How old is indonesian language

Bahasa Indonesia, a standardised version of Malay, is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin, English, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic. With dialect variations, Malay-Indonesian is spoken by as many as million people worldwide. It is also found in the Sulu area of the southern Philippines and among people of Malay descent in South Africa, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

From the ninth to the fourteenth century, Malay was the court language of the Sumateran empire of Sriwijaya. It was also the language of the greatest of all medieval Malay states, Malacca. Tourism is an important industry, especially on the island of Bali.

Traditional sports enjoyed by Indonesians include pencak silat, a form of martial arts; sepak takraw, a ball game involving a rattan ball that must be kept in the air using any part of the body except the hands; and boating. Kite flying is extremely popular amongst young children, whose kites can be seen in the dusk sky almost every evening during the dry season — so popular, in fact, that kites merit their own museum the Kite Museum in Jakarta.

Internationally, Indonesia is perhaps best known for its surfing and diving. Boasting the best waves on earth with Hawaii and South Africa , Indonesia attracts thousands of international surfing competitors each year. And the coral reefs of the coastline put Indonesia on the top-ten list of diving destinations.

Indonesia has been influenced by many cultures throughout the centuries, and its art forms reflect those influences. The famous shadow puppet wayang kulit shows of Java and Bali display many of the ancient mythological stories of the islands.

The well-known Javanese and Balinese dances originated later during the pre-Muslim era and are often based on Indonesian versions of the epic Hindu poems, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Gamelan orchestras, consisting mainly of percussion instruments, accompany shadow puppet shows and traditional dance performances. Indonesia is famous for wooden carvings, batik and textiles. Traditional cloth paintings can be seen in the temples and shrines of Bali.

Hangings show scenes of stories set out in consecutive boxes, often with themes from the Sanskrit epics. Another important figure is the late Chairil Anwar, a poet and member of the Generation 45 group of authors who were active in the Indonesian independence movement.

Bahasa Indonesia, a standardised version of Malay, is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin, English, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic. With dialect variations, Malay-Indonesian is spoken by as many as million people in the modern states of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

It is also an important vernacular in the southern provinces of Thailand and among the Malay people of Australia's Cocos Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean. It is understood in parts of the Sulu area of the southern Philippines and traces of it are to be found among people of Malay descent in Sri Lanka, South Africa and other places.

From the ninth to the fourteenth century, Malay was the court language of the Sumateran. It was also the language of the greatest of all medieval Malay states, Malacca.

As a result, Malay became the native tongue of the people living on both sides of the Strait of Malacca that separates Sumatera from the Malay Peninsula. In the succeeding centuries, the Strait of Malacca became a busy sea thoroughfare. Countless travellers and traders passed through and came into contact with the Malay language.

They bore the language throughout the islands of Indonesia and, eventually, it became a widely used lingua franca. Later, Muslims and Christians helped spread the language as they used it in the propagation of their faiths.

By the time Indonesia began to fall under the control of the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, Malay was so well entrenched as a lingua franca that the European rulers adapted it as the primary medium of communication between the government and the people rather than force communication in Dutch. With anti-colonial sentiments running high in the early twentieth century, it was not easy to see what would define Indonesia as an independent nation. Given the diversity of cultures and native languages of the islands, it was difficult to find what Indonesians had in common.

That common identity would eventually be found by developing a standardised version of Malay to unify the islands, and calling the language Bahasa Indonesia.

When the Indonesian nationalists emerged from the shadow of the Japanese occupation in to declare an independent republic, the Proclamation of Independence was uttered in Bahasa Indonesia.

Both the state philosophy of Pancasila and the Constitution were framed in Bahasa Indonesia. The subsequent victory of the Republic in the Revolution consolidated the prestige of the language and gave its development unstoppable momentum.

Today, Indonesians are overwhelmingly bilingual. In infancy, they learn the native language of their island region and, when they enter school, they learn Bahasa Indonesia — the national language and medium of instruction in educational institutions at all levels throughout the country. It is estimated that there are some Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indonesian, 1, Arabic loans, some Persian and Hebrew ones, some Portuguese also Spanish and Italian ones and a staggering number of some 10, loanwords from Dutch.

The latter also comprises many words from other European languages, which came via Dutch, the so-called "International Vocabulary". The vast majority of Indonesian words, however, come from the root lexical stock of its Austronesian heritage. Although Hinduism and Buddhism are no longer the major religions of Indonesia, Sanskrit which was the language vehicle for these religions, is still held in high esteem and is comparable with the status of Latin in English and other West European languages.

Residents of Bali and Java tend to be particularly proud of the Hindu-Buddhist heritage. Sanskrit is also the main source for neologisms. These are usually formed from Sanskrit roots. The loanwords from Sanskrit cover many aspects of religion , art and everyday life.

The Sanskrit influence came from contacts with India long ago before the time of Christ. The words are either directly borrowed from India or with the intermediary of the Old Javanese language. In the classical language of Java, Old Javanese, the number of Sanskrit loanwords is far greater. The Old Javanese — English dictionary by prof.

Zoetmulder, S. Almost half are Sanskrit loanwords. Unlike other loanwords, Sanskrit loanwords have entered the basic vocabulary of Indonesian, so by many these aren't felt as foreign anymore.

The loanwords from Arabic are mainly concerned with religion, in particular with Islam , as can be expected. Allah is the word for God even in Christian Bible translations. Many early Bible translators, when they came across some unusual Hebrew words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer translations this practice is discontinued. They now turn to Greek names or use the original Hebrew Word. For example, the name Jesus was initially translated as ' Isa , but is now spelt as Yesus.

Psalms used to be translated as Zabur , the Arabic name, but now it is called Mazmur which corresponds more with Hebrew. Loanwords from Portuguese are common words, which were mainly connected with articles the early European traders and explorers brought to Southeast Asia. The Portuguese were among the first westerners who sailed east to the " Spice Islands". The Chinese loanwords are usually concerned with cuisine, trade or often just exclusively things Chinese.

There is a considerable Chinese presence in the whole of Southeast Asia. According to the Indonesian government, the relative number of people of Chinese descent in Indonesia is only 3. Part of the problem lies in the language itself: Bahasa Indonesia has fewer words than most languages. Because Indonesians learn Bahasa Indonesia in school, then hear it as adults primarily in political speech, they associate it with homogeneity , according to Dr Nancy J Smith-Hefner, associate professor of anthropology at Boston University.

This is exacerbated because Bahasa Indonesia was heavily promoted during the Suharto dictatorship that ruled from the mids until and stifled many forms of individual and cultural expression.

People dissatisfied with Bahasa Indonesia have plenty of options. There are hundreds of regional languages and dialects, sometimes spoken intact, sometimes blended with Bahasa Indonesia.

In Yogyakarta, where I am — located in the centre of Java and the traditional heartland of Javanese culture — Javanese is commonly spoken, partly as a reflection of cultural pride.

A food vendor who pushes his wooden cart along my street every morning selling soto ayam spicy chicken soup often breaks into Javanese, making our conversations difficult for me to follow. He recently asked me something three times before I understood.

The question, when I got it, revealed a pride in his heritage: had I yet seen wayang kulit shadow puppet play , the quintessentially Javanese cultural performance? The country has close to the freest speech in Asia, and young Indonesians are fanatical fans of Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, using the platforms to evolve their own language with new and borrowed words.