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The Indonesian language, also known as Bahasa Indonesia, shares a large share of its vocabulary with other languages from around the world and its region. Portuguese or Dutch speakers will notice almost identical words scattered through the language, while Malay speakers across South and Southeast Asia are well aware of the similarities.
Along with the absorption of modern English words, Bahasa Indonesia stands as a distinctly dynamic language composed of ancient, colonial and modern influences, which is still constantly evolving and changing today.
Were these words 'borrowed' or 'absorbed'?
Dwi Noverini Djenar, the head of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney says that the Bahasa Indonesia we know today is rooted in Malay language, which is also spoken in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Southern Thailand.
"Bahasa Indonesia is a new name given to the same language as Malay language, and the new name began to be used in 1928 for the purposes of forming a new nation," she tells SBS Indonesian.
Curiously, Djenar says that there is no core, or ‘original’ Malay language, as the language was historically spoken in a huge variety of dialects across the region.
"The original and pure Malay language actually does not exist… The ‘original’ language, not mixed with anything, is an abstract reconstruction created by scientists to try to understand what actually the most original of these various dialects, various Malay languages, is."
Ms Djenar explains that along with Malay roots, Bahasa Indonesia has a strong tendency to ‘borrow’ words from other languages, and subsequently absorb them into its vocabulary.
"Firstly, we borrow the word, then we adapt it," she says. "Whether its pronunciation, or its usage is adapted to Bahasa Indonesia convention. From there, it is then developed into what is called absorbed word."
Djenar says Bahasa Indonesia’s process of language absorption hasn’t only come about through colonial but also intercultural processes.
"Portrait of Afonso de Albuquerque, Viceroy of Portuguese India" (after 1545), by Unknown. At the National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Palácio do Correio Velho/Public domain
As such, Bahasa Indonesia shares many words with Portuguese, as in the above video, as well as:
- Palsu (Indonesian)/ Falso (Portuguese), (in English: False)
- Perangko/Pranco (Stamps)
- Pigura/Figura (Frame)
- Pesta/Festa (Party)
- Terigu/Trigo (Flour)
- Cerutu/Charuto (Cigar)
How do we know a word has been borrowed?
Novi Djenar says it is difficult for native speakers to know words they use are actually derived from other languages, without of course speaking those other languages.
"If someone had access to another language [in the sense of] having heard that word in another language then that person might link the words themselves," she says.
The absorption of words from other languages is also a natural process motivated by the communication of the speaker, and one that has been similar for thousands of years.
"Speakers borrow words according to what they need. Not only for practical matters, but also matters relating to social interactions or status, or religious and spiritual matters," she explains, adding that words from the ancient Sanskrit language are common in Bahasa Indonesia for spiritual and noble purposes, such as the word 'Pancasila', the name for the Indonesian state’s philosophical foundation and theory.
Borrowed words are also liable to change from time to time.
"Previously, we had a lot of absorption words from the Dutch language, but now most of them are from English," Djenar says. "It certainly happens because modern concepts related to argumentation come from English."
Examples include the word 'furnitur', literally ‘furniture’ in English, which previously derived from the Dutch word 'meubel', or 'praoto' which comes from the Dutch language that is now rarely used, and has been replaced by 'truk' from the English 'truck'.
Djenar says that of the various languages Bahasa Indonesia has borrowed from, most influences come from Sanskrit, Arabic, Hokkien, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, as well as several local dialects such as Javanese and Papuan.
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