Parrot Time Magazine

Can You Speak Bahasa?

I have heard westerners asking me "Can you speak Bahasa?". To my understanding, the word "Bahasa" means "language" in the Indonesian language. This word can be used to mean many kinds of languages, such as Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), bahasa pemrograman (programming language), bahasa isyarat (sign language), bahasa tubuh (body language), bahasa asing (foreign language), etc.

What they mean by "to speak Bahasa" is actually "to speak the Indonesian language". Indonesian is known widely as Bahasa in the western world. As an Indonesian, I find it a bit strange and I don’t know how it became known as that. No one ever knows why.

But remember that Bahasa is a Sanskrit loanword in the Indonesian language, so basically any languages that have adopted the translation of "language" from Sanskrit will have the similar-sounding word, such as Khmer, Thai, Javanese, and many more.

Indonesian language (shortened as Indonesian) evolved from the Old Malay language which was used as the lingua franca for traders in the surroundings of Sumatera Island and Malay Peninsula. The living sister language of Indonesian is Malay language (shortened as Malay) , spoken in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam.

The speakers of Malay and Indonesian generally can understand one another, sometimes with a little bit of guessing, but they don’t need so much effort to comprehend because both languages share so many similarities.

The differences occurred predominantly in vocabularies and accents. Malay adopted mostly English loanwords, while Indonesian adopted mostly Dutch loanwords. You can see some examples in the following list:

These differences occurred because Malaysia was governed by the British, and Indonesia was governed by the Dutch. Because of this reason, both Indonesian and Malay languages evolved according to their respective countries’ history.

Writing System

Indonesian is one of several Asian languages that adopted the Latin alphabet. Indonesia (called the Dutch East Indies before independence) adopted an alphabet that was based on the Dutch alphabet. It was called the Soewandi Spelling System.

In order to harmonize the spelling differences in Indonesian and Malay languages, Indonesia and Malaysia adopted a spelling reform plan. As a result, Indonesia had Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan (Perfected Spelling System) and Malaysia had Ejaan Rumi Baharu (New Rumi Spelling). This new spelling system led to the changing of some Indonesian letters. For example:

Besides Latin alphabet, an alphabet based on Arabic script is also used, mostly in Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and Singapore. It is called the Jawi alphabet. You can see the Jawi alphabet in the banknote of Malaysia, signboards, product labels, etc.

Teddy is an avid language learner, blogger, engineer, and a collector. He has a dream to make this world a better place through language learning. Apart from learning languages, he also likes reading and playing ukulele. You can speak with him in Medan Hokkien, Indonesian, English, Chinese Mandarin, Spanish, and Esperanto. Visit his blog at www.neeslanguageblog.com