Indonesia

Indonesian, an Austronesian language, is a standardized form of Malay and is spoken throughout Indonesia. With its origins from a lingua franca - Malay, Bahasa Indonesia has evolved into a rich tapestry of words from a wide range of influences, including Dutch, Arabic, Indian and Chinese. More recently, with the continuing assimilation of technology into the people’s daily lives and the growing influence of English worldwide, English has made significant inroads into Bahasa Indonesia. Often, the incorporation of adapted English terms or the widespread acceptance of Indonesian equivalents lags behind their daily use, so that it is not unusual to encounter the intermixing of unaltered English terms in both formal and informal Indonesian. To keep pace with religious, social and cultural progress, many words and terms have been derived from foreign languages, including Dutch, Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic and, later, Portuguese.

There are 583 languages and dialects spoken in the archipelago. Each of the various languages normally belongs to a different ethnic group of the population. Some of the distinctly dissimilar local languages are: Acehnese, Batak, Sundanese, Javanese, Sasak, Tetum of Timor, Dayak, Minahasa, Toraja, Buginese, Halmahera, Ambonese, Ceramese, and several Irianese languages. These languages are also spoken in different dialects.

Latin or Roman alphabet.

Indonesian and Malaysian writing system reforms are a remarkable example of two different countries agreeing on the same spelling reform - only paralleled by Spanish and Portuguese orthographic agreements with their ex-colonies of the New World. They are remarkable for the commonsense nationalism that enabled them to take on the sensible though 'foreign' Roman alphabet for their writing systems. It was also remarkable because they made their roman alphabet spelling system official at a time when they were still jubilant at their postwar expulsion of their enemies, the Dutch and English - the two colonial powers who had introduced that alphabet into their respective colonies. Rather than reverting to pre-colonial scripts, they set a principle of 'treasuring but not clinging' to the old scripts of Arabic or Hindu derivation. This nonetheless proved challenging. Omar (1989) gives an account of the difficulties and final success of the moves to reform. The Roman alphabet suits the two very similar languages very well, since they have simple vowels, which are readily represented. The Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia common spelling system is almost perfectly adapted to represent the common features of their languages. This simple and consistent common orthography fosters Malaysian and Indonesian ethnic unity and their participation in the international world. It has been claimed to be an important factor in Indonesia's rise to an estimated 70% literacy despite still limited schooling - although there have been reports (eg Indonesia's New Illiteracy, Hull, 1981) deploring lost enthusiasm - perhaps as individual students discovered they were not benefiting personally from its promise of better employment and employment conditions.