For example, "sanyo" refers to any electrical well pump, regardless of manufacturer or "odol" as all of toothpastes. Indonesian has also generalized brand names into common (lower-case) nouns as generic name. In contrast to the large number of mechanical terms borrowed from Dutch (e.g., automotive parts), hitech words are typically taken from English (e.g., internet).īut the processes may also be ‘out of period’ for example, Indonesian words are still being concocted from Sanskrit, and the influence of the Dutch language certainly continued after the Dutch themselves left. Modern Indonesian regularly adapts new words from other languages, particularly English.Some loan words are still intensively used today, although there are Indonesian equivalents of them. For example, suffixes such as "-as" (e.g., kualitas = quality), "-asi" (e.g., administrasi = administration), and "-if" (e.g., fiktif = fictive) were applied with consistency. As Dutch-trained linguists determined the rules for the official Indonesian language, Dutch thus affected the structure of the language as well. Dutch colonization and administration, lasting from the 17th century to the 20th, extensively affected the vocabulary.Portuguese contact, trade and colonization in the 16th century was the first contact between Indonesia and European culture, and had an influence that remains today, in spite of the relatively short time period of that influence.Muslim influence, which came at first through Arabic and Persian traders, over a number of centuries results in an extensive Arabic influence and also Persian.Indonesian has involved in trade with Chinese since ancient times and also significant of Chinese immigrants began to migrate to Indonesia, as the result some of Chinese language, especially Hokkien dialect being absorbed into Indonesian.
Indian traders may have contributed words as well, in Tamil and Sanskrit-related languages. Early Hindu and Buddhist influence from India results in many Sanskrit words in Indonesian (and especially adopted through Javanese influence).Linguistic history and cultural history are clearly linked.
Examples are the early Sanskrit borrowings probably in the Srivijaya period, the borrowings from Arabic and Persian during the time of the establishment of Islam in particular, and the ones from Dutch during the colonial period. The study on Indonesian etymology and loan words reflected its historical and social context. The event significantly affected the original Malay language which gradually developed into the modern Indonesian language. The Dutch adaptation of the Malay language during colonial period had resulted significant amount of Dutch loanwords and vocabulary.
Still other words taken into modern English from Malay/Indonesian probably have other origins (e.g., "satay" from Tamil, or "ketchup" from Chinese).Īt its development stage, various native terms (mostly Javanese) from all over the archipelago made its way to the language. Another is "lahar" which is Javanese for a volcanic mudflow. One exception is "bantam", derived from the name of the Indonesian province Banten in Western Java (see Oxford American Dictionary, 2005 edition). Words borrowed into English (e.g., bamboo, orangutan, dugong, amok, and even "cooties") generally entered through Malay language by way of British colonial presence in Malaysia and Singapore, similar to the way the Dutch have been borrowing words from the various native Indonesian languages. Vice versa, many words of Malay-Indonesian origin have also been borrowed into English. Bahasa Indonesia function as lingua franca that unites 200 various languages over the archipelago. Indonesian differs from the Malaysian language in a number of respects, primarily due to the different influences both languages experienced and also due to the fact that majority of Indonesians speaks their native language as their first. The Indonesian language has absorbed many loanwords from other languages, including Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and other Austronesian languages.