Malaysian language subject in primary and secondary schools. Article 152 of the Federation designates Malay as the official language. Between 1986 and 2007, the official term "Bahasa Malaysia" was replaced by ""Bahasa Melayu"". Today, to recognise that Malaysia is composed of many ethnic groups (and not only the ethnic Malays), the term "Bahasa Malaysia" has once again become the government's preferred designation for the ""Bahasa Kebangsaan"" (National Language) and the ""Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu"" (unifying language/lingua franca). The language is sometimes simply referred to as "BM" and often misnomered with the term "Bahasa". English continues, however, to be widely used in professional and commercial
Mixed language it is a matter of controversy whether the concept of a mixed language can meaningfully be distinguished from the contact phenomena of certain languages from the type of contact and borrowing seen in all languages. Scholars debate to what extent language mixture can be distinguished from other mechanisms such as code-switching, substrata, or lexical borrowing. Other terms used in linguistics for the concept of a mixed language include "hybrid language", "contact language", and "fusion language"; in older usage, 'jargon' was sometimes used in this sense. In some linguists' usage, creoles and pidgins are types of mixed languages, whereas in others'