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Indonesian ( ) is the
official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...
and
national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...
of
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
. It is a
standardized Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...
variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, with over 270 million inhabitants—of which the majority speak Indonesian, which makes it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
James Neil Sneddon James Neil Sneddon is an Australian linguist who specializes in Indonesian and languages of Sulawesi. Education He studied Linguistics and Indonesian at the University of Sydney. In 1974, he obtained a doctorate from the Australian National Uni ...
. ''The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society''. UNSW Press, 2004.
Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are fluent in at least one of the more than 700 indigenous local languages; examples include Javanese and Sundanese, which are commonly used at home and within the local community. However, most formal
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
and nearly all national
mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informati ...
,
governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the g ...
,
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
, and
judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
and other forms of communication are conducted in Indonesian. Under Indonesian rule from 1976 to 1999, Indonesian was designated as the official language of
Timor Leste East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-wes ...
. It currently has the status of a
working language A working language (also procedural language) is a language that is given a unique legal status in a supranational company, society, state or other body or organization as its primary means of communication. It is primarily the language of the dai ...
under the country's present constitution along with
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
. The term ''Indonesian'' is primarily associated with the national standard dialect (). However, in a more loose sense, it also encompasses the various local varieties spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Standard Indonesian is confined mostly to formal situations, existing in a diglossic relationship with vernacular Malay varieties, which are commonly used for daily communication, coexisting with the aforementioned regional languages. The Indonesian name for the language () is also occasionally used in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
and other languages. ''Bahasa Indonesia'' is sometimes reduced to ''Bahasa'', which refers to the Indonesian subject (''Bahasa Indonesia'') taught in schools, on the assumption that this is the name of the language. However, the word only means language. For example, ''Korean language'' is translated as . Indonesians generally may not recognize the name ''Bahasa'' alone when referring to their national language.


History


Early kingdoms era

Standard Indonesian is a
standard language A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that include ...
of "Riau Malay", which despite its common name is not based on the vernacular Malay dialects of the
Riau Islands The Riau Islands ( id, Kepulauan Riau) is a province of Indonesia. It comprises a total of 1,796 islands scattered between Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and Borneo including the Riau Archipelago. Situated on one of the world's busiest shipping lan ...
, but rather represents a form of
Classical Malay Malay was first used in the first millennia known as Old Malay, a part of the Austronesian language family. Over a period of two millennia, Malay has undergone various stages of development that derived from different layers of foreign influen ...
as used in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the
Riau-Lingga Sultanate Riau-Lingga Sultanate ( Malay/ Indonesian: کسلطانن رياوليڠݢ, ''Kesultanan Riau-Lingga''), also known as the Lingga-Riau Sultanate, Riau Sultanate or Lingga Sultanate was a Malay sultanate that existed from 1824 to 1911, before ...
. Classical Malay had emerged as a literary language in the royal courts along both shores of the
Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
, including the
Johor Sultanate The Johor Sultanate ( ms, Kesultanan Johor or ; also called the Sultanate of Johor, Johor-Pahang, or the Johor Empire) was founded by Malaccan Sultan Mahmud Shah's son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah II in 1528. Johor was part of the Malaccan ...
and
Malacca Sultanate The Malacca Sultanate ( ms, Kesultanan Melaka; Jawi script: ) was a Malay sultanate based in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks as the founding year of the sultanate by King of Singapura, Parames ...
.Sneddon 2003, ''The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society'', p. 70 Originally spoken in Northeast
Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
, Malay has been used as a
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
in the Indonesian
archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arch ...
for half a millennium. It might be attributed to its
ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from w ...
, the
Old Malay Malay was first used in the first millennia known as Old Malay, a part of the Austronesian language family. Over a period of two millennia, Malay has undergone various stages of development that derived from different layers of foreign influen ...
language (which can be traced back to the 7th century). The
Kedukan Bukit Inscription The Kedukan Bukit inscription is an inscription discovered by the Dutchman C.J. Batenburg on 29 November 1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), on the banks of Tatang River, a tributary of Musi River. It is the ...
and Prasasti Hujung Langit Pallawa script in Old Malay, Kawi script, Old Sumatra variant It is known that the name of the reigning King written on the 7th line is Your Majesty Parameswara Haji Yuwa Rajya Punku Syri Haridewa in Sumatra is the oldest surviving specimen of Old Malay, the language used by
Srivijayan Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...
empire. Since the 7th century, the Old Malay language has been used in
Nusantara (archipelago) ''Nusantara'' is the Indonesian name of Maritime Southeast Asia (or parts of it). It is an Old Javanese term that literally means "outer islands". In Indonesia, it is generally taken to mean the Indonesian Archipelago. Outside of Indonesia ...
(Indonesian archipelago), evidenced by Srivijaya inscriptions and by other inscriptions from
coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
al areas of the archipelago, such as Sojomerto inscription.


Old Malay as ''lingua franca''

Trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exc ...
contacts carried on by various
ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established fo ...
peoples at the time were the main
vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...
for spreading the Old Malay language, which was the main
communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
medium among the traders. Ultimately, the Old Malay language became a
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
and was spoken widely by most people in the archipelago. Indonesian (in its standard form) has essentially the same material basis as the Malaysian standard of Malay and is therefore considered to be a variety of the pluricentric Malay language. However, it does differ from Malaysian Malay in several respects, with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. These differences are due mainly to the Dutch and Javanese influences on Indonesian. Indonesian was also influenced by the (), which was the lingua franca of the archipelago in colonial times, and thus indirectly by other spoken languages of the islands. Malaysian Malay claims to be closer to the classical Malay of earlier centuries, even though modern Malaysian has been heavily influenced, in lexicon as well as in syntax, by English. The question of whether High Malay (Court Malay) or Low Malay (Bazaar Malay) was the true parent of the Indonesian language is still in debate. High Malay was the official language used in the court of the
Johor Sultanate The Johor Sultanate ( ms, Kesultanan Johor or ; also called the Sultanate of Johor, Johor-Pahang, or the Johor Empire) was founded by Malaccan Sultan Mahmud Shah's son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah II in 1528. Johor was part of the Malaccan ...
and continued by the Dutch-administered territory of
Riau-Lingga Riau-Lingga Sultanate ( Malay/ Indonesian: کسلطانن رياوليڠݢ, ''Kesultanan Riau-Lingga''), also known as the Lingga-Riau Sultanate, Riau Sultanate or Lingga Sultanate was a Malay sultanate that existed from 1824 to 1911, befor ...
, while Low Malay was commonly used in marketplaces and ports of the archipelago. Some linguists have argued that it was the more common Low Malay that formed the base of the Indonesian language.


The colonial era and birth of the Indonesian language

When the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
(VOC) first arrived in the archipelago at the start of the 1600s, the Malay language was a significant trading and political language due to the influence of
Malaccan Sultanate The Malacca Sultanate ( ms, Kesultanan Melaka; Jawi script: ) was a Malay sultanate based in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks as the founding year of the sultanate by King of Singapura, Paramesw ...
and later the
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
. However, the language had never been dominant among the population of the Indonesian archipelago as it was limited to mercantile activity. The VOC adopted the Malay language as the administrative language of their trading outpost in the east. Following the
bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...
of the VOC, the
Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bon ...
took control of the colony in 1799, and it was only then that education in and promotion of Dutch began in the
colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...
. Even then, Dutch administrators were remarkably reluctant to promote the use of Dutch compared to other colonial regimes. Dutch thus remained the language of a small elite: in 1940, only 2% of the total population could speak Dutch. Nevertheless, it did have a significant influence on the development of Malay in the colony: during the colonial era, the language that would be standardized as Indonesian absorbed a large amount of Dutch vocabulary in the form of
loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
. The
nationalist movement The Nationalist Movement is a Mississippi-founded white nationalist organization with headquarters in Georgia that advocates what it calls a "pro-majority" position. It has been called white supremacist by the Associated Press and Anti-Defamati ...
that ultimately brought Indonesian to its national language status rejected
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
from the outset. However, the rapid disappearance of Dutch was a very unusual case compared with other colonized countries, where the colonial language generally has continued to function as the language of politics,
bureaucracy The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
, education,
technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...
, and other fields of importance for a significant time after independence. The Indonesian scholar even goes so far as to say that when compared to the situation in other Asian countries such as India, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, "Indonesian is perhaps the only language that has achieved the status of a national language in its true sense" since it truly dominates in all spheres of Indonesian society. The ease with which Indonesia eliminated the language of its former colonial power can perhaps be explained as much by Dutch
policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...
as by Indonesian nationalism. In marked contrast to the
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and Portuguese, who pursued an
assimilation Assimilation may refer to: Culture * Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs ** Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the prog ...
colonial policy, or even the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
, the Dutch did not attempt to spread their language among the indigenous population. In fact, they consciously prevented the language from being spread by refusing to provide education, especially in Dutch, to the native Indonesians so they would not come to see themselves as equals. Moreover, the Dutch wished to prevent the Indonesians from elevating their perceived social status by taking on elements of Dutch culture. Thus, until the 1930s, they maintained a minimalist regime and allowed Malay to spread quickly throughout the archipelago. Dutch dominance at that time covered nearly all aspects, with official forums requiring the use of Dutch, although since the Second Youth Congress (1928) the use of Indonesian as the national language was agreed on as one of the tools in the independence struggle. As of it,
Mohammad Hoesni Thamrin Mohammad Husni Thamrin (16 February 1894 – 11 January 1941) was a pre-independence Indonesian political thinker and nationalist who after his death was named a National Hero. Early life and beginning of political career Thamrin was born ...
inveighed actions underestimating Indonesian. After some criticism and protests, the use of Indonesian was allowed since the ''Volksraad'' sessions held in July 1938. By the time they tried to counter the spread of Malay by teaching Dutch to the natives, it was too late, and in 1942, the Japanese conquered Indonesia. The Japanese mandated that all official business be conducted in Indonesian and quickly outlawed the use of the Dutch language. Three years later, the Indonesians themselves formally abolished the language and established ''bahasa Indonesia'' as the national language of the new nation. The term ''bahasa Indonesia'' itself had been proposed by
Mohammad Tabrani Mohammad Tabrani Soerjowitjitro (10 October 1904 – 12 January 1984) was an Indonesian journalist and politician. He originated from the island of Madura and received journalistic education in Europe. In his early journalistic career, Tabrani was ...
in 1926, and Tabrani had further proposed the term over calling the language
Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines an ...
during the First Youth Congress in 1926. Several years prior to the congress, Swiss linguist,
Renward Brandstetter Renward Brandstetter (29 June 1860 – 17 April 1942) was a Swiss philologist and linguist who published about medieval and modern Swiss dialects language and the older Swiss theatre history and studied the insular Malayo-Polynesian languages (now ...
wrote ''
An Introduction to Indonesian Linguistics An, AN, aN, or an may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Airlinair (IATA airline code AN) * Alleanza Nazionale, a former political party in Italy * AnimeNEXT, an annual anime convention located in New Jersey * Anime North, a Canadian an ...
'' in 4 essays from 1910 to 1915. The essays were translated into English in 1916. By "Indonesia", he meant the name of the geographical region, and by "Indonesian languages" he meant languages in the region, because by that time there was still no notion of Indonesian language.
Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana (11 February 1908 – 17 July 1994) was an Indonesian author. He was born in Natal, North Sumatra. His family came from Minangkabau who migrated there in the 19th century. He was a founder and editor of ''Poedjang ...
was a great promoter of the use and development of Indonesian and he was greatly exaggerating the decline of Dutch. Higher education was still in Dutch and many educated Indonesians were writing and speaking in Dutch in many situations (and were still doing so well after independence was achieved). He believed passionately in the need to develop Indonesian so that it could take its place as a fully adequate national language, able to replace Dutch as a means of entry into modern international culture. In 1933, he began the magazine ''Pujangga Baru'' (New Writer — ''Poedjangga Baroe'' in the original spelling) with co-editors Amir Hamzah and Armijn Pane. The language of Pujangga Baru came in for criticism from those associated with the more classical School Malay and it was accused of publishing Dutch written with an Indonesian vocabulary. Alisjahbana would no doubt have taken the criticism as a demonstration of his success. To him the language of Pujangga Baru pointed the way to the future, to an elaborated, Westernised language able to express all the concepts of the modern world. As an example, among the many innovations they condemned was use of the word ''bisa'' instead of ''dapat'' for ‘can’. In Malay ''bisa'' meant only ‘poison from an animal's bite’ and the increasing use of Javanese ''bisa'' in the new meaning they regarded as one of the many threats to the language's purity. Unlike more traditional intellectuals, he did not look to Classical Malay and the past. For him, Indonesian was a new concept; a new beginning was needed and he looked to Western civilisation, with its dynamic society of individuals freed from traditional fetters, as his inspiration. The prohibition on use of Dutch led to an expansion of Indonesian language newspapers and pressure on them to increase the language's wordstock. The Japanese agreed to the establishment of the Komisi Bahasa (Language Commission) in October 1942, formally headed by three Japanese but with a number of prominent Indonesian intellectuals playing the major part in its activities. Soewandi, later to be Minister of Education and Culture, was appointed secretary, Alisjahbana was appointed an ‘expert secretary’ and other members included the future president and vice-president, Sukarno and Hatta. Journalists, beginning a practice that has continued to the present, did not wait for the ''Komisi Bahasa'' to provide new words, but actively participated themselves in coining terms. Many of the Komisi Bahasa's terms never found public acceptance and after the Japanese period were replaced by the original Dutch forms, including ''jantera'' (Sanskrit for ‘wheel’), which temporarily replaced ''mesin'' (machine), ''ketua negara'' (literally ‘chairman of state’), which had replaced ''presiden'' (president) and ''kilang'' (meaning ‘mill’), which had replaced ''pabrik'' (factory). In a few cases, however, coinings permanently replaced earlier Dutch terms, including ''pajak'' (earlier meaning ‘monopoly’) instead of ''belasting'' (tax) and ''senam'' (meaning ‘exercise’) instead of ''gimnastik'' (gymnastics). The Komisi Bahasa is said to have coined more than 7000 terms, although few of these gained common acceptance.


Adoption as national language

The adoption of Indonesian as the country's national language was in contrast to most other post-colonial states. Neither the language with the most native speakers (Javanese) nor the language of the former European colonial power (Dutch) was to be adopted. Instead, a local language with far fewer native speakers than the most widely spoken local language was chosen (nevertheless, Malay was the second most widely spoken language in the colony after Javanese, and had many L2 speakers using it for trade, administration, and education). In 1945, when Indonesia declared its independence, Indonesian was formally declared the national language, despite being the native language of only about 5% of the population. In contrast, Javanese and Sundanese were the mother tongues of 42–48% and 15% respectively. The combination of
nationalistic Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: T ...
,
political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...
, and
practical Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action (philosophy), action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, ...
concerns ultimately led to the successful adoption of Indonesian as a national language. In 1945, Javanese was easily the most prominent language in Indonesia. It was the native language of nearly half the population, the primary language of politics and
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...
, and the language of
court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...
ly,
religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
, and literary tradition. What it lacked, however, was the ability to unite the diverse Indonesian population as a whole. With thousands of islands and hundreds of different languages, the newly independent country of Indonesia had to find a national language that could realistically be spoken by the majority of the population and that would not divide the nation by favouring one ethnic group, namely the Javanese, over the others. In 1945, Indonesian was already in widespread use; in fact, it had been for roughly a thousand years. Over that long period, Malay, which would later become standardized as Indonesian, was the primary language of
commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, natio ...
and
travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...
. It was also the language used for the propagation of
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
in the 13th to 17th centuries, as well as the language of instruction used by Portuguese and Dutch missionaries attempting to convert the indigenous people to
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
. The combination of these factors meant that the language was already known to some degree by most of the population, and it could be more easily adopted as the national language than perhaps any other. Moreover, it was the language of the sultanate of
Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by th ...
and of future
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...
, on which some Indonesian nationalists had claims. Over the first 53 years of
Indonesian independence The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence ( id, Proklamasi Kemerdekaan Indonesia, or simply ''Proklamasi'') was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of th ...
, the country's first two presidents,
Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...
and
Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto l ...
constantly nurtured the sense of national unity embodied by Indonesian, and the language remains an essential component of Indonesian identity. Through a language planning program that made Indonesian the language of
politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
,
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
, and nation-building in general, Indonesian became one of the few success stories of an
indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples. This language is from a linguistically distinct community that originated in the area. Indigenous languages are not neces ...
effectively overtaking that of a country's colonisers to become the ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legall ...
'' and ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...
'' official language. Today, Indonesian continues to function as the language of
national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...
as the Congress of Indonesian Youth envisioned, and also serves as the language of education,
literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in Writing, written form in some specific context of use. In other wo ...
,
modernization Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
, and
social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...
. Despite still being a second language to most Indonesians, it is unquestionably the language of the Indonesian nation as a whole, as it has had unrivalled success as a factor in nation-building and the strengthening of Indonesian identity.


Modern and colloquial Indonesian

Indonesian is spoken as a
mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tong ...
and national language. Over 200 million people regularly make use of the national language, with varying degrees of proficiency. In a nation that is home to more than 700 native languages and a vast array of ethnic groups, it plays an important unifying and cross-archipelagic role for the country. Use of the national language is abundant in the media,
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
bodies,
school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes co ...
s,
universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...
,
workplace A workplace is a location where someone works, for their employer or themselves, a place of employment. Such a place can range from a home office to a large office building or factory. For industrialized societies, the workplace is one of ...
s, among members of the upper-class or nobility and also in formal situations, despite the 2010 census showing only 19.94% of over-five-year-olds speak mainly Indonesian at home. Standard Indonesian is used in books and newspapers and on television/radio news broadcasts. The standard dialect, however, is rarely used in daily conversations, being confined mostly to formal settings. While this is a phenomenon common to most languages in the world (for example, spoken English does not always correspond to its written standards), the proximity of spoken Indonesian (in terms of grammar and vocabulary) to its normative form is noticeably low. This is mostly due to Indonesians combining aspects of their own local languages (e.g., Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese) with Indonesian. This results in various vernacular varieties of Indonesian, the very types that a foreigner is most likely to hear upon arriving in any Indonesian city or town. This phenomenon is amplified by the use of
Indonesian slang Indonesian slang ( id, bahasa gaul, bew, basa gaul), or informal Indonesian language ( id, bahasa informal, bahasa sehari-hari) is a term that subsumes various vernacular and non-standard styles of expression used throughout Indonesia that are n ...
, particularly in the cities. Unlike the relatively uniform standard variety, Vernacular Indonesian exhibits a high degree of geographical variation, though Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian functions as the ''de facto'' norm of informal language and is a popular source of influence throughout the archipelago. The most common and widely used colloquial Indonesian is heavily influenced by the
Betawi language Betawi, also known as Betawi Malay, Jakartan Malay, or Batavian Malay is the spoken language of the Betawi people in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the native language of perhaps 5 million people; a precise number is difficult to determine due to ...
, a Malay-based creole of
Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...
, amplified by its popularity in Indonesian popular culture in mass media and Jakarta's status as the national capital. In informal spoken Indonesian, various words are replaced with those of a less formal nature. For example, (no) is often replaced with the Betawi form or the even simpler , while (like, similar to) is often replaced with . or (very), the term to express intensity, is often being replaced with the Javanese-influenced . As for pronunciation, the diphthongs ''ai'' and ''au'' on the end of base words are typically pronounced as and . In informal writing, the spelling of words is modified to reflect the actual pronunciation in a way that can be produced with less effort. For example, becomes or , becomes , becomes . In verbs, the prefix ''me-'' is often dropped, although an initial nasal consonant is often retained, as when becomes (the basic word is ). The suffixes ''-kan'' and ''-i'' are often replaced by ''-in''. For example, becomes , becomes . The latter grammatical aspect is one often closely related to the Indonesian spoken in Jakarta and its surrounding areas.


Classification and related languages

Malay historical linguists agree on the likelihood of the Malay homeland being in western
Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and e ...
stretching to the
Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by th ...
an coast. A form known as Proto-Malay language was spoken in Borneo at least by 1000 BCE and was, it has been argued, the ancestral language of all subsequent
Malayan languages The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay, which is the national language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia; it further serves as basis for Ind ...
. Its ancestor,
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austrones ...
, a descendant of the
Proto-Austronesian language Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...
, began to break up by at least 2000 BCE, possibly as a result of the southward expansion of
Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Au ...
into
Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...
from the island of
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
. Indonesian, which originated from Malay, is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, which includes languages from
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
, the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...
and
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...
, with a smaller number in continental
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
. It has a degree of
mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as ...
with the Malaysian standard of Malay, which is officially known there as , despite the numerous lexical differences. However, vernacular varieties spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia share limited intelligibility, which is evidenced by the fact that Malaysians have difficulties understanding Indonesian sinetron (soap opera) aired on Malaysia TV stations, and vice versa. Malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...
in the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
; the Philippines national language, Filipino; Formosan in Taiwan's aboriginal population; and the native
Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...
of New Zealand are also members of this language family. Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking. Many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common ancestor,
Proto-Austronesian language Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...
. There are many
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
s found in the languages' words for kinship, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities. There are more than 700 local languages in Indonesian islands, such as Javanese, Sundanese, etc. While, Malay as the source of Indonesian is mother tongue of ethnic Malay who lives along east coast of Sumatra, in Riau Archipelago, south and west coast of Kalimantan (Borneo). There are several areas, such as Jakarta, Manado, Lesser Sunda islands, and Mollucas which has Malay-based trade languages. Thus, a large proportion of Indonesian, at least, use two language daily, those are Indonesian and local languages. When two languages are used by the same people in this way, they are likely to influence each other. Beside from local languages,
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
made the highest contribution to the Indonesian vocabulary, due to the Dutch's
colonization Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
for over three centuries, from the 16th century until the mid-20th century.
Asian languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tu ...
also influenced the language, with Chinese influencing Indonesian during the 15th and 16th centuries due to the spice trade;
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...
,
Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
and
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
contributing during the flourishing of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms from the 2nd to the 14th century; followed by
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
after the
spread of Islam The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territorie ...
in the archipelago in the 13th century. Loanwords from
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
were mainly connected with articles that the early European traders and explorers brought to Southeast Asia. Indonesian also receives many
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
words as a result of
globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
and
modernization Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
, especially since the 1990s, as far as the Internet's emergence and development until the present day. Some Indonesian words correspond to Malay loanwords in English, among them the common words ''orangutan'', ''gong'', ''bamboo'', ''rattan'', ''sarong'', and the less common words such as ''paddy'', ''sago'' and ''kapok'', all of which were inherited in Indonesian from Malay but borrowed from Malay in English. The phrase "to run amok" comes from the Malay verb (to run out of control, to rage). Indonesian is neither a
pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
nor a creole since its characteristics do not meet any of the criteria for either. It is believed that the Indonesian language was one of the means to achieve independence, but it is opened to receive vocabulary from other foreign languages aside from Malay that it has made contact with since the colonialism era, such as
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
among others, as the
loan words A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
keep increasing each year.


Geographical distribution

In 2010, Indonesian had 42.8 million
native speaker Native Speaker may refer to: * ''Native Speaker'' (novel), a 1995 novel by Chang-Rae Lee * ''Native Speaker'' (album), a 2011 album by Canadian band Braids * Native speaker, a person using their first language or mother tongue {{disambigua ...
s and 154.9 million
second-language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
speakers, who speak it alongside their local mother tongue, giving a total number of speakers in Indonesia of 197.7 million. It is common as a first language in urban areas, and as a second language by those residing in more rural parts of Indonesia. The VOA and BBC use Indonesian as their standard for broadcasting in Malay. In
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, Indonesian is one of three Asian target languages, together with
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
and Mandarin, taught in some schools as part of the Languages Other Than English programme. Indonesian has been taught in Australian schools and universities since the 1950s. In
East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-w ...
, which was occupied by Indonesia between 1975 and 1999, Indonesian is recognized by the constitution as one of the two working languages (the other being
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
), alongside the official languages of
Tetum , nativename=Tetun , states= Indonesia East Timor , speakers=, mostly in Indonesia , date=2010–2011 , ref=e18 , speakers2=50,000 L2-speakers in Indonesia and East Timor , familycolor=Austronesian , fam2=Malayo-Polynesian , fam3= Central–East ...
and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
. It is understood by the Malay people of Australia's
Cocos Keeling Islands ) , anthem = "''Advance Australia Fair''" , song_type = , song = , image_map = Australia on the globe (Cocos (Keeling) Islands special) (Southeast Asia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands , map_caption = ...
in the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
, also in some parts of the Sulu area of the southern
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
and traces of it are to be found among people of Malay descent in
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
,
Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the nor ...
, and other places.


Indonesian as a foreign language

Indonesian is taught as a foreign language in schools, universities and institutions around the world, especially in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
, Timor Leste,
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...
,
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, and
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
.


Official status

Indonesian is the
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
of
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
, and its use is encouraged throughout the Indonesian archipelago. It is regulated in Chapter XV, 1945 Constitution of Indonesia about the flag, official language, coat of arms, and national anthem of Indonesia. Also, in Chapter III, Section 25 to 45, Government regulation No. 24/ 2009 mentions explicitly the status of the Indonesian language. Indonesian functions as a symbol of national identity and pride, and is a ''lingua franca'' among the diverse
ethnic groups in Indonesia There are 1,340 recognised ethnic groups in Indonesia. The vast majority of those belong to the Austronesian peoples. Based on ethnic classification, the largest ethnic group in Indonesia is the Javanese who make up about 40% of the total pop ...
. The language serves as the national and official language, the language of education, communication, transaction and trade documentation, the development of national culture, science, technology, and mass media. It also serves as a vehicle of communication among the provinces and different regional cultures in the country. According to Indonesian law, the Indonesian language was proclaimed as the unifying language during the
Youth Pledge The Youth Pledge ( id, Sumpah Pemuda) was a declaration made on 28 October 1928 by young Indonesian nationalists in the Second Youth Congress (). They proclaimed three ideas: one motherland, one nation and one language.Ricklefs (1982) p177 Backg ...
on 28 October 1928 and developed further to accommodate the dynamics of Indonesian civilization. As mentioned previously, the language was based on Riau Malay, though linguists note that this is not the local dialect of Riau, but the Malaccan dialect that was used in the Riau court. Since its conception in 1928 and its official recognition in the 1945 Constitution, the Indonesian language has been loaded with a nationalist political agenda to unify Indonesia (former
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...
). This status has made it relatively open to accommodate influences from other Indonesian ethnic languages, most notably Javanese as the majority ethnic group, and
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
as the previous coloniser. Compared to the indigenous dialects of Malay spoken in Sumatra and Malay peninsula or the normative Malaysian standard, the Indonesian language differs profoundly by a large amount of Javanese loanwords incorporated into its already-rich vocabulary. As a result, Indonesian has more extensive sources of
loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
, compared to Malaysian Malay. It is sometimes said that the Indonesian language is an artificial language, meaning that it was designed by academics rather than evolving naturally as most common languages have, in order to accommodate the political purpose of establishing an official and unifying language of Indonesia. By borrowing heavily from numerous other languages, it expresses a natural linguistic evolution; in fact, it is as natural as the next language, as demonstrated in its exceptional capacity for absorbing foreign vocabulary. The disparate evolution of Indonesian and Malaysian has led to a rift between the two standardized varieties. This has been based more upon political nuance and the history of their standardization than cultural reasons, and as a result, there are asymmetrical views regarding each other's variety among Malaysians and Indonesians. Malaysians tend to assert that Malaysian and Indonesian are merely different normative varieties of the same language, while Indonesians tend to treat them as separate, albeit closely related, languages. Consequently, Indonesians feel little need to harmonise their language with Malaysia and Brunei, whereas Malaysians are keener to coordinate the evolution of the language with Indonesians, although the 1972 Indonesian alphabet reform was seen mainly as a concession of Dutch-based Indonesian to the English-based spelling of Malaysian.


Phonology


Vowels

It is usually said that there are six vowels in Indonesian. These six vowels are shown in the table below. However, other analyses set up a system with other vowels, particularly the open-mid vowels and . In standard Indonesian orthography, the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
is used, and five vowels are distinguished: ''a, i, u, e, o''. In materials for learners, the mid-front vowel /e/ is sometimes represented with a diacritic as ⟨é⟩ to distinguish it from the mid-central vowel ⟨ê⟩ /ə/. Indonesian has distinguished ⟨é⟩ [] and ⟨è⟩ [] since 2015, while Standard Malay has rendered both of them as ⟨é⟩. Poedjosoedarmo argued the split of the front mid vowels in Indonesian is due to Javanese influence which exhibits a difference between ⟨i⟩ [], ⟨é⟩ [] and è []. Another example of Javanese influence in Indonesian is the split of back mid vowels into two allophones of [] and []. These splits (and loanwords) increase instances of Doublet (linguistics), doublets in Indonesian, such as ⟨''satai''⟩ and ⟨''saté''⟩. Javanese words adopted into Indonesian have greatly increased the frequency of Indonesian ⟨é⟩ and ⟨o⟩. High vowels (⟨i⟩, ⟨u⟩) could not appear in a final syllable in traditional Malay if a mid-vowel (⟨e⟩, ⟨o⟩) happened in the previous syllable, and mid-vowels could not occur in the final syllable if a high vowel was present in the second-to-last syllable. Traditional Malay does not allow the mid-central schwa vowel to occur in consonant open or closed word-final syllables. The schwa vowel was introduced in closed syllables under the influence of Javanese and Jakarta Malay, but Dutch borrowings made it more acceptable. Although Alisjahbana argued against it, insisting on writing ⟨a⟩ instead of an ⟨ê⟩ in final syllables such as ''koda'' (vs ''kodə'' 'code') and nasionalisma (vs ''nasionalismə'' 'nationalism'), he was unsuccessful. This spelling convention was instead survived in Balinese orthography.


Diphthongs

Indonesian has four
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
phonemes only in open syllables. They are: * : ''kedai'' ('shop'), ''pandai'' ('clever') * : ''kerbau'' ('buffalo'), ''limau'' ('lime') * (or in Indonesian): ''amboi'' ('wow')'', toilet'' ('toilet') * : ''survei'' ('survey'), ''geiser'' ('geyser') Some analyses assume that these diphthongs are actually a monophthong followed by an approximant, so represents , represents , and represents . On this basis, there are no phonological diphthongs in Indonesian. Diphthongs are differentiated from two vowels in two syllables, such as: * : e.g. ''lain'' ('other') , ''air'' ('water') * : ''bau'' ('smell') , ''laut'' ('sea')


Consonants

The consonants of Indonesian are shown above. Non-native consonants that only occur in borrowed words, principally from Arabic and English, are shown in parentheses. Some analyses list 19 "primary consonants" for Indonesian as the 18 symbols that are not in parentheses in the table as well as the glottal stop . The secondary consonants /f/, /v/, /z/, /ʃ/ and /x/ only appear in loanwords. Some speakers pronounce /v/ in loanwords as otherwise it is Likewise /x/ may be replaced with or by some speakers. /ʃ/ is sometimes replaced with /s/, which was traditionally used as a substitute for /ʃ/ in older borrowings from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
, and /f/ is rarely replaced though /p/ was substituted for /f/ in older borrowings such as kopi "coffee" from
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
koffie. /z/ may occasionally be replaced with /s/ or /d͡ʒ/. can also be an allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants. The consonants in Indonesian is influenced by other important language in Indonesian history. The influences included schwa in final closed syllable (e.g. Indonesian pəcəl vs Malay pəcal), initial homorganic nasal stop clusters of ⟨mb⟩, ⟨nd⟩, and ⟨nj⟩ (e.g. Indonesian ''mbolos'' 'to malinger'), the consonant-semivowel clusters (e.g. Indonesian ''pria'' vs Malay ''pəria'' 'male'), introduction of consonant clusters ⟨-ry-⟩ and ⟨-ly-⟩ (e.g. Indonesian ''gərilya'' vs Malay ''gərila'' 'guerrilla'), increase usage of initial ⟨w-⟩ (e.g. ''warta'' and ''bərita'' 'news') and intervocalic ⟨w-⟩, and increase of initial and post-consonant ⟨y⟩ These changes are influence of local languages in Indonesia, such as Balinese, Madurese, Sundanese and especially Javanese, and foreign languages such as Arabic and Dutch. Orthographic note: The sounds are represented orthographically by their symbols as above, except: * is written before a vowel, before and . * is written . * The glottal stop is written as a final , an apostrophe (the use from its being an allophone of /k/ or /ɡ/ in the syllable coda), or it can be unwritten. * is written . * is written . * is written . * is written . * is written .


Stress

Indonesian has light
stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
that falls on either the final or penultimate syllable, depending on regional variations as well as the presence of the schwa () in a word. It is generally the penultimate syllable that is stressed, unless its vowel is a schwa . If the penult has a schwa, then stress moves to the ante-penultimate syllable if there is one, even if that syllable has a schwa as well; if the word is disyllabic, the stress is final. In disyllabic stress with a closed penultimate syllable, such as ''tinggal'' ('stay') and ''rantai'' ('chain'), stress falls on the penult. However, there is some disagreement among linguists over whether stress is phonemic (unpredictable), with some analyses suggesting that there is no underlying stress in Indonesian.


Rhythm

The classification of languages based on rhythm can be problematic. Nevertheless, acoustic measurements suggest that Indonesian has more syllable-based rhythm than British English, even though doubts remain about whether the syllable is the appropriate unit for the study of Malay prosody.


Grammar

Word order in Indonesian is generally subject-verb-object (SVO), similar to that of most modern
European languages Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Ro ...
, such as English. However considerable flexibility in word ordering exists, in contrast with languages such as
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
or
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
, for instance, which always end clauses with verbs. Indonesian, while allowing for relatively flexible word orderings, does not mark for
grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
, nor does it make use of
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
.


Affixes

Indonesian words are composed of a root or a root plus derivational affixes. The root is the primary lexical unit of a word and is usually bisyllabic, of the shape CV(C)CV(C). Affixes are "glued" onto roots (which are either nouns or verbs) to alter or expand the primary meaning associated with a given root, effectively generating new words, for example, ''masak'' (to cook) may become ''memasak'' (cooking), ''memasakkan'' (cooks for), ''dimasak'' (is cooked), ''pemasak'' (a cook), ''masakan'' (a meal, cookery), ''termasak'' (accidentally cooked). There are four types of affixes:
prefixes A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particula ...
(''awalan''),
suffixes In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry g ...
(''akhiran''), circumfixes (''apitan'') and infixes (''sisipan''). Affixes are categorized into noun, verb, and adjective affixes. Many initial consonants alternate in the presence of prefixes: ''sapu'' (to sweep) becomes ''menyapu'' (sweeps/sweeping); ''panggil'' (to call) becomes ''memanggil'' (calls/calling), ''tapis'' (to sieve) becomes ''menapis'' (sieves). Other examples of the use of
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...
es to change the meaning of a word can be seen with the word ''ajar'' (to teach): * ''ajar'' = to teach *''ajari'' = to teach (imperative, locative) *''ajarilah'' = to teach (jussive, locative) *''ajarkan'' = to teach (imperative, causative/applicative) *''ajarkanlah'' = to teach (jussive, causative/applicative) *''ajarlah'' = to teach (jussive, active) * ''ajaran'' = teachings * ''belajar'' = to learn (
intransitive In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs ar ...
, active) * ''diajar'' = to be taught (intransitive, active) *''diajari'' = to be taught (transitive, locative) *''diajarkan'' = to be taught (transitive, causative/applicative) *''dipelajari'' = to be studied (locative) * ''dipelajarkan'' = to be studied (causative/applicative) * ''mempelajari'' = to study (locative) *''mempelajarkan'' = to study (causative/applicative) *''mengajar'' = to teach (
intransitive In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs ar ...
, active) * ''mengajarkan'' = to teach ( transitive, casuative/applicative) *''mengajari'' = to teach ( transitive, locative) * ''pelajar'' = student *''pelajari'' = to study (imperative, locative) *''pelajarilah'' = to study (jussive, locative) *''pelajarkan'' = to study (imperative, causative/applicative) *''pelajarkanlah'' = to study (jussive, causative/applicative) * ''pengajar'' = teacher, someone who teaches * ''pelajaran'' = subject, education *''pelajari'' = to study (jussive, locative) *''pelajarkan'' = to study (jussive, causative/applicative) * ''pengajaran'' = lesson * ''pembelajaran'' = learning * ''terajar'' = to be taught (accidentally) *''terajari'' = to be taught (accidentally, locative) *''terajarkan'' = to be taught (accidentally, causative/applicative) * ''terpelajar'' = well-educated, literally "been taught" *''terpelajari'' = been taught (locative) *''terpelajarkan'' = been taught (causative/applicative) * ''berpelajaran'' = is educated, literally "has education"


Noun affixes

Noun affixes are affixes that form nouns upon addition to root words. The following are examples of noun affixes: The prefix ''per-'' drops its ''r'' before ''r, l'' and frequently before ''p, t, k.'' In some words it is ''peng-''; though formally distinct, these are treated as variants of the same prefix in Indonesian grammar books.


Verb affixes

Similarly, verb affixes in Indonesian are attached to root words to form verbs. In Indonesian, there are:


Adjective affixes

Adjective affixes are attached to root words to form adjectives: In addition to these affixes, Indonesian also has a lot of borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and English. For example, ''maha-'', ''pasca-'', ''eka-'', ''bi-'', ''anti-'', ''pro-'' etc.


Nouns

Common derivational affixes for nouns are peng-/per-/juru- (actor, instrument, or someone characterized by the root), -an (collectivity, similarity, object, place, instrument), ke-...-an (abstractions and qualities, collectivities), per-/peng-...-an (abstraction, place, goal or result).


Gender

Indonesian does not make use of
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
, and there are only selected words that use natural
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
. For instance, the same word is used for ''he/him'' and ''she/her'' ( or ) or for ''his'' and ''her'' (, or ). No real distinction is made between "girlfriend" and "boyfriend", both (although more colloquial terms as girl/girlfriend and boy/boyfriend can also be found). A majority of Indonesian words that refer to people generally have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes. However, unlike English, distinction is made between older or younger. There are some words that have gender: for instance, means "daughter" while means "son"; means "male flight attendant" while means "female flight attendant". Another example is , which means "sportsman", versus , meaning "sportswoman". Often, words like these (or certain suffixes such as "-a" and "-i" or "-wan" and "wati") are absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
through the Old Javanese language). In some regions of Indonesia such as Sumatra and Jakarta, (a gender-specific term meaning "older brother") is commonly used as a form of address for older siblings/males, while (a non-gender specific term meaning "older sibling") is often used to mean "older sister". Similarly, more direct influences from other languages, such as Javanese and Chinese, have also seen further use of other gendered words in Indonesian. For example: ("older brother"), ("older sister"), ("older brother") and ("older sister").


Number

Indonesian grammar does not regularly mark
plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
s. In Indonesian, to change a singular into a plural one either repeats the word or adds ''para'' before it (the latter for living things only); for example, "students" can be either or . Plurals are rarely used in Indonesian, especially in informal parlance. Reduplication is often mentioned as the formal way to express the plural form of nouns in Indonesian; however, in informal daily discourse, speakers of Indonesian usually use other methods to indicate the concept of something being "more than one". Reduplication may also indicate the conditions of variety and diversity as well, and not simply plurality.
Reduplication In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwa ...
is commonly used to emphasise plurality; however, reduplication has many other functions. For example, ''orang-orang'' means "(all the) people", but ''orang-orangan'' means "scarecrow". Similarly, while ''hati'' means "heart" or "liver", ''hati-hati'' is a verb meaning "to be careful". Also, not all reduplicated words are inherently plural, such as ''orang-orangan'' "scarecrow/scarecrows", ''biri-biri'' "a/some sheep" and ''kupu-kupu'' "butterfly/butterflies". Some reduplication is rhyming rather than exact, as in ''sayur-mayur'' "(all sorts of) vegetables". Distributive affixes derive mass nouns that are effectively plural: ''pohon'' "tree", ''pepohonan'' "flora, trees"; ''rumah'' "house", ''perumahan'' "housing, houses"; ''gunung'' "mountain", ''pegunungan'' "mountain range, mountains". Quantity words come before the noun: ''seribu orang'' "a thousand people", ''beberapa pegunungan'' "a series of mountain ranges", ''beberapa kupu-kupu'' "some butterflies". Plural in Indonesian serves just to explicitly mention the number of objects in sentence. For example, ''Ani membeli satu kilo mangga'' (Ani buys one kilogram of mangoes). In this case, "mangoes", which is plural, is not said as ''mangga-mangga'' because the plurality is implicit: the amount a kilogram means more than one mango. So, as it is logically, one does not change the singular into the plural form, because it is not necessary and considered a
pleonasm Pleonasm (; , ) is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as "black darkness" or "burning fire". It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria and might be considered a fault of style. Pleonasm may also be used for em ...
(in Indonesian often called ''pemborosan kata'').


Pronouns

Personal pronouns are not a separate part of speech, but a subset of nouns. They are frequently omitted, and there are numerous ways to say "you". Commonly the person's name, title, title with name, or occupation is used ("does Johnny want to go?", "would Madam like to go?"); kin terms, including
fictive kinship Fictive kinship is a term used by anthropologists and ethnographers to describe forms of kinship or social ties that are based on neither consanguineal (blood ties) nor affinal ("by marriage") ties. It contrasts with ''true kinship'' ties. T ...
, are extremely common. However, there are also dedicated personal pronouns, as well as the demonstrative pronouns ''ini'' "this, the" and ''itu'' "that, the".


Personal pronouns

From the perspective of a European language, Indonesian boasts a wide range of different pronouns, especially to refer to the addressee (the so-called second person pronouns). These are used to differentiate several parameters of the person they are referred to, such as the social rank and the relationship between the addressee and the speaker. Indonesian also exhibits
pronoun avoidance Pronoun avoidance is the use of kinship terms, titles and other complex nominal expressions instead of personal pronouns in speech.Johannes Helmbrecht. 2013. Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns. In: Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The ...
, often preferring kinship terms and titles over pronouns, particularly for respectful forms of address. The table below provides an overview of the most commonly and widely used pronouns in the Indonesian language: * First person pronouns Notable among the personal-pronoun system is a distinction between two forms of "we": ''kita'' (you and me, you and us) and ''kami'' (us, but not you). The distinction is not always followed in colloquial Indonesian. ''Saya'' and ''aku'' are the two major forms of "I". ''Saya'' is the more formal form, whereas ''aku'' is used with family, friends, and between lovers. ''Sahaya'' is an old or literary form of ''saya''. ''Sa(ha)ya'' may also be used for "we", but in such cases it is usually used with ''sekalian'' or ''semua'' "all"; this form is ambiguous as to whether it corresponds with inclusive ''kami'' or exclusive ''kita''. Less common are ''hamba'' "slave", ''hamba tuan, hamba datuk'' (all extremely humble), ''beta'' (a royal addressing oneselves), ''patik'' (a commoner addressing a royal), ''kami'' (royal or editorial "we"), ''kita'', ''təman'', and ''kawan.'' * Second person pronouns There are three common forms of "you", ''Anda'' (polite), ''kamu'' (familiar), and ''kalian'' "all" (commonly used as a plural form of you, slightly informal). ''Anda'' is used with strangers, recent acquaintances, in advertisements, in business, and when you wish to show distance, while ''kamu'' is used in situations where the speaker would use ''aku'' for "I". ''Anda sekalian'' is polite plural. Particularly in conversation, respectful titles like ''Bapak/Pak'' "father" (used for any older male), ''Ibu/Bu'' "mother" (any older woman), and ''tuan'' "sir" are often used instead of pronouns. ''Engkau'' (''əngkau''), commonly shortened to ''kau''. * Third person pronouns The common word for "s/he" and "they" is ''ia'', which has the object and emphatic/focused form ''dia''. ''Bəliau'' "his/her Honour" is respectful. As with "you", names and kin terms are extremely common. ''Mereka'' "someone", ''mereka itu'', or ''orang itu'' "those people" are used for "they". * Regional varieties There are a large number of other words for "I" and "you", many regional, dialectical, or borrowed from local languages. ''Saudara'' "you" (male) and ''saudari'' (female) (plural ''saudara-saudara'' or ''saudari-saudari'') show utmost respect. ''Daku'' "I" and ''dikau'' "you" are poetic or romantic. Indonesian ''
gua Gua may refer to: Biology * GUA, a codon for the amino acid valine * Gua or Guanine, a nucleobase found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA Telecommunications * GUA, Global Unicast Address Languages * Gua language, a Guang language of coast ...
'' "I" (from
Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...
) and '' lu'' "you" () are slang and extremely informal. The pronouns ''aku, kamu, engkau, ia, kami,'' and ''kita'' are indigenous to Indonesian.


Possessive pronouns

''Aku, kamu, engkau'', and ''ia'' have short possessive
enclitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
forms. All others retain their full forms like other nouns, as does emphatic ''dia'': ''meja saya, meja kita, meja anda, meja dia'' "my table, our table, your table, his/her table". There are also proclitic forms of ''aku'', ''ku-'' and ''kau-''. These are used when there is no emphasis on the pronoun: :''Ku-dengar raja itu menderita penyakit kulit. Aku mengetahui ilmu kedokteran. Aku-lah yang akan mengobati dia.'' :"It has come to my attention that the King has a skin disease. I am skilled in medicine. ''I'' will cure him." Here ''ku-''verb is used for a general report, ''aku'' verb is used for a factual statement, and emphatic ''aku-lah meng-''verb (≈ "I am the one who...") for focus on the pronoun.


Demonstrative pronouns

There are two
demonstrative pronoun Demonstratives ( abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular fram ...
s in Indonesian. ''Ini'' "this, these" is used for a noun which is generally near to the speaker. ''Itu'' "that, those" is used for a noun which is generally far from the speaker. Either may sometimes be equivalent to English "the". There is no difference between singular and plural. However, plural can be indicated through duplication of a noun followed by a ''ini'' or ''itu''. The word ''yang'' "which" is often placed before demonstrative pronouns to give emphasis and a sense of certainty, particularly when making references or enquiries about something/ someone, like English "this one" or "that one".


Verbs

Verbs are not
inflected In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and de ...
for person or number, and they are not marked for tense; tense is instead denoted by time adverbs (such as "yesterday") or by other tense indicators, such as ''sudah'' "already" and ''belum'' "not yet". On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and to denote
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
or intentional and accidental moods. Some of these affixes are ignored in colloquial speech. Examples of these are the prefixes ''di-'' ( patient focus, traditionally called "passive voice", with OVA word order in the third person, and OAV in the first or second persons), ''meng-'' ( agent focus, traditionally called "active voice", with AVO word order), ''memper-'' and ''diper-'' (
causative In linguistics, a causative ( abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
, agent and patient focus), ''ber-'' (
stative According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
or habitual; intransitive VS order), and ''ter-'' (agentless actions, such as those which are involuntary, sudden, stative or accidental, for VA = VO order); the suffixes ''-kan'' (causative or
benefactive The benefactive case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used where English would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g. "She opened the door ''for Tom''" or "This book is ''for Bob''" ...
) and ''-i'' (locative, repetitive, or exhaustive); and the circumfixes ''ber-...-an'' ( plural subject, diffuse action) and ''ke-...-an'' (unintentional or potential action or state). * ''duduk'' to sit down * ''mendudukkan'' to sit someone down, give someone a seat, to appoint * ''menduduki'' to sit on, to occupy * ''didudukkan'' to be given a seat, to be appointed * ''diduduki'' to be sat on, to be occupied * ''terduduk'' to sink down, to come to sit * ''kedudukan'' to be situated Forms in ''ter-'' and ''ke-...-an'' are often equivalent to adjectives in English.


Negation

Four words are used for negation in Indonesian, namely ''tidak'', ''bukan'', ''jangan'', and ''belum''. * ''Tidak'' (not), often shortened to ''tak'', is used for the negation of verbs and "adjectives". * ''Bukan'' (be-not) is used in the negation of a noun. For example:


Prohibition

For negating imperatives or advising against certain actions in Indonesian, the word ''jangan'' (do not) is used before the verb. For example, * ''Jangan'' tinggalkan saya di sini! :Don't leave me here! * ''Jangan'' lakukan itu! :Don't do that! * ''Jangan''! Itu tidak bagus untukmu. :Don't! That's not good for you.


Adjectives

There are grammatical adjectives in Indonesian.
Stative verb According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
s are often used for this purpose as well. Adjectives are always placed after the noun that they modify. Hence, "rumah saya" means "my house", while "saya rumah" means "I am a house". To say that something "is" an adjective, the determiners "itu" and "ini" ("that" and "this") are often used. For example, in the sentence "anjing itu galak", the use of "itu" gives a meaning of "the/that dog is ferocious", while "anjing ini galak", gives a meaning of "this dog is ferocious". However, if "itu" or "ini" were not to be used, then "anjing galak" would meaning only "ferocious dog", a plain adjective without any stative implications. The all-purpose determiner, "yang", is also often used before adjectives, hence "anjing yang galak" also means "ferocious dog" or more literally "dog which is ferocious"; "yang" will often be used for clarity. Hence, in a sentence such as "saya didekati oleh anjing galak" which means "I was approached by a ferocious dog", the use of the adjective "galak" is not stative at all. Often the "ber-" intransitive verb prefix, or the "ter-" stative prefix is used to express the meaning of "to be...". For example, "beda" means "different", hence "berbeda" means "to be different"; "awan" means "cloud", hence "berawan" means "cloudy". Using the "ter-" prefix, implies a state of being. For example, "buka" means "open", hence "terbuka" means "is opened"; "tutup" means "closed/shut", hence "tertutup" means "is closed/shut".


Word order

Adjectives,
demonstrative Demonstratives ( abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular fram ...
determiners, and
possessive A possessive or ktetic form ( abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ow ...
determiners follow the noun they modify. Indonesian does not have a grammatical subject in the sense that English does. In intransitive clauses, the noun comes before the verb. When there is both an
agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
and an
object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...
, these are separated by the verb (OVA or AVO), with the difference encoded in the voice of the verb. OVA, commonly but inaccurately called "passive", is the basic and most common word order. Either the agent or object or both may be omitted. This is commonly done to accomplish one of two things: ;1) Adding a sense of politeness and respect to a statement or question For example, a polite shop assistant in a store may avoid the use of pronouns altogether and ask: ;2) Agent or object is unknown, not important, or understood from context For example, a friend may enquire as to when you bought your property, to which you may respond: Ultimately, the choice of voice and therefore word order is a choice between actor and patient and depends quite heavily on the language style and context.


Emphasis

Word order is frequently modified for
focus Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film *''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore * ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
or emphasis, with the focused word usually placed at the beginning of the clause and followed by a slight pause (a break in intonation): * ''Saya pergi ke pasar kemarin'' "I went to the market yesterday" – neutral, or with focus on the subject. * ''Kemarin saya pergi ke pasar'' "Yesterday I went to the market" – emphasis on yesterday. * ''Ke pasar saya pergi, kemarin'' "To the market I went yesterday" – emphasis on where I went yesterday. * ''Pergi ke pasar, saya, kemarin'' "To the market went I yesterday" – emphasis on the process of going to the market. The last two are more likely to be encountered in speech than in writing.


Measure words

Another distinguishing feature of Indonesian is its use of
measure word In linguistics, measure words are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun. Description Measure words denote a unit or measurement and are used with mass nouns ( ...
s, also called classifiers (''kata penggolong''). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese,
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, and
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
. Measure words are also found in English such as ''two head of cattle'' or ''a loaf of bread'', where ''*two cattle'' and ''a bread'' would be ungrammatical. The word ''satu'' reduces to ''se-'' , as it does in other compounds: ''Example'': Measure words are not necessary just to say "a": ''burung'' "a bird, birds". Using ''se-'' plus a measure word is closer to English "one" or "a certain": :''Ada seekor burung yang bisa berbicara'' :"There was a (certain) bird that could talk"


Writing system

Indonesian is written with the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...
. It was originally based on the Dutch spelling and still bears some similarities to it. Consonants are represented in a way similar to
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
, although is always (like English ), is always ("hard") and represents as it does in English. In addition, represents the
palatal nasal The voiced palatal nasal is a type of consonant used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter ''n'' with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom ...
, is used for the
velar nasal The voiced velar nasal, also known as agma, from the Greek word for 'fragment', is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ''ng'' in English ''sing'' as well as ''n'' before velar consonants as in ''Englis ...
(which can occur word-initially), for (English ) and for the
voiceless velar fricative The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English, e.g. in ''loc ...
. Both and are represented with . Spelling changes in the language that have occurred since Indonesian independence include: Introduced in 1901, the ''van Ophuijsen'' system (named from the advisor of the system, Charles Adriaan van Ophuijsen) was the first standardization of romanized spelling. It was most influenced by the then current Dutch spelling system. In 1947, the spelling was changed into '' Republican Spelling'' or ''Soewandi Spelling'' (named by at the time Minister of Education, Soewandi). This spelling changed formerly spelled ''oe'' into ''u'' (however, the spelling influenced other aspects in orthography, for example writing reduplicated words). All of the other changes were a part of the
Perfected Spelling System The Enhanced Spelling of the Indonesian Language ( id, Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan, EYD) is the spelling system used for the Indonesian language. History The Enhanced Spelling of the Indonesian Language ( id, Ejaan Bahasa Indone ...
, an officially mandated
spelling reform A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples a ...
in 1972. Some of the old spellings (which were derived from
Dutch orthography Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet. The spelling system is issued by government decree and is compulsory for all government documentation and educational establishments. Legal basis In the Netherlands, the official spelling is regulated ...
) do survive in proper names; for example, the name of a former president of Indonesia is still sometimes written '' Soeharto'', and the central Java city of
Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...
is sometimes written ''Jogjakarta''. In time, the spelling system is further updated and the latest update of Indonesian spelling system issued on 16 August 2022 by Head of Language Development and Fostering Agency decree No 0424/I/BS.00.01/2022.


Letter names and pronunciations

The
Indonesian alphabet The modern Malay or Indonesian alphabet (Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore: ''Tulisan Rumi'', literally "Roman script" or "Roman writing", Indonesia: ''Aksara Latin'', literally "Latin script"), consists of the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alph ...
is exactly the same as in ISO basic Latin alphabet. Indonesian follows the letter names of the
Dutch alphabet Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...
. Indonesian alphabet has a
phonemic orthography A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...
; words are spelled the way they are pronounced, with few exceptions. The letters Q, V and X are rarely encountered, being chiefly used for writing
loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...
s. In addition, there are digraphs that are not considered separate letters of the alphabet:


Vocabulary

As a modern variety of Malay, Indonesian has been influenced by other languages, including
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
,
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
(from where the name of the country, Indonesia, is coming),
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, Chinese,
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...
,
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, and Persian. It is estimated that there are some 750 Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indonesian, 1,000 Arabic loans, some of Persian and
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
origin, some 125 words of Portuguese, some of
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
origin, and 10,000 loanwords from Dutch. The vast majority of Indonesian words, however, come from the root lexical stock of Austronesian (including Old Malay). The study of Indonesian etymology and loan words reveals both its historical and social contexts. Examples are the early Sanskrit borrowings from the 7th century during the trading era, the borrowings from Arabic and Persian during the time of the establishment of Islam in particular, and those from Dutch during the colonial period. Linguistic history and cultural history are clearly linked. List of loan words of Indonesian language published by the '' Badan Pengembangan Bahasa dan Perbukuan'' (The Language Center) under the Ministry of Education and Culture: Note: This list only lists foreign languages, and thus omitting numerous local languages of Indonesia that have also been major lexical donors, such as Javanese, Sundanese, Betawi, etc. For a more complete list of these, see
List of loanwords in Indonesian The Indonesian language has absorbed many loanwords from other languages, Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and other Austronesian languages. Indonesian differs from the form of Malay used i ...
.


Loan words of Sanskrit origin

The
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
influence came from contacts with
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
since ancient times. The words were either borrowed directly from India or with the intermediary of the Old Javanese language. Although
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
and
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
are no longer the major religions of Indonesia,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
, which was the language vehicle for these religions, is still held in high esteem and is comparable with the status of
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
and other Western European languages. Sanskrit is also the main source for
neologism A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
s, which are usually formed from Sanskrit roots. The loanwords from Sanskrit cover many aspects of
religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
, art and everyday life. From
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
came such words as स्वर्ग ''surga'' (heaven), भाषा ''bahasa'' (language), काच ''kaca'' (glass, mirror), राज- ''raja'' (king), मनुष्य ''manusia'' (mankind), चिन्ता ''cinta'' (love), भूमि ''bumi'' (earth), भुवन ''buana'' (world), आगम ''agama'' (religion), स्त्री ''Istri'' (wife/woman), जय ''Jaya'' (victory/victorious), पुर ''Pura'' (city/temple/place) राक्षस '' Raksasa'' (giant/monster), धर्म ''
Dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
'' (rule/regulations), मन्त्र ''
Mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...
'' (words/poet/spiritual prayers), क्षत्रिय ''Satria'' (warrior/brave/soldier), विजय ''Wijaya'' (greatly victorious/great victory), etc.
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
words and sentences are also used in names, titles, and mottos of the Indonesian National Police and Indonesian Armed Forces such as: '' Bhayangkara'', ''
Laksamana The Laksamana ( Jawi: ) is a position within the armed forces, similar to the position of admiral in Malay sultanates and in present-day countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. Since South East Asia was part of Indosphere of Greater India since ...
'', '' Jatayu'', ''
Garuda Garuda ( Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garu ...
'', ''Dharmakerta Marga Reksyaka'', '' Jalesveva Jayamahe'', '' Kartika Eka Paksi'', '' Swa Bhuwana Paksa'', '' Rastra Sewakottama'', ''Yudha Siaga'', etc. Because
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
has long been known in the
Indonesian archipelago The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Archipelago ( id, Kepulauan Indonesia) or Nusantara, may refer either to the islands comprising the country of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands. History ...
, Sanskrit loanwords, unlike those from other languages, have entered the basic vocabulary of Indonesian to such an extent that, for many, they are no longer perceived to be foreign. Therefore, one could write a short story using mostly Sanskrit words. The short story below consists of approximately 80 words in Indonesian that are written using Sanskrit words alone, except for a few pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and affixes. :''
Karena Karena is a given name. Notable people with the given name include: * Karena Chapman, Australian chemist *Karena Evans (born 1995), Canadian music video director and actress * Karena Johnson, British theatrical director and producer *Karena Lam (bo ...
semua di biayai dana negara jutaan
rupiah The rupiah (symbol: Rp; currency code: IDR) is the official currency of Indonesia. It is issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. The name " rupiah" is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, (). Sometimes, Indonesians also informally use ...
, sang mahaguru
sastra ''Shastra'' (, IAST: , ) is a Sanskrit word that means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise" in a general sense.Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on 'zAstra'' The wo ...
bahasa Kawi dan mahasiswa- mahasiswinya, duta- duta negeri
mitra ''Mitra'' ( Proto-Indo-Iranian: ''*mitrás'') is the name of an Indo-Iranian divinity from which the names and some characteristics of Rigvedic Mitrá and Avestan Mithra derive. The names (and occasionally also some characteristics) of these ...
, Menteri Ke budayaan dan Pariwisata suami- istri, be serta karyawan- karyawati lembaga nirlaba segera ber dharmawisata ke pe desaan di utara kota ka bupaten
Probolinggo Probolinggo ( id, Kota Probolinggo, mad, Prabâlingghâ) is a city on the north coast of East Java province, Indonesia. It covers an area of 56.67 sq. km, and had a population of 217,062 at the 2010 census and 239,649 at the 2020 census ...
antara Antara is an Indonesian news agency organized as a statutory corporation. It is the country's national news agency, supplying news reports to many domestic media organizations. It is the only organization authorized to distribute news materials ...
candi- candi purba, ber wahana keledai di kala
senja or is an island in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway, Europe. With an area of , it is the second largest island in Norway (outside of the Svalbard archipelago). It has a wild, mountainous outer (western) side facing the Atlantic, and a mild ...
dan ber sama kepala desa me nyaksikan
para Para, or PARA, may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Paramount Global, traded as PARA on the Nasdaq stock exchange * Para Group, the former name of CT Corp * Para Rubber, now Skellerup, a New Zealand manufacturer * Para USA, formerly ...
tani yang ber jiwa ber sahaja serta ber budi nirmala se
cara Cara or CARA may refer to: Places * Čara, a village on the island of Korčula, Croatia * Cara, a village in Cojocna Commune, Cluj County, Romania * Cara Island Cara Island ( gd, Cara) is a small island which is located off the west coast o ...
ber bahagia ber upacara, seraya merdu me nyuarakan
gita The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' ( ...
-
gita The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' ( ...
mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...
, yang me
rupa Rupa may refer to: Places * Rupa, Croatia, a town in northwest Croatia * Rupa, Arunachal Pradesh, a town of Arunachal Pradesh * Rupa gold mine, an artisanal mine in Uganda * Rupa Lake, a freshwater lake in Nepal Science * ''Rupa'' (beetle), a b ...
kan sarana pujian mereka me muja nama
suci The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) or SUCI(C), previously called the Socialist Unity Centre of India and "Socialist Unity Centre", is an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in India. The party was founded by Shibda ...
Pertiwi, Dewi Bumi yang ber sedia meng anugerahi mereka karunia dan restu, me raksa dari
bahaya Mount Bahaya (Somali language: ''Buurta Baxaya'', sometimes spelled Mount Bahaja), also known as Mount Bahaya, is the fourth-tallest mountain in Somalia, after the triple-peaked mountains Mount Shimbiris, Mount Surud Cad, and Mount Warraq. It is ...
, mala petaka dan bencana.''


Loan words of Chinese origin

The relationship with China has been going since the 7th century when Chinese merchants traded in some areas of the archipelago such as
Riau Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Accord ...
,
West Borneo West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak. The province has an area of 147,307&nb ...
,
East Kalimantan East Kalimantan (Indonesian: ) is a province of Indonesia. Its territory comprises the eastern portion of Borneo. It had a population of about 3.03 million at the 2010 census (within the current boundary), 3.42 million at the 2015 census, and 3. ...
, and
North Maluku North Maluku ( id, Maluku Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the south. ...
. As the kingdom of Srivijaya appeared and flourished, China opened diplomatic relations with the kingdom in order to secure trade and seafaring. In 922, Chinese travelers visited
Kahuripan Kahuripan (also spelt Kuripan) was an 11th-century Javanese Hindu-Buddhist kingdom with its capital located around the estuarine of Brantas River valley in East Java. The kingdom was short-lived, only spanning the period between 1019 and 1045, ...
in
East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...
. Since the 11th century, hundreds of thousands of Chinese migrants left
Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
and settled in many parts of Nusantara (now called Indonesia). The Chinese loanwords are usually concerned with cuisine, trade or often just things exclusively Chinese. Words of Chinese origin (presented here with accompanying
Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...
/ Mandarin pronunciation derivatives as well as
traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
and
simplified characters Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the ''Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one o ...
) include ''loteng'', (樓/層 = lóu/céng – pperfloor/ level), ''mie'' (麵 > 面 Hokkien mī – noodles), ''
lumpia ''Lumpia'' are various types of spring rolls commonly found in the Philippines and Indonesia. Lumpia are made of thin paper-like or crepe-like pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping savory or sweet fillings. It is often served as an ap ...
'' (潤餅 (Hokkien = lūn-piáⁿ) – springroll), ''cawan'' (茶碗 cháwǎn – teacup), ''teko'' (茶壺 > 茶壶 = cháhú andarin teh-ko okkien= teapot), 苦力 kuli (= 苦 khu (hard) and 力 li (energy) – coolie) and even the widely used slang terms ''gua'' and ''lu'' (from the Hokkien 'goa' 我 and 'lu/li' 汝 – meaning 'I/ me' and 'you').


Loan words of Arabic origin

Many Arabic words were brought and spread by merchants from
Arab Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
like
Arabian The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
,
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, and from the western part of India,
Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
where many Muslims lived. As a result, many Indonesian words come from the Arabic language. Especially since the late 12th century, Old Malay was heavily influenced by the language and produced many great literary works such as
Syair Syair ( Jawi: شعير) is a form of traditional Malay (also subsequently modern Indonesian and Malaysian) poetry that is made up of four-line stanzas or quatrains. The syair can be a narrative poem, a didactic poem, a poem used to convey ideas on ...
,
Babad Javanese literature has a very large historical component. In all sorts of texts, such as laudatory poems, chronicles, and travelogues, writers have interpreted the how and why of certain circumstances. These texts are important for the knowl ...
, Hikayat, and Suluk. This century is known as ''The Golden Age of Indonesian Literature''. Many loanwords from
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
are mainly concerned with religion, in particular with
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
, and by extension, with greetings such as the word, "selamat" (from ar, سلامة ' = health, soundness) means "safe" or "lucky". Words of
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
origin include ''dunia'' (from ar, دنيا ' = the present world), names of days (except ''Minggu''), such as ''Sabtu'' (from ar, سبت ' = Saturday), ''iklan'' ( ' = advertisement), ''kabar'' ( ' = news), ''Kursi'' ( ' = a chair), ''jumat'' ( ' = Friday), ''ijazah'' ( ' = 'permission', certificate of authority, e.g. a school diploma certificate), ''kitab'' ( ' = book), ''tertib'' ( ' = order/arrangement) and ''kamus'' ( ' = dictionary).
Allah Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
( ar, الله), as is mostly the case for
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
speakers, this is the word for
God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
even in
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
translations. Many early Bible translators, when they came across some unusual
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer translations this practice is discontinued. They now turn to
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
names or use the original Hebrew Word. For example, the name
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
was initially translated as '''Isa'' ( ar, عيسى), but is now spelt as ''Yesus''. Several ecclesiastical terms derived from Arabic still exist in Indonesian language. Indonesian word for ''
bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
'' is ''uskup'' (from ar, أسقف ' = bishop). This in turn makes the Indonesian term for
archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
''uskup agung'' (), which is combining the Arabic word with an Old Javanese word. The term ''imam'' (from ar, إمام ' = leader, prayer leader) is used to translate a Catholic
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
, beside its more common association with an Islamic prayer leader. Some Protestant denominations refer to their congregation ''jemaat'' (from ar, جماعة ' = group, a community). Even the name of the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
in Indonesian translation is ''Alkitab'' (from ar, الكتاب ' = the book), which literally means "the Book".


Loan words of Portuguese origin

Alongside Malay,
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
was the ''
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
'' for trade throughout the archipelago from the sixteenth century through to the early nineteenth century. The Portuguese were among the first westerners to sail eastwards to the "
Spice Islands A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices ar ...
". Loanwords from
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
were mainly connected with articles that the early European traders and explorers brought to Southeast Asia. Indonesian words derived from Portuguese include (from = table), (from = bench), (from = closet), (from = doll), (from = window), (from = church), (from = mass), (from = Christmas), (from = Easter), (from = party), (from = dance), (from = cruise), (from = flag), (from = shoes), (from = fork), (from = shirt), (from = chariot), (from = pump), (from = picture), (from = wheel), (from = young woman), (from = school), (from = lantern), (from = priest), (from = Saint), (from = poetry), (from = cheese), (from = butter), (from = soldier), (from = although), (from = room), (from = lagoon), (from = auction), (from = company), (from = passion fruit), (from = lemon), (from = card), (from = English), (from = Saturday), (from = Sunday), etc.


Loan words of Dutch origin

The former colonial power, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, left a sizeable amount of vocabulary that can be seen in words such as (from = police), (from = quality), (from = current), (from = smoking cigarettes), (from = corruption), (from = office), (from = zipper), (from = frontrunner), (from = transmission gear), (from = electricity current), (from = company), (from = pharmacy), (from = towel), (from = clothes iron), (from =
movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
), (from = banner), (from = short circuit), (from = uncle), (from = aunt), (from = treat) and (from = free). These
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
loanwords, and many other non-Italo-Iberian, European language loanwords that came via Dutch, cover all aspects of life. Some Dutch loanwords, having clusters of several consonants, pose difficulties to speakers of Indonesian. This problem is usually solved by insertion of the
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
. For example, Dutch > (screw (n.)). One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words are inspired by the
Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...
. Before the standardization of the language, many Indonesian words follow standard Dutch alphabet and pronunciation such as "oe" for vowel "u" or "dj" for consonant "j" ʒ As a result, Malay words are written with that orthography such as: for the word or for the word , older Indonesian generation tend to have their name written in such order as well.


Loan words of English origin

Many English words were incorporated into Indonesian through
globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
. Many Indonesians, however, mistake words already adopted from Dutch as words borrowed from English. Indonesian adopts English words with standardization. For example: from , from , from , from , from , from , from , and so on. However, there are several words that directly borrowed without standardization that have same meanings in English such as: ''bus'', ''data'', ''domain'', ''detail'', ''internet'', ''film'', ''golf'', ''lift'', ''monitor'', ''radio'', ''radar'', ''unit'', ''safari'', ''sonar'', and ''video'', ''riil as real''.


Other loan words

Modern Indonesian draws many of its words from foreign sources, there are many
synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
s. For example, Indonesian has three words for "book", i.e. (from Sanskrit), (from Arabic) and (from Dutch ); however, each has a slightly different meaning. A is often connected with ancient wisdom or sometimes with esoteric knowledge. A derived form, means a library. A is usually a religious scripture or a book containing moral guidance. The Indonesian words for the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and
Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
are and , both directly derived from Arabic. The book containing the penal code is also called the . is the most common word for books. There are direct borrowings from various other languages of the world, such as (from ) from
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
, and (from ) which means dried shrimp. Many words that originally are adopted through the Dutch language today however often are mistaken as English due to the similarity in the Germanic nature of both languages. In some cases the words are replaced by English language through globalization: although the word ( nl, aardbei) still literally means strawberry in Indonesian, today the usage of the word is more common.
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
words such as (from ), , (both from ), (from ) came through Dutch, Arabic and Portuguese respectively. It is notable that some of the loanwords that exist in both Indonesian and Malaysian languages are different in spelling and pronunciation mainly due to how they derived their origins: Malaysian utilises words that reflect the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
usage (as used by its former colonial power, the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
), while Indonesian uses a
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
ate form reflected in the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
usage (e.g. (Malaysian) vs. (Indonesian), (Malaysian) vs. (Indonesian)).


Acronyms and portmanteau

Since the time of the independence of Indonesia, Indonesian has seen a surge of
neologism A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
s which are formed as
acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
s (less commonly also
initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
s) or
blend word In linguistics, a blend (sometimes called blend word, lexical blend, portmanteau or portmanteau word) is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. At least one of these parts is not a morph (the realization of a morpheme) but instead ...
s. Common acronyms are (, from '
Indonesian National Armed Forces , founded = as the ('People's Security Forces') , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta , website = , commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo , ...
'), (, from 'driving licence'), (, from 'ethnic group, religion, race, inter-group atters, used when referring to the background of intercommunal conflicts), (, from 'human rights'). Blend words/portmanteau are very common in Indonesian, and have become a productive tool of word formation in both formal and colloquial Indonesian. Examples from official usage include departments and officeholders (e.g. < 'Foreign Minister', < 'Head of Regional Police') or names of provinces and districts ( < 'South Sulawesi', < 'West Java'. Other commonly used portmanteau include < 'community health center', < 'basic commodities' ().


Literature

Indonesia hosts a variety of traditional verbal arts such as
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, historical narratives, romances, and
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
; which are expressed in local languages, but modern genres are expressed mainly through Indonesian. Some of classic Indonesian stories include
Sitti Nurbaya ''Sitti Nurbaya: Kasih Tak Sampai'' (''Sitti Nurbaya: Unrealized Love'', often abbreviated ''Sitti Nurbaya'' or ''Siti Nurbaya''; original spelling ''Sitti Noerbaja'') is an Indonesian literature, Indonesian novel by Marah Rusli. It was publish ...
by
Marah Rusli Marah Roesli (; full name: Marah Rusli bin Abu Bakar) was an Indonesian writer. Biography Marah Roesli was born in Padang, West Sumatra on August 7, 1889, and died in Bandung, West Java on January 17, 1968. He was one of the most well-known Ind ...
,
Azab dan Sengsara ''Azab dan Sengsara'' (; ''Pain and Suffering'') is a 1920 novel written by Merari Siregar and published by Balai Pustaka, Indonesia's major publisher at that time. It tells the story of two lovers, Amiruddin and Mariamin, who are unable to marry ...
by
Merari Siregar Merari Siregar (13 July 1896 Sipirok, North Sumatra - 23 April 1941, Kalianget, Madura, East Java) was an Indonesian writer and also the author of the first novel written in Indonesian. He completed his studies at a ''Kweekschool'' and in 1923 ...
, and
Sengsara Membawa Nikmat ''Sengsara Membawa Nikmat'' (English: ''Blessing in Disguise'') is an Indonesian novel written by Tulis Sutan Sati. It was published in 1929 by Balai Pustaka. It tells the story of Midun, the son of a farmer, who experiences many trials before fin ...
by
Tulis Sutan Sati Tulis Sutan Sati (1898 in Fort de Kock, West Sumatra, Dutch East Indies – 1942) was one of Indonesian prominent writers of the Balai Pustaka Generation. List of Novels * Tak Disangka (1923) * Sengsara Membawa Nikmat (1928) * Syair Rosina (1933) ...
. Modern literature like
novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
s,
short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
, stage plays, and free-form poetry has developed since the late years of the 19th century and has produced such internationally recognized figures as
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
Pramoedya Ananta Toer Pramoedya Ananta Toer ( EYD: Pramudya Ananta Tur) (6 February 1925 – 30 April 2006) was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemics and histories of his homeland and its people. His works span the colonial period under Dutc ...
,
dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
W.S. Rendra, poet
Chairil Anwar Chairil Anwar (26 July 1922 – 28 April 1949) was an Indonesian poet and member of the " 1945 Generation" of writers. He is estimated to have written 96 works, including 70 individual poems. Anwar was born and raised in Medan, North Sumatr ...
, and
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
Garin Nugroho Garin Nugroho Riyanto (born 6 June 1961) is an Indonesian film director. Biography Nugroho was born in Yogyakarta, Special Region of Yogyakarta on 6 June 1961. He was the fourth child of postal workers Soetjipto Amin and Mariah, who eventually ...
. Indonesia's classic novels itself, have their own charm, offering insight into local culture and traditions and the historical background before and immediately after the country gained independence. One notable example is ''Shackles'' which was written by
Armijn Pane Armijn Pane (18 August 1908 – 16 February 1970), also known as Adinata, A. Soul, Empe, A. Mada, A. Banner, and Kartono, was an Indonesian author. Life Armijn Pane was born in Moeara Sipongi, Tapanuli, Sumatra, the third of eight children. He ...
in 1940. Originally titled ''
Belenggu ''Belenggoe'' ( Perfected Spelling: ''Belenggu''; translated to English as ''Shackles'') is a novel by Indonesian author Armijn Pane. The novel follows the love triangle between a doctor, his wife, and his childhood friend, which eventually cau ...
'' and translated into many languages, including
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
.


As speakers of other languages

Over the past few years, interest in learning Indonesian has grown among non-Indonesians. Various universities have started to offer courses that emphasise the teaching of the language to non-Indonesians. In addition to national universities, private institutions have also started to offer courses, like the Indonesia Australia Language Foundation and the . As early as 1988, teachers of the language have expressed the importance of a standardized (also called BIPA, literally ''Indonesian Language for Foreign Speaker'') materials (mostly books), and this need became more evident during the 4th International Congress on the Teaching of Indonesian to Speakers of Other Languages held in 2001. Since 2013, the Indonesian embassy in the Philippines has given basic Indonesian language courses to 16 batches of Filipino students, as well as training to members of the
Armed Forces of the Philippines The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ( fil, Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The P ...
. In an interview,
Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
Secretary
Armin Luistro Brother Armin Altamirano Luistro, FSC (born December 24, 1961) is a Filipino Lasallian Brother who served as secretary of the Department of Education of the Philippines under President Benigno Aquino III. Luistro entered De La Salle Scholasti ...
said that the country's government should promote Indonesian or Malay, which are related to Filipino. Thus, the possibility of offering it as an optional subject in public schools is being studied. The Indonesian embassy in Washington, D.C., United States, also began offering free Indonesian language courses at the beginner and intermediate level.


Words


Numbers


Cardinal


Ordinal


Days and months


Days


Months


Common phrases


Example

The following texts are excerpts from the official translations of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal De ...
in Indonesian and Malaysian Malay, along with the original declaration in English.


See also

* Austronesian languages * Bahasa, for other languages referred to as * Language families and languages *
Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines an ...
*
Demographics of Indonesia The population of Indonesia was 270.20 million according to the 2020 national census, an increase from 237.64 in 2010. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. Approximately 55% of Indonesia's population resides on Java, ...
*
Indonesian slang language Indonesian slang ( id, bahasa gaul, bew, basa gaul), or informal Indonesian language ( id, bahasa informal, bahasa sehari-hari) is a term that subsumes various vernacular and non-standard styles of expression used throughout Indonesia that are n ...
* Indonesian abbreviated words *
Comparison of Standard Malay and Indonesian Indonesian and Standard Malay are two standardised varieties of the Malay language, used officially in Indonesia (and in Timor Leste as a working language) on one hand and in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore on the other. Both varieties are gene ...
*
List of English words of Indonesian origin The following is a partial list of English words of Indonesian origin. The loanwords in this list may be borrowed or derived, either directly or indirectly, from the Indonesian language. Some words may also be borrowed from Malay during the Brit ...
*
List of loanwords in Indonesian The Indonesian language has absorbed many loanwords from other languages, Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and other Austronesian languages. Indonesian differs from the form of Malay used i ...


References


External links


How many people speak Indonesian?

Indonesian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words
(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh-list appendix

''KBBI Daring (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia dalam jaringan)''
(online version of the ''
Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia The (''KBBI'' ; ) is the official dictionary of the Indonesian language compiled by Language Development and Fostering Agency and published by Balai Pustaka. This dictionary is the primary reference for the standard Indonesian language because ...
'', by the
Language and Book Development Agency The Language Development and Fostering Agency ( id, Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa), formerly the Language and Book Development Agency () and the Language Centre (), is the institution responsible for standardising and regulating the Indon ...
, in Indonesian only)
babla.co.id
English-Indonesian dictionary from bab.la, a language learning portal


English-Indonesian dictionaries


Download Kamus 2.0.4


{{DEFAULTSORT:Indonesian Language Agglutinative languages Languages of Indonesia Languages of East Timor Standard languages Subject–verb–object languages Articles containing video clips Languages of the Netherlands Malayic languages