Guide
Name pronunciation guide
Malaysian name spellings do not always show the sound exactly. This guide explains our audio and why one sound is written in several ways.
Audio and spelling on this site at a glance.
- Malay, Indian and Western names: The Listen button plays a Bahasa Malaysia (ms-MY) reading of the spelling shown.
- Indian names with Tamil script: A second button plays a Tamil (ta-IN) reading of the verified Tamil script.
- Chinese names: No audio: the reading depends on the characters and dialect the family chose.
- No button: When no audio file matches the current spelling, no button is shown.
How the audio works
Each audio file is produced before the site is published and stored with a record of the text it reads. A name page shows the button only while that text still matches the spelling on the page, so a changed spelling never plays old audio. The Bahasa Malaysia reading reads the spelling as written; it is not the pronunciation in the name’s source language.
Malay spellings of sounds from Arabic
| Spelling | What is known | Example on this site |
|---|---|---|
| sy, sh | Before 1972, the Za'aba spelling used in Malaya wrote this sound sh, while the Indonesian spelling wrote it sj. The 1972 spelling reform replaced both with sy, but a registered spelling need not follow it (Wikipedia: Malay orthography). | Aishah, also spelled Aisyah |
| kh | The 1972 reform kept kh (Wikipedia: Malay orthography). | Khairul |
| dh, q and others | Arabic letters have no one-to-one match in Latin letters, so one letter can be spelled several ways (Bayan Linnas No. 78). | See the Arabic script on the name page |
| A | The letters ‘ain and alif are often written as A, which can change pronunciation (Bayan Linnas No. 78). | Ain |
Tamil names
Tamil script has no separate letters for voiced and voiceless stops: the letter க represents /k/ but can be pronounced [g] (Wikipedia: Tamil script). That is why one Tamil name can be spelled with k or g, t or d, and th or dh in Latin letters. When a name page shows Tamil script, it is more exact than the Latin spelling. See the guide to Malaysian Indian names.
Chinese dialect romanizations
Malaysian Chinese name spellings follow how the name sounded in the ancestors’ dialect, so one character can be spelled differently: 陳 can be Tan, Chan, Chin or Chen (The Star; SAYS). One spelling can also stand for more than one character. Chinese name pages show the character options with Mandarin and Cantonese readings from sources; we provide no audio because the pronunciation depends on the characters and dialect. See the guide to Malaysian Chinese names.
Frequently asked questions
Why do Chinese names have no Listen button?
How a Chinese name is pronounced depends on the characters and dialect the family chose, which the spelling alone does not tell us.
Is the Bahasa Malaysia reading the original pronunciation?
Not necessarily. It reads the Latin spelling the way it is usually read in Malaysia.
Last updated .