Indonesian Language Guide

Official language in
Indonesia
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

The Constitution of Indonesia states that the national language is Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), and that the State respects and preserves local languages as national cultural treasures. An Illustration of the IPA describes Indonesian as the language of government and the medium of instruction in schools, used in an increasingly wide sphere of social interaction, and notes that a variant of Malay was adopted as the official language of Indonesia when independence was declared. The estimate it gives counts far more people who speak Indonesian as a second language than as a first.

Indonesian is one of several closely related varieties of Malay that hold national language status: in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore the language is called Standard Malay, and in Indonesia it is called Indonesian. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these standard varieties, which are said to derive from the Malay of Johor in Peninsular Malaysia. Among them, Indonesian is described as the most divergent in its lexis, due to extensive influence from languages like Dutch and Javanese. This shows up plainly when the Indonesian and Malay cards in this app are read side by side: "Station" is Stasiun here and Stesen there, "Hospital" is Rumah sakit and Hospital, "Shop" is Toko and Kedai, "Room" is Kamar and Bilik, "Toilet" is Toilet and Tandas, and "How are you?" is Apa kabar? and Apa khabar?

The body that develops and maintains the language is the Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa. Together with the language bureaux of Brunei and Malaysia it forms a joint council, MABBIM, whose stated aim is to build and develop the official or national language of the three member countries — Malay and Indonesian — as a language of learning, science, modern technology, industry and the economy.

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Script & pronunciation

Indonesian is written in Rumi, the alphabet that runs from A to Z and descends from the letters of ancient Rome. Almost every card in this app therefore shows the phrase in one form only, with no second transcription line; a handful of cards add a syllable-by-syllable split under the phrase, as in Si-la-kan tun-juk-kan pas-por An-da for Silakan tunjukkan paspor Anda ("Please show your passport").

The spelling used today was settled jointly with Malaysia. After an earlier attempt at a shared system was left unimplemented, the two governments proclaimed a new Rumi spelling on the same day in Jakarta and in Kuala Lumpur, in the early nineteen-seventies; it was launched in Jakarta by the President of Indonesia and in Kuala Lumpur by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. In Indonesia the system is called Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan, and it swept away the older spelling traditions, replacing the Soewandi spelling in Indonesia and the Za'ba spelling in Malaysia. That is why Indonesian and Malay look so similar on the page today even where the words differ.

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Grammar essentials

There are two words for "no" or "not", and the choice depends on what is being denied. To negate nouns and personal pronouns, use bukan; to negate verbs, adjectives and adverbs, use tidak. This app's card Tidak is "No", and Saya tidak mengerti is "I don't understand," with tidak before the verb.

A closed question can begin with the word apakah, but speakers usually just use a rising inflection at the end of the sentence, as in English. Both patterns are on this app's cards: Apakah ini gratis? is "Is it free?", while Ada? is "Do you have it?" and Bisa? is "Can you do it?" The phrase yang mana is "which one", and it appears on the card Yang mana? ("Which one?").

The demonstratives ini ("this") and itu ("that") can stand before a noun phrase, where they mean "this is" or "that is", and also after a noun, where they pick out that noun. The basic locative prepositions are di (in, at or on), which indicates that nothing moves, ke (to), which indicates movement toward, and dari (from), which indicates movement away. The cards Di sini, Di situ and Di sana are "Here", "There (near you)" and "Over there".

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Politeness & etiquette

Indonesian sets formal and non-formal pronouns side by side. For "I" the formal word is saya and the non-formal one is aku; for "you" the formal word is Anda and the non-formal one is kamu, with kalian for more than one person. Kamu is used when addressing children, juniors, pupils, people you know very well, or people who are the same age as you or younger. This app's basic cards give Saya ("I / me") and Anda ("You"), and the airport cards address the traveller as Anda.

Rather than a pronoun, a traveller is often addressed by a term based on age: Mbak for young women, Mas for young men, Ibu or Bu for older women, and Bapak or Pak for older men. In workplaces and offices it is more common to use Ibu and Bapak than Mas and Mbak. Generally an Indonesian does not have a family name, but only a personal name, with exceptions.

For requests and instructions, tolong and silakan are the more formal words and are used in formal situations; that does not mean the less formal forms are impolite. This app's card Tolong is "Please", and an immigration officer's line is written with the other word: Silakan tunjukkan paspor Anda ("Please show your passport"), where the card glosses Silakan as a polite invitation. Greetings change with the time of day — Selamat pagi in the morning, Selamat siang around the middle of the day, Selamat sore in the later afternoon and Selamat malam in the evening — and Apa kabar? ("How are you?") is used when the two people have not seen each other for a while.

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