Indonesian ( ) is the
official national language of Indonesia
. It is based on a version of Classical
Malay of the Riau
-Johor
Sultanate. It was first declared the
official language with the declaration of
Indonesian independence in 1945,
following the 1928 unifying-language declaration in the
Indonesian Youth Pledge.
Almost all of Indonesia's 240 million inhabitants speak the
language and it is one of the most spoken languages in the world.
Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are
fluent in another regional language or local dialect (examples
include
Minangkabau,
varieties of Chinese,
Sundanese,
Javanese and
Balinese) that are commonly used at home
and within the local community. Most formal education, as well as
nearly all national media and other forms of communication, are
conducted in Indonesian.
In East Timor
, which was annexed as an Indonesian province from
1975 to 1999, the Indonesian language is recognised by the
constitution as one of two working languages (the other is English, alongside the official languages
of Tetum and Portuguese).
The Indonesian name for the language is
Bahasa Indonesia
(lit. "the language of Indonesia"). This term can sometimes also be
found in written or spoken
English.
In addition, the language is sometimes referred to as "Bahasa" by
English speakers, though this simply means "language" and thus is
also not an official term for the Indonesian language.
History
Indonesian is a
normative form of the
Malay language, an
Austronesian (or
Malayo-Polynesian) language that has been
used as a
lingua franca in the
Indonesian archipelago for centuries. It was elevated to the status
of official language with the Indonesian declaration of
independence in 1945, drawing inspiration from the
Sumpah Pemuda (Youth's Oath) event in
1928.
The earliest known inscription in the Malay language dates back to
the 7th century. Known as the
Kedukan Bukit Inscription, it was
discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920 at
Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang (a
tributary of the River Musi). It is a small stone, 45 cm by
80 cm in size.
Because of
its origins, Indonesian (in its most standard form) is mutually intelligible with the official Malaysian
Malay. However, it does
differ from
Malaysian Malay in some aspects, with differences in pronunciation,
diction, spelling, accent and vocabulary. The grammar of Indonesian
language is slightly more complex than Malaysian Malay's. These
differences are mainly due to the Dutch and Javanese influences on
Indonesian, and the English influence on Malaysian Malay.
Whilst
Indonesian is spoken as a mother tongue (first language) by only a
small proportion of Indonesia's large population (i.e. mainly those
who reside within the vicinity of Jakarta
), over 200
million people regularly make use of the national language—some
with varying degrees of proficiency. In a nation that boasts
more than 300 native languages and a vast array of ethnic groups,
the use of standard Indonesian (as opposed to
Indonesian slang or regional
dialects) is an essential means of communication across the
archipelago. Use of the national language is abundant in the media,
government bodies, schools, universities, workplaces, amongst
members of the Indonesian upper-class or nobility and also in many
other formal situations.
The standard, correct version of the Indonesian language is rarely
used in daily communication. Standard Indonesian may be found in
books and newspapers, or on television/radio news broadcasts, but
few native Indonesian speakers use completely formally standard
language in their daily conversations. While this is a phenomenon
common to most languages in the world (for example, spoken English
does not always correspond to written or prescriptive standards),
the degree of compliance of spoken Indonesian, in grammar and
vocabulary, with the written form of standard Indonesian is
noticeably low. This is mostly due to the fact that most
Indonesians tend to combine certain aspects of their own local
languages (e.g.
Javanese,
Sundanese,
Balinese, and even
Chinese dialects, particularly
Hokkien) with Indonesian. The result is the
creation of various types of regional Indonesian dialects. This
phenomenon is exacerbated by the use of
Indonesian slang, particularly in
the cities. A classic example of a speaker of accented Indonesian
is former president
Suharto, whose Javanese
accent came through whenever he delivered a speech.
The
Dutch
colonization
left an imprint on the Indonesian language that can be seen in
words such as polisi (police), kualitas/kwaliteit
(quality), wortel (carrot), kamar (room,
chamber), rokok (cigarette), korupsi
(corruption), persneling (gear), kantor (office),
and resleting (zipper). Alongside
Malay,
Portuguese was the
lingua franca for trade throughout the
archipelago from the sixteenth century through to the early
nineteenth century. Indonesian words derived from Portuguese
include
sabun (sabão, soap),
meja (mesa, table),
boneka (boneca, doll),
jendela (janela, window),
gereja (igreja, church),
bendera (bandeira, flag)
and
Minggu (from
domingo = Sunday). Some of the
many words of
Chinese origin (with
Hokkien/Mandarin pronunciations) include
pisau (匕首 bǐshǒu
- knife),
loteng, (樓/層 = lóu/céng - [upper] floor/ level),
mie (麵/miàn - noodles),
lumpia (潤餅 (Hokkien = lūn-piáⁿ) - springroll),
cawan, (茶碗 cháwǎn - teacup),
teko (茶壺, teh-ko
[Hokkien] = teapot) and even the widely used slang terms
gua and
lu (from the Hokkien 'goa' 我 and 'lu' 汝 -
meaning 'I/ me' and 'you'). From
Sanskrit came words such as
kaca
(glass, mirror),
raja (king),
manusia (mankind)
b(h)umi (earth) and
agama (religion). Words of
Arabic origin include
waktu
(وقت ,time)،
k(h)abar (أَخْبار, news),
selamat/
salam (a greeting),
dunia (دنيا, world), and
kamus (قاموس, dictionary). There are also words derived
from
Javanese, e.g.
aku
(meaning I/ me (informal)) and its derivative form,
mengaku (to admit or confess). Through earlier influence
of South Indian Tamil Chola empire that ruled over the region, many
Tamil and Sanskrit words may be found in Indonesian such as kapal
(ship in Tamil), kolam (lake in Tamil) and kedai (shop in
Tamil).
Classification
The Malaysia language is part of the
Western
Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the
Malayo-Polynesian branch of the
Austronesian languages.
According
to the Ethnologue, Indonesian is modelled
after Riau Malay, a form of Old Malay originally spoken
in Northeast Sumatra
.
Geographic distribution
The
language is spoken throughout Indonesia (and East Timor), although it is used most extensively as a first
language in urban areas and usually as a second or third language
in more rural parts of Indonesia. It is spoken by an
additional 1.5+ million people worldwide, particularly in the
Netherlands, the Philippines
, and Malaysia.
Finally,
it is used daily in some parts of Australia (mostly on Christmas Island
and Cocos Islands
), Brunei
, Singapore
, some parts of Thailand
( Southern
Thailand ), East
Timor, Saudi
Arabia
, Suriname
, New
Caledonia
, and the
United
States
.
Official status
Indonesian is the
official
language of Indonesia.
Sounds
Phonology
The following are
phonemes of modern
Indonesian.
Indonesian also has the
diphthongs , , and
.
Note: Consonants in parentheses only occur in
loanwords.
- , , and are unreleased in syllable-final position. Normally, is
debuccalized to in coda position, though this is not always the
case with loanwords like fact ( , 'fact') or with some
regional variants.
- While is the only dental
consonant listed in the chart, , , and can also be dental in
some regions.
- Consonants that appear only in loanwords exhibit some variation
in their pronunciation. For example, may be realized as , as .
- In a number of contexts, such as in a final closed syllable,
vowels generally lower →
- Stress is placed on the penultimate
(second-to-last) syllable of each base word. But if this syllable
contains a schwa then the accent moves to the last syllable.
For more, and to listen to examples, see
SEASite Guide to Pronunciation of
Indonesian
Grammar
Word order
Adjectives,
demonstrative
pronouns and
possessive
pronouns follow the noun they modify.
The basic word order of Indonesian is
Subject Verb Object (SVO). However many
Indonesians will speak in a passive/objective voice, making use of
the
Object Verb Subject word
order.This OVS word order in Indonesian will often permit the
omission of the subject and/or object (i.e. ellipses of
noun/pronoun) and can benefit the speaker/writer in two ways:
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:
| Ellipses of pronoun (Subject & Object) |
Literal English |
Idiomatic English |
| Bisa dibantu? |
Can + to be helped? |
Can (I) help (you)? |
2) Convenience when the subject is unknown, unimportant or
implied by context
For example, a friend may enquire as to when you bought your
property, to which you may respond:
| Ellipses of pronoun (Implied Subject) |
Literal English |
Idiomatic English |
| Rumah ini telah dibeli lima tahun yang lalu |
House this + to be purchased five year(s) which
passed |
The house was purchased five years ago |
Ultimately, the choice between active and passive voice (and
therefore word order) is a choice between actor and patient and
depends quite heavily on the language style and context.
Word formation
Indonesian is an
agglutinative
language and new words are generally formed via three methods.
New words can be created through
affixation (the attaching of affixes onto root
words), formation of a
compound word
(a composition of two or more separate words), or
reduplication (repetition of words or portions
of words).
Adjectives
Unlike in English, adjectives in the Indonesian language follow the
nouns that they describe:
| Indonesian |
English literal gloss |
English free translation |
| Mobil merah |
Car red |
Red car |
| Dia orang yang terkenal sekali |
He/she person who well-known very |
He/she is a very famous/well-known person |
| (Sebuah) cerita panjang |
(A) story long |
A long story |
It may help some learners to think of adjectives in Indonesian as
stative verbs.
Mobil merah may be thought of as "the car
is-red," "the car reds," or "the car is-being-red."
Affixation
The Indonesian language utilises a complex system of
affixes (i.e. prefix, infix, suffix and confix
(circumfix)). Affixes are applied with certain rules that depend on
the initial letter of a base word (BW = base word, eg. a habitual
verb, adjective, etc in its simplest form), and/or the sound
combination of the second syllable. For example:
- The prefix Ber- + ajar (teach) =
BeLajar (Note the deletion of 'R' and the addition of
'L')
= to study
- The circumfix Me- + ajar + -kan =
meNGajarkan (Note the addition of 'NG')
= to teach (transitive)
By comparison
- The prefix Ber- + judi (gamble) =
Berjudi (Note that Ber- remains unchanged)
= to gamble
- The circumfix Me- + judi + -kan =
meNjudikan (Note the addition of 'N')
= to gamble away (money, one's life, etc)
Also, depending on the affix used, a word can have different
grammatical meanings (e.g.
me + makan (memakan) means to
eat something (in the sense of digesting it), while
di +
makan (dimakan) means to be eaten (passive voice),
ter +
makan (termakan) means to be accidentally eaten. Often two
different affixes are used to change the meaning of a word. For
example,
duduk means to sit down, whereas
men +
duduk
+ kan (mendudukkan) means to sit someone/ something
down.
Men + duduk
+ i (menduduki) means to sit on
something,
di + duduk
+ kan (didudukkan) means to
be sat down,
diduduk
i (diduduki) means to be sat
on, etc).
As with any language, Indonesian grammar can often present an array
of inconsistencies and exceptions. Some base words when combined
with two affixes (eg. me + BW + kan) can produce an adjective
rather than a verb, or even both. For example,
bosan when
combined with the affixes
me- and
-kan produces
the word
membosankan, meaning
boring (adjective)
or
to bore (someone) (active verb). However, not all base
words can be combined with affixes, nor are they always consistent
in their subsequent usage and meaning. A prime example is the word
tinggal that, when combined with affixes, can change quite
dramatically in both meaning and grammatical use:
- Tinggal (base word (BW) form) = to reside, live (in a
place)
- Meninggal (MeN+BW) = to die, pass away (short form of
'Meninggal dunia' below)
- Meninggal dunia (MeN+BW + world) = to pass away, to
die (lit. pass on from the world)
- Meninggalkan (MeN+BW+kan) = to leave (a place); to
leave behind/abandon (someone/ something)
- Ketinggalan (Ke+BW+an) = to miss (a bus, train, etc);
to be left behind
- Tertinggal (Ter+BW) = to be (accidentally) left
behind
- Ditinggalkan (Di+BW+kan) = to be left behind; to be
abandoned
- Selamat tinggal (word + BW) = goodbye (said to the
person staying)
Noun affixes are affixes that form nouns upon
addition to base words. The following are examples of noun
affixes:
| Type of noun affixes |
Affix |
Example of root word |
Example of derived word |
| Prefix |
pe(N)- |
duduk (sit) |
penduduk (resident) |
|
ke- |
hendak (want) |
kehendak (desire) |
| Infix |
-el- |
tunjuk (point) |
telunjuk (index finger, command) |
|
-em- |
kelut (dishevelled) |
kemelut (chaos, crisis) |
|
-er- |
gigi (teeth) |
gerigi (toothed blade, serration) |
| Suffix |
-an |
bangun (wake up, raise) |
bangunan (building) |
| Confix |
ke-...-an |
raja (king) |
kerajaan (kingdom) |
|
pe-...-an |
kerja (work) |
pekerjaan (occupation) |
(N) and (R) indicate that if a word begins with certain letters
(most often vowels or consonants k, p, s, t), the letter will
either be omitted or other letters will replace it, most commonly
with the letters in the bracket or m, ng, ny and l.
Similarly,
verb affixes are attached to root words
to form verbs. In Indonesian, there are:
| Type of verb affixes |
Affix |
Example of root word |
Example of derived word |
| Prefix |
be(L)- |
ajar (teach) |
belajar (to study) - Intransitive |
|
me(N)- |
tolong (help) |
menolong (to help) - Active transitive |
|
me(NG)- |
gambar (picture) |
menggambar (to draw) - Active
transitive |
|
di- |
ambil (take) |
diambil (is being taken) - Passive transitive |
|
memper- |
dalam (depth) |
memperdalam (to deepen) |
|
dipe(R)- |
dalam (deep) |
diperdalam (is being further deepen) |
|
te(R)- |
makan (eat) |
termakan (to have accidentally eaten) |
| Suffix |
-kan |
letak (place, keep) |
letakkan (keep) - Imperative
transitive |
|
-i |
jauh (far) |
jauhi (avoid) - Imperative
transitive |
| Confix |
be(R)-...-an |
pasang (pair) |
berpasangan (to be paired) |
|
be(R)-...-kan |
dasar (base) |
berdasarkan (based upon) |
|
me(M)-...-kan |
pasti (certain) |
memastikan (to ensure) |
|
me(N)-...-i |
teman (companion) |
menemani (to accompany) |
|
mempe(R)-...-kan |
guna (use) |
mempergunakan (to misuse, to utilise) |
|
mempe(L)-...-i |
ajar (teach) |
mempelajari (to study) |
|
ke-...-an |
hilang (disappear) |
kehilangan (to lose) |
|
di-...-i |
sakit (pain) |
disakiti (is being hurt) |
|
di-...-kan |
benar (right) |
dibenarkan (is allowed to) |
|
dipe(R)-...-kan |
kenal (know, recognise) |
diperkenalkan (is being introduced) |
Adjective affixes are attached to base words to
form adjectives:
| Type of adjective affixes |
Affix |
Example of root word |
Example of derived word |
| Prefix |
te(R)- |
kenal (know) |
terkenal (famous) |
|
se- |
rupa (appearance) |
serupa (similar (to)) |
| Infix |
-em- |
cerlang (radiant bright) |
cemerlang (bright, excellent) |
|
-er- |
sabut (husk) |
serabut (dishevelled) |
| Confix |
ke-...-an |
barat (west) |
kebaratan (westernized) |
In addition to these affixes, Indonesia language also has a lot of
borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and
English. For example
maha-,
pasca-,
eka-,
bi-,
anti-,
pro-,
pra-, etc.
Compound words
In Indonesian, new words can be formed by conjoining two or more
base words. Compound words, when they exist freely in a sentence,
are often written separately. Compound words are only attached to
each other when they are bound by a confix or when they are already
considered as stable words.
For example, the word
rumah, which means
house
and
makan, which means
eat, are compounded to
form a new word
rumah makan (restaurant). Similarly,
ambil alih (take over) is formed using the root words
ambil (take) and
alih (shift), but will link
together when a circumfix is attached to it, i.e.
pengambilalihan (takeover). Certain stable words, such as
kakitangan (personnel), and
kerjasama
(co-oporation; corporation), are spelled as one word even though
the words they consist of can also exist freely in sentences.
Initial consonant morphing
Indonesian makes use of
initial consonant morphing when
using the prefixes
me- and
pe-. This means that
according to the initial sound of the base word, the sounds used in
the prefix will differ; this is based on the place of
articulation.
The sound following the
me- or
pe- suffix is
usually a nasal (m, n, ny, ng) or liquid (l, r) sound. Which sound
is used depends on the point of articulation. E.g. the initial
sound of
beli, /b/, is a bi-labial sound (pronounced using
both the lips), so the nasal bi-labial sound, /m/ is placed before
the base word, creating
membeli.
The initial consonant is dropped if it is unvoiced(/p/, /t/, /s/,
/k/), e.g.
menulis/
tulis,
memilih/
pilih.
Gender
Indonesian does not make use of
grammatical gender, and there are only
select words that use natural gender. For instance, the same word
is used for
he and
she (
dia/ia) or for
his and
her (
dia/ia/-nya).
A majority of Indonesian words that refer to people generally have
a form that does not distinguish between the sexes. In order to
specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective must be added.
Thus,
adik laki-laki corresponds to "younger brother" but
really means "younger male sibling".
adik = younger sibling
laki-laki = male
perempuan = female
adik perempuan = younger sister
The terms "kakak" and "adik" are not only used to address younger
or older siblings, but also used when one person is addressing
another who is not his/her sibling. This is done out of respect for
the other person.
There are some words that are gendered, for instance
putri
means "daughter", and
putra means "son" and also
pramugara means "air steward" (male flight attendant) and
pramugari meaning "air stewardess" (female flight
attendant). Another example would be
olahragawan, which
equates to "sportsman", and
olahragawati, 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
through the Old
Javanese
language).
In some regions of Indonesia such as Sumatra and Jakarta,
abang (a gender-specific term meaning "older brother") is
commonly used as a form of address for older male siblings, whilst
kakak (a non-gender specific term, meaning "older
sibling") is often used to mean "older sister". Similarly, more
direct influences from dialects such as Javanese and Chinese
languages have also seen further use of other gendered words in
Indonesian. For example:
Mas (Jav. = older brother),
M'bak (Jav. = older sister),
Koko (
Hokkien = older brother) and
Cici
or
Cécé (Hokkien = older sister).
Measure words
Another distinguishing feature of Indonesian language is its use of
measure words. In this way, it is
similar to many other languages of Asia, including
Chinese,
Japanese,
Korean,
Vietnamese,
Burmese, and
Bengali.
Examples of these measure words are:
ekor (used for
animals),
buah (generally used for non-living things),
orang (used for people),
lembar (used for paper),
helai (used for long, thin and generally flat things),
biji or
butir(used for tiny, round things e.a
fruits),
batang (used for long, stick-like objects), etc.
However, these measure words may not always be used in informal
conversation.
| Indonesian |
Literal English translation |
Normal English translation |
| Tiga ekor sapi |
Three tails (of) cow |
Three cows |
| Sepuluh orang tentara |
Ten people soldiers |
Ten soldiers |
| Lima lembar/ helai/ carik kertas |
Five sheets/pieces of paper |
Five sheets/pieces of paper |
| Sebelas biji (buah) apel |
Eleven seeds (fruits) (of) apple |
Eleven apples (fruits) |
- Importantly, when a measure word is being used in conjunction
with only one object, the numeral prefix
se- is used in front of the measure word, not
satu. Therefore a banana would be translated as
(se + MW + object) = se'batang
pisang.
Negation
There are
three major forms of negation used in
the Indonesian language, namely
tidak,
bukan and
belum.
- Tidak (often shortened to
tak (written) and nggak (spoken) or by Javanese
as ndak or gak) is used for the negation of a
verb and adjective.
For example: "saya
tidak tahu" = I do
not knowOR
"Ibu saya
tidak senang" = My mother is
not
happy
- Bukan is used in the negation of a
noun.
For example: "Itu
bukan anjing saya" = That is
not my dog
- Belum is primarily used to negate a
sentence or phrase with the sense that something has not yet been
accomplished or experienced. In this sense, belum can also
be used as a negative response to a question.
For example: "Anda sudah pernah ke Indonesia (
belum)?
"
Belum, saya
belum pernah pergi ke Indonesia" =
Have you ever been to Indonesia before, (
or not)?
No, I have
not yet been to Indonesia OR "Orang
itu
belum terbiasa tinggal di Indonesia" = That person is
not (yet) used to live in Indonesia.
NB: Another kind of negation involves the word
jangan,
which equates to the English equivalent of "don't" or "do not".
Jangan is used for negating imperatives or advising
against certain actions. For example, "
Jangan tinggalkan
saya di sini!" =
Don't leave me
here!'
Pluralization
Plurals are expressed by means of
reduplication, but only when the plural is not
implied in the context. Thus "person" is
orang, and
"people" is
orang-orang, but "a thousand people" is
seribu orang, as the use of a numeral (i.e.
seribu) renders it unnecessary to mark the plural
form.
For foreigners learning Indonesian, the concept of grammatical
reduplication is not as easy to grasp as it may seem. Besides
expressing plurals, reduplication can also be used to create new
words that differ in meaning. For instance,
hati means
"heart" or "liver" (depending on context) whereas
hati-hati means "to be careful" and is often used as a
verb. As stated above,
orang means "person" while
orang-orang means "people", but
orang-orangan
means "scarecrow". Also, not all reduplicated words indicate plural
forms of a word with many words naturally expressed in reduplicated
form. Examples of these include
biri-biri (sheep) or
kupu-kupu (butterfly), which can imply both a singular or
plural meaning, depending on the context or numeral used.
By contrast, there are also some types of plural words that are
expressed by reduplication of a similar sounding (but essentially
different) word. In these cases the general sound of a word/phrase
is repeated, but the initial letter of the repeated word is
changed. A common example of this is
sayur-mayur (not
sayur-sayur) meaning "vegetables" (plural). Another type
of reduplication can be formed through the use of certain affixes
(e.g. pe- + -an). For instance,
pepohonan ([various kinds
of] trees, from the word
pohon [tree]),
perumahan
(houses/housing, from the word
rumah [house]) or
pegunungan (mountains, mountain range, from the word
gunung [mountain]), and so on.
Another useful word to remember when pluralizing in Indonesian is
beberapa, which means "some." For example, one may use
beberapa pegunungan to describe a series of mountain
ranges and
beberapa kupu-kupu to describe (plural)
butterflies.
Pronouns
There are
two forms of
"we",
kami or
kita, depending on whether the speaker
includes the person being talked to.
Kami
(exclusive) is used when the person or people being spoken to are
not included, while
kita (inclusive)
includes the opposite party. Their usage is increasingly confused
in colloquial Indonesian.
There are two major forms of "I", which are
saya and
aku.
Despite having the same meaning,
saya is
definitely the more formal form, whereas
aku is used often used with family,
friends and between lovers.
There are three common forms of "you", which are
kamu,
Anda, and
kalian.
Anda is
the more polite form of "you" and is used in conversations with
someone you barely know, in advertising, business situations, or
with someone whom you wish to respect.
Kalian is the common plural form of "you"
and is often said to be slightly informal.
NB: Because of the overall structure of Indonesian society and
influences from regional dialects, many more different pronouns
exist in Indonesian. Some of these additional pronouns may show
utmost politeness and respect (e.g.
saudara/
saudari
= you (male/female) or
Anda sekalian =
you (polite, plural form)), others may be used only in the most
informal of situations (e.g.
gua/
lu = me/you
-
see Indonesian
slang), while others may even possess somewhat romantic or
poetic nuances(eg.
daku/
dikau =
me/you).
Common Indonesian Pronouns
| Type |
Indonesian |
English |
| First Person |
Saya (standard, polite), Aku (informal, familiar), Gua/Gué
(informal, slang) |
I, me |
|
Kami (excl.), Kita (incl.) |
We, us |
| Second Person |
Anda (polite, formal), Saudara(male)/Saudari(female) (polite,
formal) |
You |
|
Kamu (familiar, informal), (Eng)kau (familiar, informal), Lu/Lo
(informal, slang) |
You |
|
Kalian (plural, informal), Anda sekalian (plural, formal),
Saudara(i)-saudara(i) (polite) |
You (plural) |
| Third Person |
Dia, Ia |
He, she, it |
|
Beliau (addressing a highly respected person ) |
He, She |
|
Meréka |
They |
Possessive pronouns
| Type of possessive pronouns |
|
Possessive pronouns |
Example of root word |
Example of derived word(s) |
| First person |
Saya, Aku (I) |
-ku |
méja (table) |
méjaku (my table) |
|
Kami (we, referring to 1st and 3rd person), kita (we, referring
to 1st and 2nd person) |
... (milik) kami/kita |
kursi (chair) |
kursi (milik) kami, kursi (milik) kita (our
chair) |
| Second person |
Kamu (you) |
-mu |
méja (table) |
méjamu (your table) |
|
Anda, Saudara (you (polite)) |
... (milik) Anda/Saudara |
kursi (chair) |
kursi (milik) Anda/Saudara (your chair) |
|
Kalian (you (plural)) |
... (milik) kalian |
kursi (chair) |
kursi (milik) kalian (your chair) |
| Third person |
Dia, Ia (he, she, it) |
-nya |
méja (table) |
méjanya (his, her, its table) |
|
Beliau (he, she (polite)) |
... (milik) Beliau |
méja (table) |
méja (milik) Beliau (his, her table) |
|
Meréka (they) |
... (milik) meréka |
kursi (chair) |
kursi (milik) meréka (their chair) |
Demonstrative pronouns
There are two kinds of
demonstrative pronouns in the
Indonesian language.
Ini (this, these) is used for a noun
that is generally near to the speaker.
Itu (that, those)
is used for a noun that is generally far from the speaker. There is
no difference between singular form and the plural form. However,
plural can be indicated through duplication of a noun followed by a
demonstrative pronoun. Also, the word
yang is often placed
before demonstrative pronouns to give emphasis and a sense of
certainty, particularly when making references or inquiries about
something/someone.
Various Uses
| Demonst. Pronoun |
Simple Use |
English Meaning |
| Ini |
Buku ini |
This book |
| Itu |
Kucing itu |
That cat |
| Demonst. Pronoun |
Plural Form (via Noun duplication) |
English Meaning |
| Ini |
Buku-buku ini |
These books |
| Itu |
Kucing-kucing itu |
Those cats |
| Demonst. Pronoun + yang |
Example Sentence |
English Meaning |
| Yang ini |
Q: Anda mau membeli buku yang mana?A: Saya mau beli
yang ini |
Q: Which book do you wish to purchase?A: I would like
this one (this book) |
| Yang itu |
Q: Kucing mana yang makan tikusmu?A: Yang
itu! |
Q: Which cat ate your mouse?A: That one (that
cat)! |
Verbs
Verbs are not
inflected 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
(sometimes referred to as aspect particles), such as
belum
(not yet) or
sudah (already). On the other hand, there is
a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and
denote
active-passive voices.
Such affixes include prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and their
combinations; whose usage rules are often ignored in informal
conversations.
Emphasis
Although the basic word order of Indonesian is Subject Verb Object
(SVO), as mentioned above, it is possible to make frequent use of
passive voice or to scramble word order, thus adding
emphasis on a certain sentence particle. The
particle being emphasised is usually placed at the beginning of the
sentence. In spoken Indonesian, the aspect of the sentence being
emphasised is usually followed by a short pause before continuing
on with the remainder of the sentence.
Some examples include:
- Saya pergi ke pasar kemarin "I went to the market
yesterday" — neutral, or with emphasis 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.
NB: Some of the above examples (namely the latter two) are more
likely to be encountered in spoken Indonesian rather than written
forms of the language.
Vocabulary
Indonesian as a modern dialect of Malay has borrowed heavily from
many languages, including:
Sanskrit,
Arabic,
Persian,
Portuguese,
Dutch,
Chinese and many other languages, including
other
Austronesian languages.
It is estimated that there are some 7500 Sanskrit loanwords in
modern Indonesian, 1,000 Arabic loans, some of
Persian and
Hebrew origin, some 125 words of Portuguese
(also
Spanish and
Italian) origin and a staggering number of
some 1,000 loan words from Dutch. The latter also comprises many
words from other European languages, which came via Dutch, the
so-called
International
Vocabulary. The vast majority of Indonesian words, however,
come from the root lexical stock of its Austronesian (incl. Old
Malay) heritage.
Although
Hinduism and
Buddhism are no longer the major religions of
Indonesia,
Sanskrit, which was the language
vehicle for these religions, is still held in high esteem and is
comparable with the status of
Latin in
English and other Western European
languages.
Residents of Bali
and Java
tend to be particularly proud of the Hindu-Buddhist
heritage. Sanskrit is also the main source for
neologisms. These are usually formed from Sanskrit
roots. The loanwords from Sanskrit cover many aspects of
religion,
art and everyday life.
The
Sanskrit influence came from contacts with India
long ago
before the Common Era. The words are either directly
borrowed from India or with the intermediary of the
Old Javanese language. In the
classical language of Java, Old Javanese, the number of Sanskrit
loanwords is far greater. The Old Javanese—English dictionary by
prof.
P.J. Zoetmulder,
S.J. (1982) contains no fewer than 25,500
entries. Almost half are Sanskrit loan words.The loan words from
Arabic are mainly concerned with
religion, in particular with
Islam, as can be
expected.
Allah is the word for
God even in
Christian Bible translations. Many early Bible translators, when
they came across some unusual
Hebrew
words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer
translations, this practice is discontinued. They now turn to
Greek names or use the original
Hebrew Word. For example, the name
Jesus was
initially translated as
Isa for God in Sanskrit, but is
now spelt as Yesus. Psalms used to be translated as Zabur, the
Arabic name, but now it is called Mazmur, which
corresponds more with Hebrew.
Loan words from
Portuguese are
common words, which were mainly connected with articles the early
European traders and explorers brought to Southeast Asia.
The
Portuguese were among the first westerners to sail east to the
"Spice
Islands
".
The
Chinese loanwords are usually
concerned with cuisine, trade or often just exclusively things
Chinese. There is a considerable Chinese presence in the whole of
Southeast Asia. According to the 2000
census,
the relative number of people of Chinese descent in Indonesia is
almost 1%, although this may likely be underestimated.
The
former colonial power, the Netherlands, left an impressive vocabulary. These
Dutch loan words, and also from other
non Italo-Iberian, European languages loanwords that came via
Dutch, cover all aspects of life. Some Dutch loan words, having
clusters of several consonants, pose difficulties to speakers of
Indonesian. This problem is usually solved by insertion of the
schwa. For example Dutch
schroef →
sekrup .
As modern Indonesian draws many of its words from foreign sources,
there are many
synonyms, much like modern
English. For example, Indonesian
has three words for "book", i.e.
pustaka (from Sanskrit),
kitab (from Arabic) and
buku (from Dutch). These
words have, unsurprisingly, slightly different meanings. A
pustaka is often connected with ancient wisdom, divine
knowledge or sometimes with esoteric knowledge. A derived form,
perpustakaan means a library. A
kitab is usually
a religious scripture or a book containing moral guidances. The
Indonesian words for the
Bible are
Alkitab and
Injil, both directly derived from
Arabic. The book containing the penal code is also called the
kitab.
Buku, from Dutch, is also a common word
for books.
In addition to those above (and the borrowed words listed under the
sub-heading
History towards the top of this article),
there are also direct borrowings from various other languages of
the world, such as "karaoke" from
Japanese, and "
modem"
from English.
Spoken & informal Indonesian
In very informal spoken Indonesian, various words are replaced with
those of a less formal nature. E.g.
tidak (no/not) is
often replaced with the
Betawi
language's
nggak (pronounced [nggaʔ]), whilst
seperti (like, similar to) is often replaced with
kayak (pronounced [kayaʔ]).
As for pronunciation, the diphthongs
ai and
au on
the end of base words are typically pronounced 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. E.g.:
capai becomes
cape or
capek (pronounced
[capéʔ]),
pakai become
pake (pronounced [pakéʔ]),
kalau becomes
kalo (pronounced [kaloʔ]).
In verbs, the prefix
me- is often dropped, although an
initial nasal consonant is usually retained. E.g.:
mengangkat becomes
ngangkat (the basic word is
angkat). The suffixes
-kan and
-i are
often replaced by
-in. E.g.:
mencarikan becomes
nyariin (pronounced with a
glottal
stop between the two i's: [nyariʔin]),
menuruti
becomes
nurutin. The latter grammatical aspect is one
often closely related to
Indonesian
found in Jakarta and surrounding areas.
ʔ =
glottal stop, often written by a
-k in final position. E.g.
kaya'k
for
[kayaʔ], cape'k for [capéʔ].
Writing system
Indonesian is written using the
Latin
alphabet, and is generally
phonetically
consistent.
Consonants are represented in a way similar to
Italian, although
c
is always (like English "ch"),
g is always ("hard") and
j represents as it does in English. In addition,
ny represents the
palatal
nasal ,
ng is used for the
velar nasal (which can occur word-initially),
sy for (English "sh") and
kh for the
voiceless velar fricative . Both
and are represented with an
e. Because of its similarity
in pronunciation with Italian,
Gottlob Brückner and
Eduard Douwes Dekker said that
"Indonesian is Italian of the East." One common source of
confusion for foreign readers, particularly when reading place
names, is the spelling changes in the language that have occurred
since Indonesian independence. Commonly-used changes include:
Old
spelling
|
New
spelling
|
| oe |
u |
| tj |
c |
| dj |
j |
| j |
y |
| nj |
ny |
| sj |
sy |
| ch |
kh |
The first of these changes (
oe to
u) occurred
around the time of independence in 1947; all of the others were a
part of an officially-mandated
spelling
reform in 1972.
Some of the old spellings, which were more
closely derived from the Dutch
language, 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
is sometimes written
Jogjakarta.
Idioms and proverbs
- Ada gula, Ada semut.
Lit. "Where there's sugar, there are ants". Where there is a good
thing (sugar) there will be people taking advantage of it
(ants).
- Gajah Bertarung, pelanduk mati ditengah-tengah.
Lit. "The elephants brawl, the deer died in the middle". The weak
always becomes the victim when the strong disagree on
something.
- Sekali melompat, dua tiga pulau terlampaui
Lit. "Jump once, two or three islands are skipped". Similar to
"Killing two birds with one stone".
See also
References
- "The Indonesian language: Its history and role in
modern society," James Sneddon, UNSW PRESS
- "Bahasa Indonesia: The Indonesian Language," George Quinn,
Australian National University
- James N. Sneddon, The Indonesian language : its history and
role in modern society, UNSW Press, 2003
- Ethnologue report for language code:ind
- This is a study led by Prof. Dr. J.W. de Vries of the
University of Leiden in the Netherlands
Bibliography
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