Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)

Indonesian, an Austronesian language, is a standardized form of Malay and is spoken throughout Indonesia. About 30 million people speak Indonesian as their first language and a further 140 million speak it as a second language. Indonesia is a linguistically diverse region where the Indonesian language acts as a lingua franca, even though there are more native speakers of Javanese - about 75 million.

During the time Indonesia was a Dutch colony, the Latin alphabet was introduced to write Indonesian and a number of Dutch spellings were used. This alphabet was called ejaan lama (Old Script) in Indonesian.

In the 1930s, as part of the independence movement, the Indonesian language was standardised and the term Bahasa Indonesia was adopted as the name of the language.

In 1947 the spelling of oe was changed to u. Then in 1972 a set of official changes to the Indonesian spelling system were introduced by former president Soeharto. The major changes included changing 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	J j	K k	L l	M m
a	be	ce	de	e	ef	ge	ha	i	je	ka	el	em
N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
en	o	pe	ki	er	es	te	u	fe	we	eks	ye	zet

Indonesian pronunciation (Cara Pengucapan)

Indonesian pronunciation

Notes

There are four digraphs: ng (eng), ny (nye), kh (kha) and sy (sya). The final two only appear in words of Arabic origin.
The letters q, v, x, and z are used in loanwords from Europe and India.

Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Indonesian_Lesson_0

Sample text

Semua orang dilahirkan merdeka dan mempunyai martabat dan hak-hak yang sama. Mereka dikaruniai akal dan hati nurani dan hendaknya bergaul satu sama lain dalam semangat persaudaraan.

Listen to a recording of this text by Ali Aulia Ghozali

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Indonesian

Indonesian language courses, dictionaries, etc.

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

Links

Indonesian language and culture learning resources
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Indonesian

Online Indonesian lessons
http://indonesianlanguage.net

Information about Indonesian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language

Indonesian phrases
http://www.werple.net.au/~wreid/bali_lng.html
http://www.expat.or.id/info/bahasa.html

Online Indonesian dictionaries
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/ind.html
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Indonesian/TataBahasa/dictionary/
http://indodic.com

Kursus Bahasa: Sistem Penyelenggaraan Kelas
http://www.kursus-bahasa.com

Indonesian Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

> Discount Hotels in Bali

640 Hotels in Indonesia by DirectRooms

A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m
a	be	ce	de	e	ef	ge	ha	i	je	ka	el	em
N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
en	o	pe	ki	er	es	te	u	fe	we	eks	ye	zet

A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m
a	be	ce	de	e	ef	ge	ha	i	je	ka	el	em
N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
en	o	pe	ki	er	es	te	u	fe	we	eks	ye	zet

A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m
a	be	ce	de	e	ef	ge	ha	i	je	ka	el	em
N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
en	o	pe	ki	er	es	te	u	fe	we	eks	ye	zet