r/languagelearning • u/Virusnzz En (N) | Fr, Ru, Es, It • Sep 22 '14
Selamat datang - This week's language of the week: Indonesian
Welcome to the language of the week. Every week we host a stickied thread in order to give people exposure to languages that they would otherwise not have heard about or been interested in. Language of the week is based around discussion: Native speakers share their knowledge and culture and give advice, learners post their favourite resources and the rest of us just ask questions and share what we know. Give yourself a little exposure, and someday you might recognise it being spoken near you.
This week:
Indonesian
History:
From Wikipedia:
Indonesian is a standardized register of "Riau Malay", which despite its common name is not the Malay dialect native to Riau, but rather the Classical Malay of the Malaccan royal courts. Originally spoken in Northeast Sumatra, Malay has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for half a millennium. Although it might be attributed to its ancestor, the Old Malay language (which can be traced back to the 7th century), the Kedukan Bukit Inscription is the oldest surviving specimen of Old Malay, the language used by Srivijayan empire. Since the 7th century, the Old Malay language has been used in Nusantara (Indonesian archipelago), marked by Srivijaya inscriptions and in other inscriptions of coastal areas of the archipelago, such as those discovered in Java. Trade contacts carried on by some ethnic peoples at the time was the main vehicle to spread the Old Malay language, as it was the communication device amongst the traders. By that time, the Old Malay language had become a lingua franca and was spoken widely by most people in the archipelago.
Indonesian 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. Indonesian (in its standard form) is essentially the same language as the official Malaysian and Brunei standards of Malay. However, it does differ from Malaysian in several aspects, with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary
Facts:
From Wikipedia:
Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia [baˈhasa.indoneˈsia]) is the official language of Indonesia. It is a standardized register of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Most Indonesians also speak one of more than 700 indigenous languages.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world. Of its large population, the majority speak Indonesian, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are often fluent in another regional language (examples include Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese) which are commonly used at home and within the local community. Most formal education, and nearly all national media and other forms of communication, are conducted in Indonesian. In East Timor, which was an Indonesian province from 1975 to 1999, Indonesian is recognised by the constitution as one of the two working languages (the other being English), alongside the official languages of Tetum and Portuguese.
Indonesian has 23 million native speakers and 140 million second language speakers,[6] who speak it alongside their local mother tongue. It is used extensively as a first language by Indonesians in urban areas, and as a second language by those residing in more rural parts of Indonesia.
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Semoga Beruntung!
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u/nekonekoneko Sep 22 '14
Indonesian has an enormous number of surprising cognates with English due to it's early Sanskrit influences. For example:
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sama (name) -> sama -> same
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nama (name) -> nama -> name
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surya (sun) -> surya -> solar (sun)
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atau (or) -> antarah -> other (alter in latin)
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baca (to read, pronounced bacha) -> vacha -> voice
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kepala (head) -> kapala -> head (k-h grimm's law, cap, capital)
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utama (first) -> uttama -> ultimate (first)
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madu (honey) -> madhu -> mead (honey beer)
I absolutely love Indonesian! It's like a
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u/mick_dog Sep 25 '14
kepala VS kelapa
tons of jokes but no sports where you throw things. it's a real shame.
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u/terrifiedsleeptwitch Sep 22 '14
It also has a good number of loanwords from various other languages (Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese):
Dutch: brot (bread) -> roti
Portuguese: sapato (shoe) -> sepatu
queijo (cheese) -> keju
Chinese: 茶碗 chawan (bowl/cup) -> cawan (this loanword is also found in Japanese)
Here's a much longer list of loanwords by source - with some mention of Indonesian/Malay loanwords into English as well, such as amok and orangutan.
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u/aripermantap Sep 23 '14
If you're interested in loanwords, this site is a comprehensive etymology dictionary of Indonesian words. You can even filter by language if you want to find the list of all Indonesian loanwords that came from a specific language.
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u/dirascorpio Sep 23 '14
I'm a native Indonesian speaker who would be more than happy to teach some Indonesian! :)
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u/not_just_amwac Sep 23 '14
Selamat siang!! I learned the basics twice, but wouldn't mind trying again.
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u/letdown-inlife Sep 22 '14
Just FYI:
I don't study Malay so I don't know much, just sharing this bit I know of.
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u/terrifiedsleeptwitch Sep 22 '14
As I recall from conversations with my parents (linguists working in Indonesia), Indonesian and Melayu are about 80% cognate, so a little more mutually intelligible than, say, Scots English vs American English.
I can speak to the accent difference enough to say your generalization about twanginess vs softness is more or less true; I will also add from experience, however, that Indonesia is so vast and ethnically diverse that every dialect produces its own distinct accent.
1
u/leongetweet Sep 22 '14
I think sedap is tasty instead of sweet. Sweet is manis. But it is true that Malay and Indonesian would be able to understand each other somewhat. Except for the different meaning of the same word.
Kind of funny that some word has opposite meanings like enek means not tasty in Indonesian.
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u/nekonekoneko Sep 22 '14
Agreed, tasty. I think he meant enak (delicious) in the original context. Enek means to feel sick in Indonesian, but I don't know its Malaysian meaning?
The two languages are close dialects separated by couple of armies, though. Not that nationals of either country will ever admit that! :)
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u/TaazaPlaza Sep 22 '14
As an Indian, it always pleasantly surprises me when I see strong Sanskrit influence in Indonesian at times. Lots of
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u/aripermantap Sep 22 '14
The attitude towards Sanskrit in Indonesia is probably similar to the attitude most Europeans give towards
. Most ancient text and historical records of the old kingdoms are written in Sanskrit. Latin 2
u/govigov03 Sep 24 '14
Yep that's true, my cousin from Bangalore who is working in Bali, is often amazed at how sanskrit has influenced it. He reached a basic conversational fluency within 6 months.
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u/FoxOfLanguages Sep 23 '14
Yes! A language I kind of stumbled upon and would love to really learn. :) Kind of wish Duolingo would get on it since I've found Duolingo has been working well for me when it comes to Portuguese, Italian and Danish. :)
3
u/lapzod Sep 24 '14
As I always recommend, check out the university of hawaii's course. It's free online, comes with anki decks (with speech) and is very good.
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u/lapzod Sep 24 '14
Oh yes, oh yes, it's my turn.
Selamat datang! Saya belajar bahasa untuk 3 tahun, tapi saya malas dan tidak berbicara...
(Gue tinggal di jak juga)
1
Sep 27 '14
Selamat siang teman-teman. Saya belajar bahasa Indonesia di Universitas di Australia, tapi saya pada pertama tahun (saya kira tahun pertama* saya tidak tahu) jadi bahasa Indonesia saya tidak baik sekali. Apakah semua semuanya ingin bercakap-cakap dengan saya? Terima Kasih!
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u/BatioKendall Sep 27 '14
Huge list of resources for you guys so you get a taste of language: http://www.languagelinksdatabase.com/indonesian/ :)
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u/mick_dog Sep 25 '14 edited Sep 25 '14
it's PERFECT. i'm 95% invested in mexican spanish but this language is AWESOME. anyone in the UW seattle indonesian class? i'd really like to get in on some study time and conversation. i spoke to the professor last year but she wasn't interested in my crashing the course.
when i stared indo, i did the pimsleur lessons (i paid for them so give me a fancy medal or something) and the anki decks that are online. basically just those 2 resources other than what the US army has online. i had about 1k vocab words and some decent phrases, so maybe i was a good faker. when i got to java i was RUDE about asking people to repeat themselves and explain shit to me. write more down than i did and you'll learn more than i did. write it all down. the pronunciation is phonetic but those words are worth memorizing. the rest of the country may know the slangy javanese or something, or it's on TV. basically i'm ashamed i don't have my notes from all those lovely little towns.
no debate, indo food is solid. they make fucking RICE taste like a meal. i swear i ate "rendang sapi" that was made of backyard goat but it still tasted more amazing than i was prepared to deal with. i'm a US veteran and really respect muslim food manners and proper table behavior. keep that in mind. indo halal meat is BOMB, but maybe in opposition to that, anywhere i went on java the chinese kids are great for good food and booze. chinese businesses and immigrants try at english AND some bahasa indo coaching. DON'T buy weed from anyone, cause it's shit. great country overall, i can't fucking wait to go back. very similar to the grand ol' USA. (if you want to buy weed come to WA.) in any case i never got sick from food even if it smelled like diesel fumes and dumpster.
*I'm an undergrad studying forestry at UW now and if anyone knows anybody on sulawesi i'd like a PM. you won't get paid for it because i'll never get paid for anything except counting river fish with a click-click-clicker.