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In Indonesia we have more than 700 living languages, but the only official language is Indonesian. It is a Malay language and mutually intelligible with Malaysian language. We have some different vocabularies for different things, but most of the time we can communicate with each other just fine. Indonesian is more influenced by Dutch language while Malaysian by English language. The accent is quite different too, Indonesian (Standard) is much more flat, staccato, and choppy while I believe Malaysian is much more flowing. The biggest difference in term of pronunciation is that Indonesian pronounce each consonant and vowel as same as we write it while in Malaysian vowel 'a' glides to schwa at the end of the word.
Indonesian language is taught throughout schools at Indonesia, and in some places they will teach local languages too.
I was born and raised in Palembang, South Sumatra. People there speak a Malay language too, Musi Malay to be exact and we call it 'Baso Pelembang' or 'Palembang language'. It is quite different language from standard Indonesian. We speak much faster, and more singsongy. The vocabularies sometimes is very different too, like the word for 'later' is 'nanti' in Indonesian and 'kagek' in Palembang. But most of the time, we just change 'a' vowel to 'o' at the end of the word, so words like 'kemana' 'dimana' 'siapa' becomes 'kemano' 'dimano' 'siapo'. We don't learn 'Palembang Language' in Palembang as they would teach Javanese at Java or Sundanese at West Java, so our dialect is less standardized compared to other languages like Javanese and Sundanese. There is quite big differences between how the older generation and younger generation speak at Palembang. Younger generation like me speak much faster, and we tend to use less formal second pronoun of 'awak'.
Usually second-pronoun 'awak' is used in formal settings, or at least at place when there is a conflict of hierarchy. My mother always refer to my family driver as 'awak', not 'kau' (intimate and impolite second pronoun) or using kinship term (polite) because although the driver is 'subordinate' of my mother, he was much older compared to her. So she to avoid being rude and breaching hierarchy, she uses 'awak'.
But younger generation like me almost never use 'awak'. We only use 'kau' exclusively, and we omit second pronoun to use kinship term when speaking to someone older/superior.
Kau, Awak = You
At school all the textbooks are in Indonesian, but some teacher teach in Indonesian while most in Palembang dialect. But all of the essays, assignments, have to be written in Indonesian. Even for Indonesian Language classes we still speak Palembang dialect. There is not lot of push from the government for us to speak standard Indonesian at school. Students usually speak to each other using Palembang dialect, and we would use standard Indonesian just for fun. In daily life, we almost speak Palembang dialect exclusively, even in formal settings like meeting and at public offices like police station, etc. Only employees of national enterprises like Garuda Indonesia (Indonesian flagship carrier) speak Indonesian to customers.
South Sumatra is Sumatra Selatan in the map, at the left island
In Palembang we are much less likely to accept Jakarta slangs compared to people just below us at Lampung province. When I went to Lampung most of people there speak using Jakarta dialect ! They would use words like gue, lo, and other Jakarta slangs while at Palembang especially at school if you speak like that most people would just ridicule you and think you as a snob. Most of Jakarta transfer students at my school learned to speak Palembang dialect very fast, because many of us would make fun of people speaking in Jakarta dialect
But overall I think Indonesian government is very lax regarding dialects... How about at other countries ? I heard that at China and Taiwan the government used to force students to use Mandarin at school, is that true ?
The funny thing is that at Indonesia very people use Indonesian language everyday even at the capital city. I personally have better skill of standard Indonesian both formal and informal compared to my friends, as sometimes my friends use the wrong prefixes and suffixes for simple sentences like
"I got hit by a car because the driver drove recklessly' in Formal Standard Indonesian will be 'Saya tertabrak oleh (sebuah) mobil karena pengemudi/pengendara mobil tersebut mengemudi/mengendara dengan ceroboh'. Ditabrak means the driver hit you intentionally (prefix di-) while tertabrak means the driver hit you unintentionally (prefix ter-), but most people here don't make distinction between di- and ter- and use both terms interchangeably. Also few days ago I watched an interview of someone, and he said 'lalu sayapun tak menyadarkan diri' which means 'and then I was making myself to faint' because he used wrong prefix me-. Tak sadarkan diri means to faint but he added prefix me- to the word so it sounds really funny and weird
Last edited by hanindonesia; 05-10-2015 at 12:20 AM..
Standard Austrian German is only used in writing. It's basically the same as the variants used in Germany and Switzerland, but we have some unique words none of the others really use. Some examples:
Austria - Germany - English
skartieren = Akten vernichten = to destroy some files
Eierschwammerl = Pfifferling = chanterelle
Faschiertes = Hackfleisch = minced meat
Kren = Meerrettich = horse radish
Obers = Sahne = heavy cream
Jänner = Januar = January
Palatschinke = Pfannkuchen = pancake
Primar = Chefarzt = chief physician
And so on.
Now, hardly anyone is using spoken Standard German. We use Central Bavarian (Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna and northern Burgenland), Southern Bavarian (Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol and southern Burgenland) or Alemannic dialects (Vorarlberg, parts of Tyrol).
These dialects can be fairly mild (Viennese; even though Germans wouldn't properly understand it either) to not understandable for other Austrians at all.
We usually speak a standard-ish version of German when talking to people from other regions.
There are many(dozens) aboriginal languages here that belong to the Austronesian language family. Only aborigines speak them and they're either dead or dying, in the mountains. There's like one or two tv channels trying to promote them but nobody watches them.
Taiwanese is a language that is said to be spoken by 70% of the population. There are tons of shows in Taiwanese but seriously they are just ****ing trash. It's still very prevalent in Southern Taiwan or in the countryside, but it's declining rapidly as the speakers are getting old.
All public transportation has announcements in Taiwanese. I understand the language 100% but I'm kinda rusty when it comes to speaking.
Hakka is spoken by about 10%(or less) of the population, mostly spoken in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Miaoli counties(horrible places, ew, burn them). There's like one or two tv channels trying to promote the language but just like the aboriginal languages, nobody watches those shows.
All public transportation has announcements in Hakka as well, in addition to Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English. I don't understand a word in Hakka.
And then there's SE Asian languages since there are many immigrant workers from Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia here. So there are users of Vietnamese, Thai, Tagalog, and Bahasa here as well.
Anyway obviously the most prevalent language here is Mandarin, but like German spoken in Germany and Austria there are differences between Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin, notably the written form, they use the lame ass simplified characters while we use the cool traditional characters. Some terms and slangs can be very different as well.
Hiberno English, Ulster-Scots and Northern Irish English. Hiberno English is the main dialect for the island, the Hiberno English is the accent that is for native Irish people as in it is the dialect that was spoken before the English came (except there is a mix of English influence also), this is the dialect that you will hear on the TV and the one that would be used to describe the Irish as a whole. Here are some examples.
They say there is a difference between the different accents down south (and there probably is) but to MY ear they all sound extremely similar, basically a high pitched, hyper etc lol sound. You know the typical Irish accent.
Next is the Northern Irish, ok so basically this sounds more Scottish than Irish, they probably use more Scottish words than Irish words, for example, Skitter (means bad child lol), Sheuch (this is just a hole in the ground), knackered (wrecked) etc. To me this is just the Standard Northern Ireland accent, some parts are very nasal and annoying, particularly the Belfast. However,in NI most people just have the standard accent. Annoyingly the English media thinks that we all talk like Belfast people...
Do you notice the nasal? I'm not actually sure WHY the accent is like this.
Then we have Ulster Scots which to ME is a dialect. Ulster Scots is basically a very Scottish sounding dialect, tbh if it was compared with anywhere, the Ballymoney accent is very similar to the Ayrshire accent.
Informal Malaysian
Notice how she doesn't really roll her r.
The girl in the video talking about how one of the states in Malaysia, Kelantan decided to use Shari'ah law (Islamic law/hudud). She criticized the government that the politicians are using religion to divert the attention of the population from declining economy, disasters etc. But sadly she got lots of death threats, bunch of savages . The PAS (Pan-Islamic Party) of Kelantan called those who are against the law are infidels lol.
I found her accent cute and funny anyway.
Informal Jakarta dialect
This is how most people from Jakarta speak, and what we consider as informal Indonesian. Notice how most of the people in the video are pale and have small eyes ? They are Chinese-Indonesian like me but from Jakarta.
Formal Malaysian
Formal Indonesian
You can compare that formal Malaysian has lots of schwa sound while formal Indonesian is more crisp and clear. We also tend to roll our r more.
This is Javanese, basically a whole different language, around 40% of Indonesian speak Javanese daily. Ethnic Java accounts for 43% of Indonesian population.
and this is my dialect
Promoting my hometown , sadly I didn't have the opportunity to attend this event. I already moved to the states haha. There was forest fire at north of the city and the wind was going south on that day that's why it was so smoggy.
I speak 3 languages (4 if you count Palembang dialect as a language too lol.)
Indonesian, English, and Mandarin Chinese as I'm part of 3% ethnic Chinese population in Indonesia .
Last edited by hanindonesia; 05-10-2015 at 05:41 PM..
Now, hardly anyone is using spoken Standard German. We use Central Bavarian (Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna and northern Burgenland), Southern Bavarian (Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol and southern Burgenland) or Alemannic dialects (Vorarlberg, parts of Tyrol).
These dialects can be fairly mild (Viennese; even though Germans wouldn't properly understand it either) to not understandable for other Austrians at all.
We usually speak a standard-ish version of German when talking to people from other regions.
Cool. I heard that Bavarian roll their R while Standard German use uvular R, is that correct ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greysholic
Taiwanese is a language that is said to be spoken by 70% of the population. There are tons of shows in Taiwanese but seriously they are just ****ing trash. It's still very prevalent in Southern Taiwan or in the countryside, but it's declining rapidly as the speakers are getting old.
All public transportation has announcements in Taiwanese. I understand the language 100% but I'm kinda rusty when it comes to speaking.
And then there's SE Asian languages since there are many immigrant workers from Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia here. So there are users of Vietnamese, Thai, Tagalog, and Bahasa here as well.
Anyway obviously the most prevalent language here is Mandarin, but like German spoken in Germany and Austria there are differences between Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin, notably the written form, they use the lame ass simplified characters while we use the cool traditional characters. Some terms and slangs can be very different as well.
Lol, my parents speak Hokkien too. Here at Palembang the Chinese-Indonesian tend to be more conservative and traditional, so around half of my Chinese-Indonesian friend can speak conversational Mandarin but with very very noticable accent. We don't make distinction between zou, zhou, cou, and chou lol. So z, zh, c, ch, j, q are all pronounce the same, as pinyin j (tʃ). We also add many glottal stop to the end of the word, like 喝 to drink becomes 'hok', 吃 (chi) becomes jik. 學 (xue) becomes xiok, 二 (er) becomes ol and etc.
At North Sumatra's capital city, Medan half of the population are Chinese-Indonesian and most of them speak Hokkien daily. My cousin who lived there said that it's like a big big chinatown.
Most grandparents at Palembang is like really really multilingual.. My grandmother can speak Indonesian, Mandarin, Hokkien, and she understands Hakka (Khek), and Cantonese lol.
Also 'Bahasa' means language in Indonesian I'm curious why so many people think Indonesian Language is called Bahasa .
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sickandtiredofthis
Do you notice the nasal? I'm not actually sure WHY the accent is like this.
Then we have Ulster Scots which to ME is a dialect. Ulster Scots is basically a very Scottish sounding dialect, tbh if it was compared with anywhere, the Ballymoney accent is very similar to the Ayrshire accent.
There are at least 150 different languages in the Philippines. They call them dialects, but they are actually separate languages.
The major languages are shown on this map. The areas that are white are the areas where minor languages are spoken
The relationship between the languages like Ilocano, Tagalog, and Cebuano is like that of English, French, and Spanish. They're related languages, but not mutually intelligible.
In schools from Kindergarten through grade 3, the students are taught in the major language of their region (the ones shown in the map above, plus a few more). They also learn English and Tagalog (the official languages) as subjects. Then starting in 4th grade they use Tagalog & English as the languages of instruction in the classroom. This is the new education system they started in 2012. They want children to become literate in their regional language first and then Tagalog and English after.
Location: Northern Ireland and temporarily England
7,668 posts, read 5,257,582 times
Reputation: 1392
Quote:
Originally Posted by hanindonesia
Cool. I heard that Bavarian roll their R while Standard German use uvular R, is that correct ?
Lol, my parents speak Hokkien too. Here at Palembang the Chinese-Indonesian tend to be more conservative and traditional, so around half of my Chinese-Indonesian friend can speak conversational Mandarin but with very very noticable accent. We don't make distinction between zou, zhou, cou, and chou lol. So z, zh, c, ch, j, q are all pronounce the same, as pinyin j (tʃ). We also add many glottal stop to the end of the word, like 喝 to drink becomes 'hok', 吃 (chi) becomes jik. 學 (xue) becomes xiok, 二 (er) becomes ol and etc.
At North Sumatra's capital city, Medan half of the population are Chinese-Indonesian and most of them speak Hokkien daily. My cousin who lived there said that it's like a big big chinatown.
Most grandparents at Palembang is like really really multilingual.. My grandmother can speak Indonesian, Mandarin, Hokkien, and she understands Hakka (Khek), and Cantonese lol.
Also 'Bahasa' means language in Indonesian I'm curious why so many people think Indonesian Language is called Bahasa .
The Dublin girl sounds real badass , and the girl from Belfast sounds like someone was pinching her nose all the time while she was talking.
I know is so annoying isn't it. I hate nasal accents.
The rhythm and cadence of Australian English definitely came from the southern Irish.
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. The PAS (Pan-Islamic Party) of Kelantan called those who are against the law are infidels lol.
, sadly I didn't have the opportunity to attend this event. I already moved to the states haha. There was forest fire at north of the city and the wind was going south on that day that's why it was so smoggy.
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