Back Protomalayo Spanish Protomalaijit Finnish Proto-Melayu ID プロト・マレー Japanese 원시 말레이족 Korean Melayu Proto Malay Proto-Malajowie Polish Протомалайцы Russian மலாய மூதாதையர் Tamil Cổ Mã Lai Vietnamese
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| Regions with significant populations | |
| Malay Archipelago: | |
 Indonesia | c. 13,000,000–15,000,000 (2010)[1][2] |
 Malaysia | 65,189 (2010)[3][4] |
 Philippines | no specific census |
| Languages | |
| Malayic languages, Semelaic languages, Philippine languages, Batak languages, Dayak languages, Indonesian language, Malaysian language, Filipino language, English language | |
| Religion | |
| Animism, Islam, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Senoi (Semaq Beri people, Mah Meri people), Orang laut, Malays (ethnic group), Native Indonesians, Malagasy people | |
The term Proto-Malay, primeval Malays, proto-Hesperonesians, first-wave Hesperonesians or primeval Hesperonesians, which translates to Melayu Asli (aboriginal Malay) or Melayu Purba (ancient Malay) or Melayu Tua (old Malay),[5] refers to Austronesian speakers who moved from mainland Asia, to the Malay Peninsula and Malay Archipelago in a long series of migrations between 2500 and 1500 BCE, before that of the Deutero-Malays about a thousand years later.[6] The Proto-Malays are descendants of the first humans living in Southeast Asia, and are "ancestral" for humans in east Asia and the Americas.[7]
The Proto-Malays are believed to have been seafarers knowledgeable in oceanography who possessed advanced fishing as well as basic agricultural skills. Over the years, they settled in various places and adopted various customs and religions as a result of acculturation and inter-marriage with most of the people they come in contact with such as Orang Asli tribes such as the Semang and Senoi peoples.
- ^ Estimation based on the identification made by Ernest-Théodore Hamy, Koentjaraningrat and Alfred Russel Wallace
- ^ Fenneke Sysling (2016). Racial Science and Human Diversity in Colonial Indonesia. NUS Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-98-147-2207-0.
- ^ Kirk Endicott (2015). Malaysia's Original People: Past, Present and Future of the Orang Asli. NUS Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-99-716-9861-4.
- ^ "POPULATION STATISTICS",
- ^ Bani Noor Muchamad (2007). Anatomi rumah bubungan tinggi. Pustaka Banua. p. 2. ISBN 978-97-933-8133-6.
- ^ Neil Joseph Ryan (1976). A History of Malaysia and Singapore. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 4 & 5. ISBN 0-19-580302-7
- ^ "Geneticist clarifies role of Proto-Malays in human origin". Malaysiakini. 24 January 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2020.