the dominant dialect and Cantonese, both of which are mainly spoken among the older generation. Teochew, is being replaced by Hokkien, while other Chinese varieties are increasingly less commonly heard nowadays. Written Chinese Traditional Chinese characters were used in Singapore until 1969, when the Ministry of Education promulgated the Table of Simplified Characters (), which while similar to the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme of the People's Republic of China had 40 differences. In 1974 a new Table was published, and this second table was revised in 1976 to remove all differences between simplified Chinese characters in Singapore and China. Although simplified characters are currently used in official documents, the government does not officially discourage or prohibit the use of traditional characters. Hence, traditional characters are still used in signs, advertisements and Chinese calligraphy, while books in both character sets are available in Singapore. Malay language Malay language is the national language of Singapore and one of its official languages. It is written in a Roman script known as Rumi. It is the home language of 13% of the Singaporean population. Malay is also the ceremonial national language and used in the national anthem of Singapore, in citations for Singapore orders and decorations and military foot drill commands, mottos of several organisations, and is the variety taught in Singapore's language education system. Historically Malay was written in the Jawi script, based on Arabic. Under the British and Dutch Malay began to be written in Rumi. Efforts to create a standardised spelling for Malaya and Singapore emerged in 1904 by colonial officer Richard Wilkinson. In 1910, the Malay of the Riau Islands was chosen by the Dutchman van Ophuijsen as the dialect for his book "Malay Grammar", intended for Dutch officials, standardising Rumi usage in Dutch territories. In 1933, grammarian Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad made further changes to Rumi as used in Malaya and Singapore. Many Chinese immigrants who spoke Malay were supporters of British rule, and purposely used Rumi when writing newspapers or translating Chinese literature. Printing presses used by colonial officials and Christian missionaries further spread Rumi, while Jawi was mostly written by hand. The transition to Rumi changed the Malay language due to the influence of English grammar. In 1972, Malaysia and Indonesia reached an agreement to standardise Rumi Malay spelling. Singaporean Malays still learn some Jawi as children alongside Rumi, and Jawi is considered an ethnic script for