Bahasa Indonesia...


learning resources
miscellany
pronunciation
Bahasa Indonesia is often mentioned in auxlang circles as being appropriate for use as an international auxiliary language, so I decided to investigate. (Bahasa means language. Thus, Bahasa Indonesia is Indonesian, the language of Indonesia.) One thing I've learned already is that the language is not quite as simple as some say. Standard Indonesian can be as difficult to learn as any other natural language; it is the colloquial Indonesian which is relatively simple to learn, and has been used as a lingua franca in that region for centuries.

Pronunciation

The letters are pronounced much as in English, except for...
c as ch cinta (to love)
g always hard as in girl gila (crazy)
h very soft, often silent habis (finished), sounds like abis
kh as a hard k (Arabic) khabar (news)
ng always soft as in hanger hilang (lost)
ngg always hard, as in hunger mangga (mango)
r trilled as in Spanish baru (new)
a as in father satu (one)
e usually like the u in but empat (four)
e stressed or at the end of a word, as é in passé desa (village)
i like the ee in feet tiga (three)
o as in so bodoh (stupid)
u as in humor tujuh (seven)
au like the ow in how pulau (island)
ai like the word eye pantai (beach)

Learning Resources

These are the books that I'm currently studying. No comments yet because, well, I haven't finished reading them yet!

Miscellany

12 Aprilo 2004 modifita.