Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. It is the standard variant of one of the dialects of the Malay language, which has been used as the lingua franca of the Indonesian archipelago for 500 years. Indonesia has the fourth largest population and almost all its residents speak Indonesian fluently. Thus, Indonesian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
In addition to the official language, most Indonesians speak some regional language. The Indonesian language is the language of instruction in most educational institutions in the country, and almost all periodicals are published in it. In East Timor, which was an Indonesian province from 1975 to 1999, Indonesian is recognized as one of the two working languages, along with English.
The name of the language - Bahasa Indonesia - translated means "language of Indonesia". The Indonesian language received the status of the official language after the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945. In its standardized form, Indonesian is mutually intelligible with Malay, the official language of Malaysia. The differences between them come down to pronunciation and vocabulary (the Indonesian language has many borrowings from Dutch and Javanese).
Indonesian is the native language of a very small part of the country's population (mainly residents of Jakarta and its environs), while more than 200 million people regularly use it as a national language. In a country where people speak more than 300 native languages, the Indonesian language plays a very important unifying role. It is not difficult to guess that due to such ethnic diversity, the Indonesian language is represented in the form of many regional dialects.
The long period of Dutch colonization left its mark on the vocabulary of the Indonesian language, which includes words such as polisi (from Dutch politie, “police”), kualitas (from kwaliteit, “quality”), wortel (from wortel, “carrot”), etc. .d.
In addition to the Malay language, Portuguese was also used as a lingua franca on the islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Thanks to this, words such as meja (from Portuguese mesa, “table”), boneka (from boneca, “doll”), jendela (from janela, “window”), etc. appeared in the Indonesian language.
Although Hinduism and Buddhism are no longer the main religions of Indonesia, Sanskrit, the sacred language of these religions, is still highly respected in the country and has a status comparable to that of Latin in Western European countries. In addition, Sanskrit is the main source of neologisms relating to various aspects of religion, art and everyday life.
It often happens that a loanword comes in several variants of different origins: for example, the word “book” in Indonesian has two synonymous forms: pustaka (borrowing from Sanskrit) and buku (borrowing from Dutch).
Indonesian language does not use grammatical gender. The exception is words with natural gender, for example, dia (“he”) / ia (“she”). But, unlike European languages, differences in age are morphologically marked: adik (“younger brother”, “younger sister”), kakak (“elder brother”, “elder sister”). However, there are also a few words with grammatical gender: putri (“daughter”), putra (“son”). In some regions of Indonesia, such as Sumatra and Jakarta, words with grammatical gender are used as addresses: for example, abang ("big brother") or kakak ("big sister").
Michael Bordt and Liswati Seram
Translation from English:
Roman Laryushkin (e-mail: [email protected])
First edition: Jakarta, September 1991
Second edition: Jakarta, February 1995
Adobe Acrobat version: Ottawa, October 1995
HTML version, April 1996
Multilingual project by Ilya Frankwww. franklang. ru
Russian version: Simferopol, July 2003.
Day 1. Politeness. 3
Day 2. Taxi.. 4
Day 3. More about politeness.. 5
Day 4. Numbers. 6
Day 5. Simple sentences. 7
Day 6. Questions... 8
Day 7. Phrases... 9
Appendix 1. Pronunciation. 10
RULES.. 10
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE.... 10
Vowels. 10
Diphthongs.. 11
Consonants (easy part). 11
Appendix 2. How to find words in the dictionary. 12
Table A-1. Determining the root in words starting with “me” and “pe”. 12
Appendix 3. Dictionary. 14
Grammar notes.. 14
Introduction
Let's face it - whether you're in Indonesia for a week or 10 years, it's not only polite and helpful to know at least a little of the language, but in many cases it's absolutely necessary. Unless you want to be caught at the Borobudur Hotel (one of Jakarta's oldest luxury hotels) or restricted to traveling with an interpreter, you need to be able to communicate with these fun, friendly and strange people. This booklet gives you an effortless approach to learning the basics of the Indonesian language, Bahasa Indonesia.
You should also encounter a structured, functional approach to learning Indonesian. In phrase books you can find many phrases for special occasions (“Is this play a comedy or a tragedy?”). They are usually poorly organized for social situations (going to the market, at customs), when you most likely will not have the time or desire to carry around with a stupid phrasebook, even if you took it with you, which is extremely implausible. With these books, you can either memorize a couple hundred phrases that may or may not have application. Or you can keep this book in your pocket and hope that your fingers are fast enough to find the translation of the phrase “turn left here” before the taxi takes you completely out of town in a straight line.
Grammarians and dictionaries, although good for long-term language learning, will be even more of a nuisance in a taxi and at the supermarket checkout. Teaching tapes also have their place in the study of oral communication, but this approach requires time and effort to achieve practical results.
What is required for a short-term guest, and even for a newly arrived long-term guest, is a list of commonly used, useful, and necessary words and phrases, grouped so that the most useful ones can be learned and used first.
The most useful phrase book I found is this Indonesian Words and Phrases by the American Women's Association. It covers some of the most important core concepts and I highly recommend it, but no one wants to memorize an entire book on their first day in a new country. The following list of words, grouped by day, will help you get through the first week while you make plans to study the language more deeply.
Variants of words in the following dictionary are given in square brackets through a vertical line (for example = [morning | afternoon | afternoon | evening]; pagi - morning, etc.). The words to be inserted (...) can be replaced from any phrasebook or dictionary in Appendix 3.
Apps include a pronunciation guide, help with looking up words in the dictionary, and a short list of essential words.
Indonesian(in Indon. Bahasa Indonesia) is an Austronesian language that is a standardized form of the Malay language and is spoken in Indonesia. About 30 million people use Indonesian as their first language, and for 140 million people it is their second language. Linguistically, Indonesia is a multi-ethnic region where the Indonesian language is used as the lingua franca, despite the fact that there are even more Javanese speakers here - about 75 million.
During the period when Indonesia was a Dutch colony, Indonesian was written using the Latin alphabet, and this script was characterized by a number of orthographic features of the Dutch language. In Indonesian, this alphabet was called ejaan lama (ancient script).
In the 1930s, as part of the independence movement, the Indonesian language was standardized and the term Bahasa Indonesia was adopted as the name for the language.
In 1947, the letter combination oe was changed to u. Then in 1972, President Suharto introduced a series of official changes to the spelling system. Major changes included converting ch to kh, dj to j, j to y, nj to ny, sj to sy, and tj to c.
Indonesian alphabet
| A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | Jj | K k | Ll | Mm |
| a | be | ce | de | e | ef | ge | ha | i | je | ka | el | em |
| Nn | O o | P p | Q q | R r | Ss | T t | U u | Vv | W w | X x | Y y | Z z |
| en | o | pe | ki | er | es | te | u | fe | we | eks | ye | zet |
Phonetic transcription of the Indonesian language (Cara Pengucapan)
Vowels and diphthongs
Consonants
Notes:
- There are four digraphs: ng (eng), ny (nye), kh (kha) and sy (sya). The last two are found exclusively in words of Arabic origin.
- The vowels e and o are pronounced [ɛ] and [ɔ] in closed final syllables.
- ai and au are are pronounced as in final position and as separate vowels, and in any other place.
- The letters q, v, x and z are used in words borrowed from Europe and India.
The type of language is neutral (with a clear movement towards nominativity), fundamentally isolating. The name is most often used as a stem, a verb with affixes.
Alphabet and pronunciation
In use since the beginning of the twentieth century.In square brackets the transcription is indicated for those letters whose pronunciation differs from the standard one for the Latin alphabet.
a, b, c [h], d, e, é [open], f, g, h, i, j [j], k, kh, l, m, n, ng [closed], ny [ny ], o, p, r, s, sy [w], t, u, v, w, z
Accent quantitative (long stressed vowel), on the penultimate syllable or (if the penultimate e) on the 3rd from the end.
Noun and adjective
In Indonesian they are less closely related in structure than in Indo-European languages. Typologically, this is due to the structure of neutral languages, in which the adjective is formally and semantically closer to predicates (verbs).Noun morphologically invariable, except for reduplication: in the plural the stem is doubled, for example, orang “person” - orang-orang (in the current spelling orang 2) “people”.
Adjective as an independent part of speech it is not always distinguished, but it has some independent characteristics. Examples: baik "good" - lebih baik "more good, better", kurang baik "less good", terbaik "the best", sebaik-baiknya "best (of them)", paling baik "best of all", baik-baik "very good, very good", orang baik-baik "good people"; berani "brave" - orang seberani singa "a man as brave as a lion."
Verb and adjective
Predicates have the categories of aspect, transitivity and voice (in this case, transitivity and voice are expressed independently of each other) and are not conjugated.Kinds: general (not particularly marked), intensive (formed by reduplication) and perfect (prefix ter-).
Transitive verbs are marked with the suffixes -i, -kan and the prefix per-.
Deposits: active (prefixes me-, men-, mem-, meng-, meny-), passive (more precisely, stative, formed using affixes denoting the person of a real object: ku- for the 1st, kau- for the 2nd, di -...[-nya] for the 3rd), reflexive (ber-), mutual (ber-...-an or...-me..., for example tolong-metolong "help each other", bertunangan "engaged").
Numerals
1 satu2 duas
3 tiga
4 empat
5 lima
6 enam
7 tujuh
8 delapan
9 sembilan
10 sepuluh
11 sebelas
12 duabelas and so on.
100 seratus
1000 seribu
1000000 sejuta
135 seratus tigapuluh lima
3rd, all three - kettiga
1/3 sepertiga
Numerals are usually used with counting words, for example seorang anak "one (person) child"
Personal pronouns
Basically they behave like nouns, but there are so-called enclitic forms that denote the object of a verb or possessiveness of a noun phrase: for the 1st person -ku, for the 2nd -mu, for the 3rd -nya.Full forms:
saya, aku "I", engkau, kau, kamu "you", (d)ia, biliau "he (she, it)", kami "we (without you, without you)", kita "we (with you, with you)", kamu "you", mereka "they"; tuan "master", bapak "father", mak "mother" are also used as personal pronouns.
Word formation
Quite poorly developed; among the means of word formation are affixation, conversion, reduplication and compounding (conjunction).Affixes per-, pe(ng, m, n, ny)-, se-, -an, -i, -kan (mostly transitives), infixes (guruh "thunder" - g em uruh "thunderous", tapak and t el apak "foot").
Conversion: saya kata "I say" - sepatah kata "one word".
Reduplication: 1) partial: le laki "male", tangga "stairs" - tetangga "neighboring, neighboring"; 2) with changes: gerak “to move” - gerak-gerik “behavior”, sayur “vegetables” - sayur-mayur “different vegetables”; 3) complete - grammatical means.
Compounding words: tanya "ask" + jawab "answer" = tanya jawab "dialogue", air "water" + mata "eye(s)" = air mata "tears".
Syntax
The sentence contrasts the noun and verb phrases. In a noun phrase, if necessary, only the last member is morphologically formed, even if it is an adjective (i.e., doubles in the plural, takes enclitic possessive pronouns).The definition always comes after the word being defined.
Basic word order in a sentence: predicate - subject (- object if necessary). The adverbial adverbial usually comes at the beginning of the sentence.
Most common phrases
| How are you? (also used as a greeting) | Apa kabar? | |
| How are you doing? | Kamu gimana kabarnya? | |
| Who are you? | Kamu siapa? | |
| What is your name? | Siapa namamu? | |
| How old are you? | Berapa umur anda? | |
| Where are you from? | Kamu asalnya dari mana? | |
| Are you busy now? | Apakah kamu sedang sibuk? | |
| Are you still there? | Apakah kamu masih disana? (Masih ada disana?) | |
| Where is … ? | Di manakah...? | |
| When … ? | Kapankah... ? | |
| How to say … ? | Bagaimana anda mengatakan… ? | |
| What did you eat today? | Kamu makan apa hari ini? |
| Yes | Ya | |
| No | Tidak | |
| Thank you | Terima kasih | |
| You're welcome (you're welcome) | Terima kasih kembali | |
| Sorry) | Maafkan saya | |
| Hello | Helo | |
| Good morning/afternoon/evening/night | Selamat pagi/siang/sore/malam | |
| See you later (see you later) | Sampai jumpa | |
| Bye | Dah | |
| Goodbye | Selamat tinggal | |
Text
Disuatu ranah yang indah dan tenteram dihilir Sungai Sa"dan diam seorang tuan tanah dengan isterinya dan seorang anak perempuannya yang sudah remaja Dorilana namnya.Analysis: In (di-) one + some valley which is (yang) beautiful and (dan) calm in the lower reaches (hilir) of the Sadan River live (diam) one-person owner (tuan) + land (tanah) c (dengan) wife (isteri)-his and one-human child + woman-his who is already (sudah) adult Dorylana name-his/her.
Translation: In a beautiful and calm valley in the lower reaches of the Sadan River there lived a landowner with his wife and already grown-up daughter named Dorilana.
Indonesia is the largest island state in the world. It is located in Southeast Asia on 17.5 thousand islands, however, people live only on a third of them. In terms of quantity, it occupies an honorable 4th place in the world: according to 2018 data, its citizens are more than 266 million people.
Not surprisingly, the state's linguistic diversity is staggering. But there is a language in Indonesia that unites the whole country - this is the state Indonesian.
Shall we talk? Languages of Indonesia
Scientists have calculated this information. They recorded how many languages in Indonesia are living languages used for everyday communication. There were more than 700 of them, with the Austronesian family leading in terms of the number of active native speakers. She is the most numerous.
The Austronesian family includes:
- core Malayo-Polynesian languages (including one of the most widespread Javanese, Sundanese and Sulawesi languages);
- Kalimantan;
- Filipino.
They also speak Papuan languages in Indonesia.
Number of native speakers
When figuring out what language is spoken in Indonesia, it is worth considering that the official language - Indonesian - is spoken by all residents of the country, and this is no less than 266 million people.
What other languages do residents of this Asian power communicate in informal settings:
- About 85 million people speak Javanese;
- Sundanese - 34 million;
- Madurese almost 14 million people.
The languages spoken by residents of Indonesia are Minangkabau, Betawi (5 million people each), Buginese, Banjar, Acehnese, Balinese (3.5 million each), Mushi (3.1 million), Sasak and Toba (2 million people each). The languages Levotobi, Tae, Bolaang-Mongondou, and Ambonese have the fewest speakers (according to 2000 data, 200-300 thousand people each). All of them are used in the social and everyday sphere, in interethnic communication.
Official language
What is the official language in Indonesia? It is called Indonesian, but its correct name is Bahasa Indonesia - translated as “language of Indonesia”. It is native mainly to the inhabitants of Jakarta, which is 8% of the total population of the country. However, it is this language that plays a unifying role with a large number of diverse dialects.
Story
The main language in Indonesia belongs to the Indonesian branch of the Austronesian language family. It was formed at the beginning of the 20th century. based on the widely spoken Malay. For this purpose, vernacular and literary forms of Malay were used, as well as European languages spoken in the former colony, most notably Dutch.
The Indonesian language was declared the language of national unity in October 1928. The decision was made at the Youth Congress (pictured). After that, for a long time it had two names - Indonesian / Malay.
Several circumstances contributed to the adoption of the official language:
- intensification of the nationalist movement for the country's independence;
- the need to unite all language groups.
Why did you choose Malay?
- The Dutch colonial government used the Malay language in official business.
- The Bible was translated into this language, with the help of which missionaries converted the local population to Christianity.
- was actively used in trade between tribes, it was known in various ports. In addition, its simple grammar and easy-to-remember vocabulary made it possible to quickly learn this language.
- And another important reason is that the nationalists from the Youth Congress sought to choose as an official language a language that would not be associated with the largest group of the population in the country, and these were the inhabitants of the island of Java. To prevent the Javanese from gaining political and economic advantages in the new state, the choice fell on the Malay language.
The strengthening and development of the Indonesian language was facilitated by the Japanese occupation of the islands during World War II, when all languages and dialects, except Indonesian, were banned.
The Indonesian language finally received official status in 1945, when the state gained independence, turning from a colony into the Republic of Indonesia.
Historical features of the state language
Scientists have discovered ancient monuments of writing adopted on the islands of Indonesia, which date back to the 7th century.
Over the centuries, the alphabet used has changed several times: first it was Devanagari, then from the 13th century. Arabic characters were used, and only at the end of the 19th century they began to use the Latin alphabet, using Dutch rules for writing words.
Language norms, lexical and grammatical, were finally formed only in the 60s of the XX century. The Latin transcription, adopted during the reform of 1972, finally united the variants of the Malay language into a single official language of Indonesia, while the spelling was simplified.
A few rules of the Indonesian language
The Indonesian language has 30 sounds, which are represented by 26 letters of the alphabet.
Some language features:
- Phonetic. The stress in words is practically not expressed, vowels are not reduced. The word is usually read as it is written.
- Word-forming. Words are formed by adding suffixes, prefixes and infixes, and by repeating a word or its first syllable. There are few difficult words. Plurals are formed by repeating a word.
- Grammatical. Nouns have no inflections, verbs have no conjugations, and tenses are few. Grammatical gender is not used, instead it is marked by age. Adjectives are formed from nouns by adding suffixes.
- Word order in sentences. Usually the subject expressed by a noun or pronoun comes before the predicate. The meaning of a sentence is often contained in the order of the words. Sentences can be simple or complex.
Vocabulary
The Indonesian language is full of borrowings. About 3 thousand words have been adopted from Arabic, and the vocabulary is also being replenished with words and expressions from the following languages:
- Sanskrit;
- Dutch;
- English;
- French;
- even Greek and Italian;
- The dialects are Sundanese and Jakarta.
Modern use
The official language of Indonesia is used not only for interethnic communication. It is not taught in schools and higher educational institutions.
It is used in print, on television and radio. Official records management, trade, jurisprudence, cultural sphere - the official language of Indonesia is used everywhere.
The amount of fiction written in it is increasing, although there are no famous writers yet.
Where in Russia they study the official Indonesian language
The Indonesian language is not difficult. Its basics can be quickly learned by taking a few lessons from tutors.
You can master all the intricacies of the national language of Indonesia at Moscow universities:
- Institute of Oriental Studies RAS.
- Institute of Practical Oriental Studies.
- MGIMO.
- Institute of Asian and African Countries.
In St. Petersburg, the language is taught at the Oriental Institute of the Far Eastern Federal University, Russian State University for the Humanities, and at the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.
Some polite phrases in Indonesian
When traveling to Indonesia for leisure or business, you can count on knowledge of English, which is taught in Indonesian schools and many residents speak it very well. But a few polite phrases spoken by a tourist in the Indonesian language will be greeted with joy.
Phrases for a friendly tourist:
- yes - ya;
- no - tidak;
- hello - halo;
- sorry - permisi;
- thank you - terima kasih;
- please - kembali;
- Do you speak English? - apakah anda berbicara dalam bahasa?
- help me - tolong saya.
Local residents are pleased if, when addressing women, they add the word “madam” to their name - bu, and to men - “master” - pak.
Fun facts
- The name of the main island in Indonesia and the name of the programming language are the same. Czech motorcycle models and cigarettes are also named after the island of Java.
- But the word “Indonesia” has nothing to do with local languages; it is translated from Greek as “Insular India”.
- The word “orangutan” in Indonesian means “man of the forest”, and “matahari” means “eye of the day, sun”. These words are known even to those who have not heard about which language is adopted as the official language in Indonesia.
Other popular languages of Indonesia
The Javanese language is extremely popular and is spoken by 85 million people, primarily on the island of Java. This language is spoken in schools and on television, books and newspapers are printed in it.
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