Like New Guinea Pidgin, a tongue with which it shares the condition strictu sensu of creole (though the comparison ends there), or come to that like English itself, Malay is one of history's most spectacularly successful contact vernaculars. Bearing in itself the imprint of colonial experience, of cultures in collision, it cannot fail to be of immense testimonial value to students of language generally to say nothing of all those with a more than passing interest in Southeast Asian affairs. The former will relish a grammar which, as Dr Tham is at pains to point out, in formal terms is simplici...
