According to Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid, the selection was made by ‘Ethnologue: Languages of the World’ – a comprehensive online referral centre for languages run by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) International.

He said the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu) had also been recorded as one of the 10 most widely used languages on the Internet by Internet World Stats for 2015.

“Bahasa Melayu is in 8th position, and is ahead of French, which is ranked 9th and with such potential, Bahasa Melayu-Indonesia must be empowered or promoted as a key feature of the Asean community,” he said during the opening of the 55th Conference of the Language Council of Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia (MABBIM) and linguistic seminar here today.

The text of his speech was read by the ministry’s secretary-general, Dr Madinah Mohamad.

– BERNAMA