Malay

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Facts

Introduction
There are about 7,181,000 speakers of Malay in Malaysia comprising about 47% of the population (1986), including 248,757 in Sarawak (1980 census), 2,000,000 in Kelantan and Trengganu, and 1,000,000 in other parts of Malaysia. The speakers increase to 10,000,000 in Malaysia if we include second language speakers (1977 SIL). The total population of speakers in all countries is 18,000,000 or more. 

The language is spoken in all districts of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak. Malay is also spoken in Brunei (only in formal domains like religion and government and is taught in schools up to third grade); Indonesia (Sumatra) (10,000,000 including 2,000,000 in Riau, 40,000 in Bangka, and 170,000 in Belitung); Myanmar, Singapore (396,000 or 15.5% of the population); Thailand, UAE, USA.
Language sample
Click play below to hear a greeting in Malay

Tagalog

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Facts
  • Spoken by: 10 - 16 million people as a first language and over 40 million as a second language
  • Geographic center: Philipines
  • Subdivision: Central Philippine
  • Online resource: UCLA Language Material Project

Introduction
Tagalog is the national language of Tagalogs, one of the nations of the Philippines. It is practically identical with Pilipino, an artificial language, which was based on Tagalog. Tagalog/Pilipino is different from Filipino, which is another artificial language, based on the multiple languages of the Philippines, including the Indo-European languages English and Spanish. From 1973 on, Filipino is the national language of the Philippines, whereas Tagalog remains the national language of Tagalogs. Tagalog is also spoken in Canada, Guam, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK and the US (Campbell 2000, Ethnologue, http://www.ethnologue.com/, Guzman 2001, Makarenko 1998b, Škarban 1995)
Language sample
Click play below to hear a greeting in Tagalog