ialah

ialah is a Malay word used as a copula meaning “is” or “namely.” It serves to identify or define a subject and is commonly found in formal Malay and in traditional Indonesian texts. In everyday speech, Malay speakers often prefer adalah or omit the copula altogether, depending on register and context.

The word typically follows demonstratives or pronouns, and it is especially common after words like ini and itu: for example, Ini ialah buku saya, meaning This is my book. It can also introduce a formal definition or identification: Negara ini ialah negara yang berdaulat. In such sentences, ialah carries a sense of identity or equivalence rather than action, functioning similarly to “is” in English but with a more formal or emphatic tone.

Etymologically, ialah is a fixed native Malayic word, attested in classical Malay and retained in dictionaries and formal writing. Its usage reflects a register difference between formal and everyday Malay; in contemporary Indonesian, the form exists mainly in formal or literary contexts, with adal ah becoming the more common copula in ordinary speech.

Overall, ialah remains a standard option in written Malay for definitional or identificational statements, contrasted with ad алah or with zero-copula constructions in casual contexts. It exemplifies how Malay languages maintain distinct stylistic levels within a single grammatical tool set.