Languages of Indonesia

The official language of Indonesia is the Indonésien or " bahasa Indonesia ". The indonésien is in fact the Malayan, a language austronésienne. But since the independence of the country, it evolved/moved considerably compared to the Malayan traditional one, its development accompanying that by the construction of a modern nation indonésienne.

The language of the former colonizer, the Dutch, had known only one limited circulation at the time colonial. Until the beginning of the XXe century indeed, the Dutchmen refused to use their language for asresser with the Indigènes and spoke to them into Malayan. The requirements as a personnel growing for the colonial administration finally force the Dutchmen to teach their language with the natives. They create then the hollandse indische schools (HIS) or " Dutch schools for indigènes". They also accept that a small number of children indigenous, resulting from the families from the nobility and the notable ones, enter the schools for Européens. This process is broken by the Japanese occupant (1942-45), who prohibits the use of the European languages and promotes the indonésien. The conflict which, after the proclamtion of independence in 1945, will oppose the young republic to the former colonizer who wants to recover his colony, does not support the return of the teaching of Dutch. Today (2006), Dutch is thus more spoken only by the survivors of this minority of Indonésiens educated in this language, and of which young people have in the 70 year old neighborhoods.

Beside the national language, one speaks several hundreds about languages in Indonesia (742 according to ethnologue.com). They are divided into two great groups:

Of the " Languages papoues " ,
Of the languages of the Austronesian branch of the family of the Languages austronésiennes.

These languages other than the national language are called bahasa daerah , i.e. regional languages.

It is estimated that at present (2006), approximately half of Indonésiens have as a native tongue a regional language. Those whose native tongue is the indonésien result, either parents from which the native tongue is the indonésien, or parents whose native tongues are different regional languages. However, the fact of having for native tongue the indonésien is not an obstacle with the acquisition of a regional language, in general that of the place where the child grows. Bilingualism is thus a current situation in Indonesia, perhaps even majority. The trilinguism also exists.

It should in addition be announced that the Malayan one is also a regional language in Indonesia. This language is indeed originating in Sumatra. The oldest known documents written into Malayan are indeed 3 inscriptions dated from the end of VIIe century, and found on the island of Bangka and in the town of Palembang, in the province of Southern Sumatra. In Indonesia, the Malayan one is the language of the populations of the east coast of Sumatra, the Archipel of Riau and the western, southern littoral and is island of Borneo. Moreover, one speaks about the Malayan dialects in Jakarta (the language known as Betawi), in the province of Northern Sulawesi ( bahasa Melayu Manado or " Malayan of Manado") and in the Moluques ( bahasa melayu Ambon or " Malayan of Ambon ").

Languages papoues

The languages papoues of Indonesia belong to 5 distinct families:

" Western Languages papoues " , spoken in the islands about Halmahera, Ternate and Tidore in the province of the Moluques of North,
" Languages East Bird' S Head " ,
" Languages of Bas-Mamberamo " and
" Languages of bay of Geelvink " spoken in the Western half of the island of New Guinea (provinces of Papua and Western Papua),
" Languages of Trans-News Guinea " , also spoken in Papua and Western Papua but also in the islands about Alor, Pantar and Timor.

Languages austronésiennes

In addition to the indonésien, the principal languages austronésiennes spoken in Indonesia are:

Random links: