Indonesian language

This article is about the official language of Indonesia. For an overview on all languages used in Indonesia, see Languages of Indonesia.

Indonesian
Bahasa Indonesia
Pronunciation[baˈha.sa in.doˈne.si.ja]
Native toIndonesia
RegionIndonesia (as official language)
Significant language speakers: Malaysia, East Timor, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Taiwan, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, and others
EthnicityOver 1,300 Indonesian ethnic groups
Native speakers
L1 speakers: 72 million (2020 census)[1]
L2 speakers: 177 million (2020 census)[2]
Total speakers: 249 million (2020 Census)[3]
Early forms
Standard forms
Dialects
Latin (Indonesian alphabet)
Indonesian Braille
SIBI (Manually Coded Indonesian)
Official status
Official language in
 Indonesia
 UNESCO
Recognised minority
language in
 East Timor (Indonesian used as a working language and a trade language with Indonesia)[8]
Regulated byLanguage Development and Fostering Agency (Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa)
Language codes
ISO 639-1id
ISO 639-2ind
ISO 639-3ind
Glottologindo1316
Linguasphere33-AFA-ac
  Countries of the world where Indonesian is an official, national language
  Countries where Indonesian is a minority language or working language
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The Youth Pledge, a pledge made by Indonesian youth on October 28, 1928, defining the identity of the Indonesian nation. On the last pledge, there was an affirmation of Indonesian language as a unifying language throughout the archipelago.

Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia; [baˈhasa indoˈnesija]) is the official and national language of Indonesia.[9] It is a standardized variety of Malay,[10] an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. With over 280 million inhabitants,[11] Indonesia ranks as the fourth most populous nation globally. According to the 2020 census, over 97% of Indonesians are fluent in Indonesian,[12] making it the largest language by number of speakers in Southeast Asia and one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.[13] Indonesian vocabulary has been influenced by various regional languages such as Javanese, Sundanese, Minangkabau, Balinese, Banjarese, and Buginese, as well as by foreign languages such as Arabic, Dutch, Portuguese, and English. Many borrowed words have been adapted to fit the phonetic and grammatical rules of Indonesian, enriching the language and reflecting Indonesia's diverse linguistic heritage.

Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are fluent in at least one of the more than 700 indigenous local languages; examples include Javanese and Sundanese, which are commonly used at home and within the local community.[14][15] However, most formal education and nearly all national mass media, governance, administration, and judiciary and other forms of communication are conducted in Indonesian.[16]

Under Indonesian rule from 1976 to 1999, Indonesian was designated as the official language of Timor Leste. It has the status of a working language under the country's constitution along with English.[8][17]: 3 [18] In November 2023, the Indonesian language was recognized as one of the official languages of the UNESCO General Conference.

The term Indonesian is primarily associated with the national standard dialect (bahasa baku).[19] However, in a looser sense, it also encompasses the various local varieties spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago.[10][20] Standard Indonesian is confined mostly to formal situations, existing in a diglossic relationship with vernacular Malay varieties, which are commonly used for daily communication, coexisting with the aforementioned regional languages and with Malay creoles;[19][14] standard Indonesian is spoken in informal speech as a lingua franca between vernacular Malay dialects, Malay creoles, and regional languages.

The Indonesian name for the language (bahasa Indonesia) is also occasionally used in English and other languages. Bahasa Indonesia is sometimes improperly reduced to Bahasa, which refers to the Indonesian subject (Bahasa Indonesia) taught in schools, on the assumption that this is the name of the language. But the word bahasa only means language. For example, French language is translated as bahasa Prancis, and the same applies to other languages, such as bahasa Inggris (English), bahasa Jepang (Japanese), bahasa Arab (Arabic), bahasa Italia (Italian), and so on. Indonesians generally may not recognize the name Bahasa alone when it refers to their national language.[21]

  1. ^ "Hasil Long Form Sensus Penduduk 2020". Badan Pusat Statistics Indonesia. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Hasil Long Form Sensus Penduduk 2020". Badan Pusat Statistics Indonesia. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Hasil Long Form Sensus Penduduk 2020". Badan Pusat Statistics Indonesia. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  4. ^ Leitner, Gerhard; Hashim, Azirah; Wolf, Hans-Georg (2016). Communicating with Asia: The Future of English as a Global Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-316-47296-5.
  5. ^ "Bahasa dan dialek" (in Indonesian). Republic of Indonesia Embassy in Astana. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013.
  6. ^ "Bahasa Melayu Riau dan Bahasa Nasional". Melayu Online. Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  7. ^ "Dialect: Colloquial Jakarta Indonesian". glottolog.org. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  8. ^ a b "East Timor Languages". www.easttimorgovernment.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  9. ^ Article 36 of The 1945 Constitution of The Republic of Indonesia  – via Wikisource.
  10. ^ a b Uri Tadmor (2008). "Grammatical borrowing in Indonesian". In Yaron Matras; Jeanette Sakel (eds.). Grammatical Borrowing in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Walter de Gruyter. p. 301. ISBN 978-3-11-019919-2.
  11. ^ "Indonesia's full-year population in 2023", Ministry of Home Affairs (Indonesia) (in Indonesian), archived from the original on 23 June 2024, retrieved 23 June 2024
  12. ^ "Long Form Census 2020", Statistics Indonesia (in Indonesian)
  13. ^ James Neil Sneddon. The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society. UNSW Press, 2004.
  14. ^ a b Setiono Sugiharto (28 October 2013). "Indigenous language policy as a national cultural strategy". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on 16 September 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  15. ^ Hammam Riza (2008). "Resources Report on Languages of Indonesia" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  16. ^ George Quinn. "The Indonesian Language". www.hawaii.edu. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  17. ^ Berlie, Jean A. (1 October 2017). "A Socio-Historical Essay: Traditions, Indonesia, Independence, and Elections". East Timor's Independence, Indonesia and ASEAN. Springer. ISBN 9783319626307.
  18. ^ Ramos-Horta, J. (20 April 2012). "Timor Leste, Tetum, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia or English?". The Jakarta Post.
  19. ^ a b Sneddon, James (2003). "Diglossia in Indonesian". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 159 (4): 519–549. doi:10.1163/22134379-90003741. ISSN 0006-2294. JSTOR 27868068.
  20. ^ Uri Tadmor (2009). "Malay-Indonesian". In Bernard Comrie (ed.). The World's Major Languages. Routledge. p. 791. ISBN 9781134261567.
  21. ^ Sneddon, James (2003). The Indonesian language: its history and role in modern society. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 978-0868405988.