The differences between Malaysian (Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia) and Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) are slightly greater than those between British English and American English. They are mutually intelligible, but with differences in spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary. British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a property exhibited by a set of languages when speakers of any one of them can readily understand all the others without intentional study or extraordinary effort. ...

For non native Indonesians and Malays, the language seem similar, but for native users, the differences are disturbing when used for a deep verbal conversation or during written communication. These differences also affect broadcasting business in relation to foreign language subtitling, for example DVD Movies or TV cable subscriptions. In order to reach out to a wider audience, sometimes both Indonesian and Malaysian subtitles are displayed in a movie side by side with other language subtitles.

Orthography

Before the 20th century, Malay was written in a modified form of the Arabic alphabet known as Jawi. After the 20th century, Malay written with Roman letters, known as Rumi, has almost completely replaced Jawi in everyday life. The romanisations originally used in Malaya (now part of Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) reflected their positions as British and Dutch possessions respectively. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and others. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Yawi. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... Map of Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia (Malay: Semenanjung Malaysia) is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula, and shares a land border with Thailand in the north. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

In Indonesia, the vowel in the English word 'moon' was formerly represented in Indonesian as oe, as in Dutch, and the official spelling of this sound was changed to u in 1947. However, oe was retained in some proper names long after this. Similarly, until 1972, the initial consonant of the English 'chin' was represented in Bahasa Malaysia as ch, whereas in Indonesian, it continued to follow Dutch and used tj. Hence the word for 'grandchild' used to be written as chuchu in Malay and tjoetjoe in Indonesian, until a unified spelling system was introduced in 1972 (known in Indonesia as Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan or the 'Perfected Spelling') which removed most differences between the two varieties: Malay ch and Indonesian tj became c: hence cucu. Indonesian abandoned the spelling dj (for the consonant at the beginning of the word 'Jakarta') to conform to the j already in use in Malay, while the old Indonesian j for the semivowel at the beginning of the English 'young', was replaced with y as in Malay. Likewise, the velar fricative which occurs in many Arabic loanwords, which used to be written 'ch' in Indonesian, became kh in both languages. Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Nevertheless, the old spelling is still encountered in some Indonesian names, such as the name of the first President, Sukarno (written as Soekarno), although the post-1972 spelling is now favoured. Other examples include Achmad and Djojo (pronounced as Akhmad and Joyo respectively). Sukarno (June 6, 1901 – June 21, 1970) was the first President of Indonesia. ...

Although the representations of speech sounds are now largely identical in the Indonesian and Malay varieties, a number of minor spelling differences remain, usually for historical reasons. For instance, the word for 'money' is written as wang in Malay, but uang in Indonesian, while the word for 'cake' is written as kuih in Malay, but kue in Indonesian.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation also tends to be very different, with East Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia speaking a dialect called Bahasa Baku,^{[citation needed]} where the words are pronounced as spelt and enunciation tends to be clipped, staccato and faster than the Malay spoken in the Malay Peninsula, which is spoken at a more languorous pace. Many vowels are pronounced (and were formerly spelt) differently in Peninsular Malaysia: tujuh is pronounced (and was spelt) tujoh, pilih as pileh, etc., and many final a's tend to be pronounced as schwas. The IPA symbol for the Schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean: An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. ...

Vocabulary

Vocabulary differences

Indonesian differs from Malay in having words of Javanese and Dutch origin although Indonesian based on Malay in Riau province (Bahasa Melayu Riau). For example, the word for 'post office' in Malay is "pejabat pos" (in Indonesian this means 'post officer'), whereas in Indonesian it is "kantor pos", from the Dutch word for office, kantoor. There are also some Portuguese influences: in Indonesian, Christmas is known as "Natal", whereas Malay uses "Krismas", derived from English. There are also instances where the Malay version derives from English pronunciation while the Indonesian version takes its cue from Latin: compare Malay kualiti, kuantiti, majoriti, minoriti and universiti with Indonesian kualitas, kuantitas, mayoritas, minoritas and universitas. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Latins and Latin (disambiguation). ...

A verandah or veranda is a roofed opened gallery or porch. ...

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. False friends are pairs of words in two languages or letters in two alphabets that look or sound similar but differ in meaning. ...

Sample

Indonesian text sample

^[1] Ensiklopedia, atau kadangkala dieja sebagai ensiklopedi, adalah sejumlah buku yang berisi penjelasan mengenai setiap cabang ilmu pengetahuan yang tersusun menurut abjad atau menurut kategori secara singkat dan padat.

Kata 'ensiklopedia' diambil dari bahasa Yunani; enkyklios paideia (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία) yang berarti kumpulan instruksi atau pengajaran yang lengkap. Maksudnya, ensiklopedia adalah sebuah sarana pendidikan lengkap yang mencakup semua bidang ilmu pengetahuan. Seringkali ensiklopedia disalahartikan sebagai kamus. Hal ini disebabkan karena ensiklopedia-ensiklopedia awal memang berkembang dari kamus-kamus.

Malay text sample

^[2] Ensiklopedia, (encyclopaedia) atau kadangkala dieja sebagai ensaiklopedia, merupakan koleksi maklumat atau himpunan fakta mengenai setiap cabang ilmu pengetahuan yang tersusun menurut abjad atau menurut kategori secara singkat dan padat.

Kata ensiklopedia diambil dari bahasa Yunani εγκύκλιος παιδεία, egkyklios paideia (a circle of instruction) yang bererti sebuah lingkaran atau pengajaran yang lengkap. Ini bermaksud ensiklopedia itu merupakan sebuah pendidikan sempurna yang merangkumi semua aspek ilmu pengetahuan. Seringkali ensiklopedia disalah ertikan sebagai kamus. Mungkin ini kerana ensiklopedia-ensiklopedia awal memang berkembang dari kamus.

Translation

Encyclopaedia, or occasionally spelt as ensiklopedi, was several books that contained the explanation about each branch of science that was compiled according to the alphabet or according to the category briefly and densely.

The phrase 'Encyclopaedia' is taken from Greek; enkyklios paideia (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία) that means a circle of instruction or a complete teaching.

This means that the encyclopaedia is a complete education that included all the science circles. Often the encyclopaedia was mixed with the dictionary and early encyclopaedias actually started from dictionaries.

Trivia

During the May 1998 Revolution, when calls for political reform or reformasi in Indonesia led to the resignation of President Suharto, Malaysian satirists Instant Cafe lampooned a government broadcast in which 'Malaysians are reminded that reformasi is an Indonesian word, which has no equivalent in Bahasa Melayu.' In 1998, following over thirty years of military dictatorship under General Suharto, the 1998 Indonesian Revolution led to the introduction of democracy. ... Reformasi is both a Malay and Indonesian word for reformation. ... Suharto GCB (born June 8, 1921) is a former Indonesian military and political leader. ...

References

External links

• The Malay Spelling Reform, Asmah Haji Omar, (Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society, 1989-2 pp.9-13 later designated J11)