Minangkabau language

Minangkabau
Baso Minangkabau
بهاس منڠكربو‎
Native toIndonesia (West Sumatra)
RegionWest Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, North Sumatra, Aceh (Indonesia)
EthnicityMinangkabau, Aneuk Jamee
Native speakers
5.5 million (2007)[1]
Dialects
Latin
Minangkabau script
Official status
Regulated byBadan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa
Language codes
ISO 639-2min
ISO 639-3min
Glottologmina1268
  Areas where Minangkabau is a majority
  Areas where Minangkabau is a significant minority
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Minangkabau (Minangkabau: Baso Minangkabau, Jawi script: بهاس منڠكربو‎; Indonesian: Bahasa Minangkabau) is an Austronesian language spoken by the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, the western part of Riau, South Aceh Regency, the northern part of Bengkulu and Jambi, also in several cities throughout Indonesia by migrated Minangkabau.[2] The language is also a lingua franca along the western coastal region of the province of North Sumatra, and is even used in parts of Aceh, where the language is called Aneuk Jamee.

Minangkabau is similar to Malay. The relationship between the languages is characterized in different ways. Some see Minangkabau as an early variety of Malay, while others think of Minangkabau as a distinct (Malayic) language.[3]

Minangkabau is one of a few languages that generally lacks verb forms and grammatical subject-object distinctions.[4]

Although Minangkabau is still commonly spoken amongst the Minangkabau people, education specific to the culture in urbanizing locations is slowly being erased as it is deemed less and less important in West Sumatra. The Minangkabau language is deemed as "informal" in the urban regions of Padang, with the Indonesian language being preferred instead in formal institutions. Youth in the city will frequently use a mixture of conversational Minang and Indonesian slang.

Minangkabau language in Arabic script on Minangkabau royal seal from the 19th century
  1. ^ Minangkabau at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Kajian Serba Linguistik : Untuk Anton Moeliono Pereksa Bahasa (2000)
  3. ^ Khaidir Anwar (1976), "Minangkabau, Background of the main pioneers of modern standard Malay in Indonesia", Archipel, 12 (1): 77–93, doi:10.3406/arch.1976.1296
  4. ^ Sophie Elizabeth Crouch (2009), Voice and verb morphology in Minangkabau, a language of West Sumatra, Indonesia. Master's thesis