Comparison of Indonesian and Standard Malay

Malaysian and Indonesian are two standardised varieties of the Malay language, used in Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively. Both varieties are generally mutually intelligible, yet there are noticeable differences in spelling, grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, as well as the predominant source of loanwords. The differences can range from those mutually unintelligible with one another, to those having a closer familial resemblance. The regionalised and localised varieties of Malay can become a catalyst for intercultural conflict, especially in higher education.
Perception.
To non-native speakers the two varieties may seem identical, but to native speakers the differences are noticeable through both diction and accent. They affect the broadcasting industry with regard to foreign language subtitling, for example, in DVD movies and on cable TV. In order to reach a wider audience, both Indonesian and Malay subtitles are sometimes displayed in a movie, along with other language subtitles. Another example is Malaysian TV providing Malay subtitling on Indonesian sinetrons (TV dramas) aired in Malaysia, and vice versa.
The Malay language in Indonesia and Malaysia also differs in recognition, where in Malaysia it enjoys status as the national language (Malaysian language), while in Indonesia it is considered a regional language in Malay-speaking areas such as the eastern coast of Sumatra and West Kalimantan. The term "Malay language" ("Bahasa Melayu") in Indonesia and Malaysia invites different perceptions from its respective people. To Malaysians, the Malay language is generally understood as the national language of Malaysia, with Malaysian language ("Bahasa Malaysia)" being a precise appellation for the Malay variety used in the country. Between 1986 and 2007, the term "Bahasa Melayu" was used instead of "Bahasa Malaysia", until the latter was reinstated, in order to instill a sense of belonging among Malaysians of all races, rather than just Malays. Therefore, there was no clear distinction between the use of the term Malay ("Bahasa Melayu") and the national language of Malaysia ("Bahasa Malaysia"). In Brunei, where Malay is also an official language, the language is known as "Bahasa Melayu" and in English as "Malay".
In Indonesia, however, there is a clear distinction between "Malay language" ("bahasa Melayu") and "Indonesian" ("bahasa Indonesia"). Indonesian is the national language which serves as the unifying language of Indonesia; despite being a standardized form of Malay, it is not referred to with the term "Malay" in common parlance. The term "Malay" is usually reserved for the forms of Malay indigenous to the Malay ethnic group (the national standardized language of Malaysia and the non-standard idioms of Malay people, including those used by Malay Indonesians). Thus, "Malay" is considered a regional language ("bahasa daerah") in Indonesia, enjoying the same status as e.g. Javanese, Sundanese, Buginese, Balinese, Batak languages and others. Moreover, to some Indonesians, the term "Malay" is more often associated with Malaysia and the Malaysian variety of Malay.
In Malaysia, the terms "Indonesian Malay" and "Malaysian Malay" are sometimes used for Indonesian and Malaysian as spoken in Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Indonesian Malay" usually refers to the vernacular varieties of Malay spoken by the Malay peoples of Indonesia, that is, to Malay as a regional language in Sumatra, though it is rarely used. "Bahasa Malaysia" and "Bahasa Melayu" are used interchangeably in reference to Malay in Malaysia.
Malay was designated as a national language by the Singaporean government after independence from Britain in the 1960s to avoid friction with Singapore's Malay-speaking neighbours of Malaysia and Indonesia. It has a symbolic, rather than functional purpose. It is used in the national anthem "Majulah Singapura", in citations of Singaporean orders and decorations and in military commands. Singaporean Malay is officially written in the Latin-based Rumi script, though some Singaporean Malays also learn the Arabic-based Jawi script. Jawi is considered an ethnic script for use on Singaporean identity cards.
Orthography.
Before the 20th century, Malay was written in a local modified form of the Arabic alphabet known as Jawi. During the 20th century, Malay written with Roman letters, known as Rumi, almost completely replaced Jawi in everyday life. The romanisations originally used in British Malaya (now part of Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) reflected their past history as British and Dutch colonial possessions respectively. In British Malaya, the romanisation of Malay, devised by Richard Wilkinson was influenced by English, whereas in the Dutch East Indies, the system devised by C. A. Van Ophuijsen was influenced by Dutch. As a result, in Indonesia, the vowel in the English word 'moon' was formerly represented "oe", as in Dutch, although the official spelling of this sound was changed to "u" in 1947 when the Republican Spelling System was used.
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 ' in Malaysia and ' in Indonesia, until a unified spelling system was introduced in 1972 (known in Indonesia as ' or the 'Perfected Spelling') which removed most differences between the two varieties: Malay "ch" and Indonesian "tj" became "c": hence '. 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 former vice-president, Boediono or former minister Mohammad Roem. 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.
One notable difference in punctuation between the two languages is the use of different decimal marks; Indonesian, influenced by Dutch, uses the decimal comma, whereas Malay, influenced by English, uses the decimal point.
Pronunciation.
Pronunciation also tends to be very different, with East Malaysia, Brunei and East Indonesia pronouncing words in a form called "Bahasa Baku", where the words are pronounced as spelled. and enunciation tends to be clipped, staccato and faster than on the Malay Peninsula, which is spoken at a more languorous pace. Many vowels are pronounced (and were formerly spelt) differently in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Sumatra: ' is pronounced (and was spelt) ', ' as ', etc., and many final "a"'s tend to be pronounced as schwas; and are also allophones of and in closed final syllables in peninsular Malaysian, Singaporean and Sumatran varieties of Malay.
Vocabulary.
Vocabulary differences.
Indonesian and Malaysian both differ in the forms of loanwords used as the Malay Archipelago was divided by long-lasting colonial influences between the Dutch and British as a consequence of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824: Indonesian absorbed primarily Dutch loanwords whereas Malaysian absorbed primarily English words. Pronunciation of certain loanwords in Standard Malay follows English, while in Indonesian it follows Dutch, for example Malay " (from English: television) and Indonesian " (from Dutch: ""); the "-syen" and "-si" also prevail in some other words, though "-si" has become more preferred in Malaysian of late.
Malaysian has also experienced significant conservative pushback as precedent entities that existed within the British sphere made efforts to create words that would fit naturally foreign ideas of governance and thought through a Malay-oriented context. The Pakatan Belajar Mengajar Pengetahuan Bahasa in Johore headed by Abdul Rahman Andak during the 19th century was especially important in introducing neologisms like "pejabat" ("office", cf. Indonesian "kantor" from ) and "setiausaha" ("secretary", cf. Indo "sekretaris" from ) into the Malay lexicon. For example, the word for 'post office' in Malaysia is " (in Indonesia this means 'post officer'), whereas in Indonesia it is ".
There are also some Portuguese influences: in Indonesia, Christmas is known as ", whereas Malaysia uses ", derived from English (or in some cases also "", due to Indonesian influence). 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 Malay ', ', ', ' and ' with Indonesian ', ', ', ' and '.
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 ' means "steel" in Indonesian, in Malaysian it means "fertiliser". Also, whereas the Indonesian word ' (from Sundanese ᮘᮥᮒᮥᮂ butuh) means "require" or "need", in Malaysian, it is a vulgar slang term equivalent to "cunt/cock". Conversely, where the word "" 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 Malaysian 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. ', ' (see below).
False friends.
Besides vocabulary differences, there are also a number of false friends in both languages. As these words are in quite common use in either or both of the languages, misunderstandings can arise.
Influence from English.
One of the most important aspect in differences between Malaysian and Indonesian is the degree of influence from English. Apart from being heavily influenced by the Dutch language, the Indonesian language also adopted a significant number of English loanwords in its vocabulary, although English did not play significant role on the Indonesian language and in fact most of these vocabulary are of Dutch origin – Dutch and English share a similar Germanic origin, and Dutch has also borrowed from Latin, although to a lesser extent than English. There have been many changes in Indonesian 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.
By the late 1970s, English words began pouring into the language, leading one commentator, writing in 1977, to refer to the "trend towards Indo-Saxonization", known in Indonesian as '. Many loanwords from English sometimes fulfill no communicative need, expressing concepts adequately covered by existing words. Among the examples are: ' instead of ' (accurate), ' in the place of ' (alliance), ' rather than ' (exist), ' as well as ' (candidate), ' instead of ' (conclusion), ' in the place of ' (contamination), ' rather than ' (opinion) and ' in the place of ' (option). Contrary to its Indonesian counterpart, Malay has shown a remarkable resilience, despite formerly being part of British Empire. However, these ' is not directly borrowed from English, but through their (possible) cognates in Dutch pronunciations as "" is heavily influenced by Dutch pronunciation.
Some in Indonesia view this trend of excessive borrowings as "language dynamism", while some Malaysian linguists called it mass "language pollution", and lack of creativity in creating new terms.
Example.
The original text in Indonesian:
The same text rendered in Malaysian:
English translation:
Convergence of vocabulary.
The rift of evolution between the two languages is based more on political nuance and the history of their formation than on cultural reasons. As a result, views regarding each other's languages differ amongst Malaysians and Indonesians. In Malaysia, the national language is Malaysian; in Indonesia, it is Indonesian. Malaysians tend to assert that Malaysian and Indonesian are merely different varieties of the same language, while Indonesians tend to treat them as separate – albeit closely related – languages. The result of this attitude is that the Indonesians feel little need to synchronize their language with Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, whereas the Malaysians are keener to coordinate the evolution of the language with the Indonesians. However, both parties have realized that communication benefits from mutually comprehensible and intelligible languages, which motivated efforts to synchronize the languages' development. The effort to synchronize both languages' evolution to increase their mutual intelligibility has been embarked by imposing standard rules of language. This process is headed by Pusat Bahasa on the Indonesian side and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka as its Malaysian counterpart. Authorities in both Brunei and Singapore generally abide by the Malaysian standard in disputes.
Sample.
The following texts are excerpts from the official translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Indonesian and Malay, along with the original declaration in English.