Differences between Malaysian and Indonesian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The differences between Malaysian (Bahasa Malaysia) or Malay (Bahasa Melayu) and Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) are significantly greater than those between British English and American English. They are roughly mutually intelligible, but with differences in spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary.

To non-native speakers of the two languages, Malaysian (Malay) and Indonesian, may seem identical, but to native speakers, the differences are very noticeable through diction and accent. These differences often lead to incomprehension when used in formal conversation or written communication. These differences also affect broadcasting business in relation to foreign language subtitling, for example DVD movies or TV cable subscriptions. In order to reach out to a wider audience, sometimes both Indonesian and Malaysian subtitles are displayed in a movie side by side with other language subtitles.

Speakers of Malaysian Standard Malay in Peninsular Malaysia tend to speak at a more flowing pace, while words that end with the letter "a" often come out as a schwa (/ə/). Indonesian speakers speak in clipped staccato tones, their "r"s are more markedly trilled (rolled r), and all words are pronounced exactly as they are spelt.

 

Perception

Besides differing in linguistics matter, the Malay language in Malaysia and Indonesia also differs in recognition and general perception by the people and government of both countries. This matter is almost unknown to foreigners and nescience may result in misconceptions.

The term "Malay language" (Bahasa Melayu) in Indonesia and Malaysia invites different perceptions. To Malaysians, the Malay language is generally the national language of Malaysia. "Malaysian language" (Bahasa Malaysia) is the Malaysian standardized form of Malay, besides serving a function to make the Malay language sounds more national (more Malaysia). Therefore, there is virtually no clear distinction between the Malay (Bahasa Melayu) and Malaysian (Bahasa Malaysia).

In Indonesia, however, there is a clean cut between the "Malay language" (Bahasa Melayu) and the "Indonesian language" (Bahasa Indonesia). Indonesian language is the national language which serves as the unifying language in Indonesia. It is derived from Malay, but it is not necessarily the Malay language. The term "Malay language" is exclusively reserved for the language indigenous to and spoken by Malay people. Thus, Malay is "legally" a regional language in Indonesia, enjoying the same status with Javanese, Bataknese, Sundanese, Buginese, Balinese and many others. Moreover, to Indonesians, the term "Malay language" often sounds more associated to Malaysia and/or, in this case, the Malaysian language.

Misconceptions often emerges in foreigners. The term "Indonesian Malay" and "Malaysian Malay" is sometimes treated parallel. There is no issues regarding the term "Malaysian Malay", but the term "Indonesian Malay" frequently invites a fallacy. "Indonesian Malay" should never be understood as "the Indonesian variant of Malay". It actually means "the Malay spoken by Malay people in Indonesia" or "Malay as a regional language in Indonesia". It is quite rare though to use the term "Indonesian Malay". "Bahasa Indonesia" is almost always only referred to as "Indonesian" in English and other languages, whereas "Bahasa Malaysia" or "Malaysian" term is quite newer than the terms "Bahasa Melayu" or "Malay".

 

Orthography

Before the 20th century, Malay was written in a modified form of the Arabic alphabet known as Jawi. After the 20th century, Malay written with Roman letters, known as Rumi, has almost completely replaced Jawi in everyday life. The romanisations originally used in Malaya (now part of Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) reflected their positions as British and Dutch possessions respectively.

In Indonesia, the vowel in the English word 'moon' was formerly represented in Indonesian as oe, as in Dutch, and the official spelling of this sound was changed to u in 1947.

Similarly, until 1972, the initial consonant of the English 'chin' was represented in Malaysia as ch, whereas in Indonesia, it continued to follow Dutch and used tj. Hence the word for 'grandchild' used to be written as chuchu in Malaysia and tjoetjoe in Indonesia, until a unified spelling system was introduced in 1972 (known in Indonesia as Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan or the 'Perfected Spelling') which removed most differences between the two varieties: Malaysian ch and Indonesian tj became c: hence cucu.

Indonesia abandoned the spelling dj (for the consonant at the beginning of the word 'Jakarta') to conform to the j already in use in Malaysia, while the old Indonesian j for the semivowel at the beginning of the English 'young', was replaced with y as in Malaysia. Likewise, the velar fricative which occurs in many Arabic loanwords, which used to be written 'ch' in Indonesian, became kh in both languages.

However, oe was retained in some proper names, such as the name of the first President, Sukarno (written as Soekarno), and his successor Suharto, (written as Soeharto). The ch and dj letter combinations are still encountered in names such as Achmad and Djojo (pronounced as Akhmad and Joyo respectively), although the post-1972 spelling is now favoured.

Although the representations of speech sounds are now largely identical in the Indonesian and Malaysian varieties, a number of minor spelling differences remain, usually for historical reasons. For instance, the word for 'money' is written as wang in Malaysia, but uang in Indonesia, the word for 'try' is written as cuba in Malaysia, but coba in Indonesia, the word for 'because' is written as kerana in Malaysia, but karena in Indonesia, while the word for 'cake' is written as kuih in Malaysia, but kue in Indonesia.

 

Pronunciation

Pronunciation also tends to be very different, with East Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia speaking a dialect called Bahasa Baku,[citation needed] where the words are pronounced as spelt and enunciation tends to be clipped, staccato and faster than the Malay spoken in the Malay Peninsula, which is spoken at a more languorous pace. Many vowels are pronounced (and were formerly spelt) differently in Peninsular Malaysia: tujuh is pronounced (and was spelt) tujoh, pilih as pileh, etc., and many final a's tend to be pronounced as schwas.

 

Vocabulary

Vocabulary differences

Indonesian differs from Malaysian (Malay) in having words of Javanese and Dutch origin, although Indonesian is based on Malay in Riau (islands) (Bahasa Melayu Riau). For example, the word for 'post office' in Malaysia is "pejabat pos" (in Indonesia this means 'post officer'), whereas in Indonesia it is "kantor pos", from the Dutch word for office, kantoor. 

There are also some Portuguese influences: in Indonesia, Christmas is known as "Natal", whereas Malaysia uses "Krismas", derived from English (or in some rare cases also "Natal", due to Indonesian influence). The loanwords pronunciation Malaysian version follows English, while Indonesian follows Dutch, for example Malaysian "televisyen" (from English: television) and Indonesian "televisi" (from Dutch: televisie), the "-syen" and "-si" also prevail in other words, such as "eksyen" and "aksi" for 'action'. 

There are also instances where the Malaysian version derives from English pronunciation while the Indonesian version takes its cue from Latin. The Latin preference of the (older) Indonesian intellectuals in these instances may be ascribed to the influence of their classical-oriented education when Gymnasium schools were established during the Dutch colonial period : compare Malaysian kualiti, kuantiti, majoriti, minoriti and universiti with Indonesian kualitas, kuantitas, mayoritas, minoritas and universitas.

Some words which are spelt the same in both languages may even carry entirely different meanings in the other language, potentially leading to humorous or embarrassing situations: while baja means "steel" in Indonesian, in Malay it means "manure". Also, whereas the Indonesian word butuh means "requirement" or "need", in Malaysia it is a vulgar slang term equivalent to "cunt/cock". Conversely, where the word "banci" seems innocuous enough in Malaysia ("census"), in Indonesia it is a derogatory term for "transvestite".

The relatively large share of Islamic (Arabic or Persian) loan words shared by Malay and Indonesian often poses no difficulty in comprehension and usage, although some forms may have developed a (slightly) different meaning or have become obsolete either in Malaysian or in Indonesian, e.g. , khidmat, wakil (see below).

 

The Influence of English

One of the most important aspect in differences between Indonesian and Malaysian language is the degree of influence from English. There have been many changes in Indonesian language as a result of its historical development. Words have been freely borrowed from English and only partly assimilated, in many cases, to the Indonesian patterns of structure.[1] By the late 1970s, English words pouring into the language, leading one commentator, writing in 1977, to refer to the "trend towards Indo-Saxonisation".[2] 

A great many borrowings from English sometimes fulfill no communicative need, expressing concepts adequately covered by existing words. Among the examples are: akurat, beside tepat (accurate), aliansi, beside sekutu (alliance), eksis, beside ada (exist), kandidat, beside calon (candidate), konklusi, beside kesimpulan (conclusion) kontaminasi, beside pencemaran (contamination), opini, beside pendapat (opinion) and opsi, beside pilihan (option). On the other hand, in absorbing the numerous xenisms or loan words from English, Malaysian Malay has shown a remarkable resilience, despite being the former colony of British empire.[3]

Some in Indonesia view this trend of excessive borrowings as "language dynamism", while some Malay linguists called it mass "language pollution",[4] and lack of creativity in creating new terms.

 

Example

The original text in Indonesian:
[5]Apabila peraturan pakta stabilitas Eropa dihormati sampai ke detailnya, rasio utang publik dibanding produk domestik bruto pada hari krisis akan berada di posisi 10 persentase poin kurang dalam zona euro, katanya.
The same text rendered in Malaysian:
Apabila peraturan pakatan kestabilan Eropah dihormati sehingga ke perinciannya, nisbah hutang awam berbanding keluaran dalam negara kasar pada hari krisis akan berada di kedudukan 10 titik peratusan kurang dalam kawasan euro, katanya.
English translation:
If the European stability pact rules were regarded to the details, the public debt to gross domestic product ratio on the days of crisis would be at the position 10 percentage points less within the eurozone, he said.

 

Dynamic-adaptivism vs Resilience-conservatism

Further information: List of loan words in Indonesian
Further information: Indonesian slang

The Indonesian language is highly adaptive to foreign influences, in contrast to the resilience and conservatism demonstrated by the Malay language.[citation needed] This is due to historical formation of each of these languages; the Indonesian language, although based upon the Sumatran Riau Malay language, is actually a newly generated generic, inclusive and open language. 

It is constantly enriched by both Indonesian regional languages and dialects (such as Javanese, Sundanese, Batak, Minangkabau, to Betawi) and by foreign languages (such as Sanskrit, Chinese, Persian, Latin, Dutch, French and English). As a result it is common to have multiple synonyms of a word that already has its own initial Malay word. It is also possible that new specific meanings or connotations were generated for newly adopted words. 

For example the words pustaka (from Sanskrit), kitab (from Arabic), and buku (from Dutch) all originally mean "book", however more specific use of these synonyms developed: pustaka is more eloquent, have poetic quality and associated to culture and literature, kitab is associated with law and religious scripture, while buku is more common and neutral word for book. The same case also evident in the word gita (from Sanskrit), tembang (from Javanese), and lagu (original Malay word), all words mean "song" but each has developed specific usage. 

This highly adaptive nature has caused Indonesian language to evolve much more faster and vibrant than Malay language. For example the current Malay vocabulary is actually very similar to Indonesian language in mid 20th century to several decades ago.[citation needed]

Indonesian language is a dynamic language evolving continuously and vigorously. The spearhead of its evolution today is the Indonesian youth through Indonesian slang, influenced heavily by Betawi language; the regional language of capital city Jakarta, and English. Never considered as a standard and formal Indonesian — Indonesian slang — the language of Indonesian youth, are widespread within Indonesian popular culture; music, cinema and TV drama. Indonesian youth is at its most creative and dynamic when dealing with subjects such as social life, relationships, love and sex. 

The way young Indonesians communicate with each other is vibrant, creative, dynamic and, above all, fun. Young people in Indonesia practise and propagate the youth style of Indonesian as an expression of their identity and as a means to build solidarity with their peers.[6] Indonesian slang had gave another complexity and depth to understand popular language and culture of Indonesia, thus add another differences and rift with Malay language. Nevertheless the standard Indonesian are always expected to be used in formal occasions, by government, academic communities and medias.

 

Convergence of vocabulary

The rift of evolution on both languages is actually based upon political nouance and the history of its formation than cultural reason, as the result there is different views on regarding each other languages among Malaysians and Indonesians. In Malaysia, the national language is Malay; in Indonesia, it is Indonesian. The Malaysians tend to assert that Malay and Indonesian are merely different varieties of the same language, while the Indonesians tend to treat them as separate — albeit related — languages. 

The result of this attitude is that the Indonesians feel little need to synchronise their language with Malaysia and Brunei, whereas the Malaysians are keener to coordinate the evolution of the language with the Indonesians.[7] However both parties had realize the communication benefits of mutually comprehensive and intelligible shared languages among them, which motivated the efforts to synchronize the languages developments. 

The effort to synchronize both languages evolution to be more intelligible has been embarked by imposing standard rules of language, by Pusat Bahasa in Indonesian side and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in Malaysian counterpart.

The Malay language in Malaysia is not pervasively used in all spheres of life compared to Indonesia. Competition from the English language, the emotional attachment of Malaysian Malays to the language and the desire by non-Malays to preserve the use of their native languages are probably the reasons for this state of affairs. 

As a result, the Malay language in Malaysia is not as dynamic as Indonesian in Indonesia (note that the Malay language in Indonesia is considered as a regional language) in the introduction of new words through adaptation from other languages especially English. Many Malays are adverse to adopting English words. They rather prefer to find obscure Malay words or words from the Malay archipelago that are equivalent to the English term.[citation needed]

 

Sample

Indonesian text sample
[8] Ensiklopedia, atau kadangkala dieja sebagai ensiklopedi, adalah sejumlah buku yang berisi penjelasan mengenai setiap cabang ilmu pengetahuan yang tersusun menurut abjad atau menurut kategori secara singkat dan padat.
Kata 'ensiklopedia' diambil dari bahasa Yunani; enkyklios paideia (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία) yang berarti kumpulan instruksi atau pengajaran yang lengkap. Maksudnya, ensiklopedia adalah sebuah sarana pendidikan lengkap yang mencakup semua bidang ilmu pengetahuan. Seringkali ensiklopedia disalahartikan sebagai kamus. Hal ini disebabkan karena ensiklopedia-ensiklopedia awal memang berkembang dari kamus-kamus.
Malaysian text sample
[9] Ensiklopedia, atau kadangkala dieja sebagai ensaiklopedia, merupakan koleksi maklumat atau himpunan fakta mengenai setiap cabang ilmu pengetahuan yang tersusun menurut abjad atau menurut kategori secara singkat dan padat.
Kata 'ensiklopedia' diambil daripada bahasa Yunani εγκύκλιος παιδεία, egkyklios paideia (a circle of instruction) yang bererti sebuah lingkaran atau pengajaran yang lengkap. Ini bermaksud ensiklopedia itu merupakan sebuah pendidikan sempurna yang merangkumi semua aspek ilmu pengetahuan. Seringkali ensiklopedia disalahertikan sebagai kamus. Mungkin ini kerana ensiklopedia-ensiklopedia awal memang berkembang daripada kamus.
Approximate English equivalent
Encyclopedia, or occasionally spelled encyclopaedia, is a collection of books containing explanations and facts about all branches of science that are compiled briefly and compactly according to the alphabet or according to the category.
The word 'encyclopedia' is derived from Greek, ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία (enkyklios paideia), which literally means a circle of instructions or a complete teaching. It means the encyclopedia is a complete educational material which includes the whole aspects of science. Encyclopedias are often confused with dictionaries. This is probably due to the fact that early encyclopedias were actually developed from dictionaries.

 

Trivia

During the May 1998 Reform in Indonesia, when calls for political reform (Indonesian: reformasi) culminated in the resignation of President Suharto (and thus the fall of the New Order (Orde Baru)), Malaysian satirists Instant Cafe Theatre Company lampooned a government broadcast in which "Malaysians are reminded that reformasi is an Indonesian word, which has no equivalent in Malaysian language." This "soft propaganda" is no doubt a deliberate attempt by the Malaysian government to suppress the oppositions in Malaysia and to prevent any reformasi-inspired movements from happening in Malaysia.

 

References

  1. ^ Roderick Ross Macdonald (1976). Indonesian reference grammar. Georgetown, USA: Georgetown University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780878401635.
  2. ^ James Sneddon (2003). The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society. University of New South Wales Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0868405988.
  3. ^ Seong Chee Tham (1991). A Study of the Evolution of the Malay Language: Social Change and Cognitive Development. Singapore: Singapore University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-9971691363.
  4. ^ "Bahasa Melayu dan Bahasa Indonesia". Berita Harian. 2008-03-19. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ Inside Indonesia, Indonesian Youth
  7. ^ Who is Malay?, July 2005
  8. ^ From the article about Encyclopaedia on the Indonesian Wikipedia, version 15:14, 21 Agustus 2006
  9. ^ From the article about Encyclopaedia on the Malaysian Wikipedia, version 21:41, 5 Oktober 2005

 

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