South Barisan Malay, also called Central Malay or Middle Malay, is a collection of related Malayic isolects spoken in the southwestern part of Sumatra. None of the Central Malay isolects has more than one million speakers.
Name
Traditionally, the term Middle Malay (a calque of Dutch ) is used when referring to this cluster. Later, to avoid misidentification with a temporal stage of Malay language (i.e. the transition between Old Malay and Modern Malay), the term Central Malay began to be used. McDonnell (2016) uses the term South Barisan Malay instead, referring to the southern region of the Barisan Mountains where these isolects are spoken.
Varieties
Ethnologue groups together 12 isolects as part of Central Malay. Benakat Bengkulu Besemah Enim Kikim Kisam Lematang Ulu Lintang Ogan Rambang Semendo Serawai There has been little research on individual isolects within the cluster.