Greeting in Indonesian Language

Here they are some vocabularies that usually used by Indonesian people in greeting and cordiality

Selamat datang              Welcome

Selamat pagi.                Good morning

Selamat siang               Good Afternoon (after 11:00 am till 3:00 pm)

Selamat sore                 Good Evening   (after 3:00 pm till 6:00 pm)

Selamat malam.            Good Night

Selamat jalan.                Good-bye.

Selamat tinggal.             Good-bye (to the one who is staying).

Selamat makan.             Enjoy your meal.

Selamat tidur.                 Have a nice sleep.

Apa kabar?                    How are you?

Baik, terima kasih.         Fine thank you.

Baik-baik saja.               Just fine.

Sampai jumpa.              See you again. (literally: until we meet)

Sampai jumpa, lagi.       See you again. (literally: until we meet again)

Sampai ketemu.            See you again. (literally: until we meet)

Sampai bertemu.           See you again. (literally: until we meet)

Sampai besok.              See you tomorrow. (literally: until tomorrow)

Terima kasih.                Thank you.

Terima kasih banyak.     Thank you very much.

Sama-sama.                  You’re welcome.

Kembali.                       You’re welcome

Cukup.                          Enough

Kenyang.                       Full

Permisi                          Excuse me

Maaf.                            Sorry.

Tidak apa apa.               It’s ok. No problem

Silakan masuk.              Please, come in

Silakan duduk.               Please, sit down

Silakan makan.              Please, eat. Help yourself

Silakan minum.              Please, drink

Silakan tambah lagi.       Please, have some more

Tolong.                          Please (used when requesting help with something)

Tolong, tutup pintu.        Please, close the door.

Minta.                           Please (used when requesting to be given something)

Minta air putih?              May I have some water please?

Pronounciation in Indonesian Language

Pronuciation of alphabets in Indonesian Language :

VOWEL

• “a”  pronounced “ah”, as in word “father.
• “e”  generally pronounced shorter sound than the short “e” in English, as in word "exam".
• “i”   pronounced  “ee”, as in “meet”.
• "o” pronounced as long “o”,  as in “hold”.
• “u” pronounced “oo” as in “toot”.
• “aa” pronounced as “aah”.
• “ai” long “i” sound as in “eye” (“ah+ee” in one sound).
• “au” pronounced as “ow”, as in word “cow” (“ah+oo” in one sound). 

CONSONANTS

Indonesian consonants generally pronounced as consonants in English Language, with these exception:

• “c” pronounced “ch”,  as in “chip”.
• “g” pronunced hard “g”, sound as in “goat.
• “ng” pronounced as in “lung”. The sound comes from the back of your throat WITHOUT the hard “g” sound.
• “ngg”“ung”+ hard “g” sound as in “hunger”
• “ny" pronounced as in “canyon”. 
• “h” a sigh-like sound that is pronounced, at times quite prominently. Unlike English, it is NOT silent no matter where it is found in a word.
• “k” the normal “k” sound as in “kite” EXCEPT when found at the end of a word, where it is cut off or very soft. This is also called a glottal stop, which is similar to the sound at the back of your throat when saying “oh-oh”.
• “r” pronounced as hard "r" or "rr".

History of Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Language)

                  Bahasa Indonesia is the correct term for the Indonesian language. At times foreigners may refer to it as only Bahasa, but the word Bahasa simply means language. Likewise, Bahasa Inggris refers to the English language. Therefore, Bahasa Indonesia appropriately means the Indonesian language. Indonesian is almost the same as Malay, which is spoken in Malaysia. But bahasa Indonesia has many foreign influences, including Dutch, Arabic, Portuguese and Chinese. An increasing number of English words have also found their way into the Indonesian language.

                Since the seventh century the Malay language used as the official language in Indonesian archipelago. The use of language can be seen in the inscriptions of ancient Malay in Java, Sumatra and Riau Islands. In addition, the Malay language is also used as a language of science and religion. It was stated by the travelers coming from China studying in Srivijaya, which at the time it became a center of Buddhist teaching.[1] In other words, it can be said that Malay Language already played an important role as a supporter of the culture of Indonesia. 

                Bahasa Indonesia unites the over 237 million people of Indonesia, whose native tongue may be one of the over 300 distinct languages or regional dialects.[2] Older people may speak some Dutch and English is the foreign language of choice for business, tourism and study. While it may be technically possible for foreigners to live in Indonesia  without learning/speaking Bahasa Indonesia, but it is highly recommended that foreigner to learn Indonesian national language. An inability to communicate in Bahasa Indonesia will cut foreigner off from the mainstream of society, and dealing with those Indonesians who don't speak foreign language will be very difficult. By not learning the language, foreigners also deny theirself from the rich cultural experience and fully interesting communication with Indonesian.

 

             With dialect variations, Malay-Indonesian is spoken by as many as 250 million people worldwide. It is the dominant language of Indonesia and Malaysia, and is strong in Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand and the Cocos Keeling Islands of Australia. 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. 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 a primary medium of communication between the government and the people (along with 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.

                In 1928, with the country’s nationalist movement in full swing, the Congress of Young People drafted the famous Young People’s Vow (Sumpah Pemuda) declaring “Indonesian” the pre-eminent language of Indonesia as well as the language of national unity. In 1945, when the Indonesian nationalist movement arose to declare an independent republic, the Proclamation of Independence, the state philosophy of Pancasila and the Constitution were all uttered and framed in Bahasa Indonesia. When the Republic emerged victorious from the subsequent Revolution (1945-1949), the prestige of the language was secured and its development was unstoppable.

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[1] James Sneddon, The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2003), 33, 52.

[2] Ibid.