether creoles can be characterized by simplified TAM systems and SVO word order is addressed. Other models of language contact are looked at as well, including language mixing and language intertwining, and a conclusion is reached regarding the best approach to classifying Malay varieties. The issues examined are relevant to wider models of language contact, as no language exists in a vacuum, and measuring the degree of historical language contact and the effect of contact on contemporary languages is a topic only beginning to be addressed systematically.