Setting up a Malay voice
- Record 5 to 15 seconds of a native Malay speaker, from Malaysia, Brunei or Singapore.
- Set the voice's Language to Malay.
- Test with a reduplicated word, a price and an English loanword.
Malay and Indonesian
Malay and Indonesian are closely related and largely mutually understandable, but they differ in vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation, and Indonesian isn't one of abcVoiceover's 23 languages. Indonesian text read by a Malay voice will be understood, but Indonesian listeners will notice Malaysian pronunciation and word choices. For an Indonesian audience, test carefully with a native listener before committing a whole project.
Writing Malay for the voice
- No chat shorthand: write yang, dengan, tidak, sahaja, not yg, dgn, tak, je, unless that casual word is what should be heard.
- Reduplication with a hyphen: anak-anak, kanak-kanak, not anak2.
- Numbers as words: dua ribu dua puluh enam.
- Money: RM10.50 → sepuluh ringgit lima puluh sen.
- Times: 3.30 petang → pukul tiga setengah petang.
- Abbreviations: dll. → dan lain-lain, spt. → seperti, Jln. → Jalan, En. → Encik, Pn. → Puan.
- English words: Malaysian speech mixes in English freely. A Malay voice reads English words with a Malay sound, which is often exactly right; for whole English sentences, use a voice set to English.
A passage to record
Sudah berminggu-minggu saya mahu merakam ini, jadi mari kita mulakan. Malam ini tenang, kopi sudah siap, dan akhirnya
saya ada beberapa minit untuk diri sendiri. Mari kita dengar bagaimana bunyinya.
"I've wanted to record this for weeks, so let's begin. Tonight is calm, the coffee's ready, and at last I have a few minutes to myself. Let's hear how it sounds."
A dialogue to test with
Aisyah: Awak dah sampai? Saya tunggu dari pukul lapan.
Hafiz: Maaf! Jalan sesak sangat tadi.
Aisyah: Tak apa, awak dah ada di sini. Jom pesan?Courses and public information
Malay versions of training and public information are often made alongside English, Chinese and Tamil versions. Keep the same line order in each language's script, so every file lines up. See translating a voiceover.