Jonathan Kew wrote:
> Actually, it may be. Yes, it is clearly a Malay word (derived from > Sanskrit or Pali or whatever...) meaning "language", but in English it > can be used by itself as a language name. As the Oxford English > Dictionary defines it:[1] > >> Bahasa, n. The variety of Malay used as the national language of the >> Republic of Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia) or of Malaysia (Bahasa >> Malaysia). Much as I am grateful for your support in this, I do think in fairness I should point out that (a) the OED goes on to say "Also ellipt.", and (b) of the 10 citations given, only one uses "Bahasa" in stand-alone mode rather than as a generic term (meaning [the] [national] language [of]) followed by a country name. Thus I suspect that UNESCO were in fact using the word elliptically in the context quoted. Philip Taylor