Editing Indonesian language (section)

== History ==
[[File:Kerinci MSS detail.jpg|thumb|[[Rencong alphabet]], native writing systems found in central and [[South Sumatra]]. The text reads (Voorhoeve's spelling): "haku manangis ma / njaru ka'u ka'u di / saru tijada da / tang [hitu hadik sa]", which is translated by Voorhoeve as: "I am weeping, calling you; though called, you do not come" (in modern Malay "Aku menangis, menyerukan engkau, kaudiseru, tiada datang [itu adik satu]").]]
[[File:Prasasti Kedukan Bukit 1.jpg|thumb|[[Kedukan Bukit Inscription]], written in [[Pallava script]], is the oldest surviving specimen of the [[Old Malay]] language.]]Standard Indonesian is a [[standard language]] of "Riau Malay",<ref name="Indonesian Embassy: Astana">{{cite web |url=http://kbri-astana.kz/id/print/10-bahasa_dan_dialek.html |title=Bahasa dan dialek |publisher=Republic of Indonesia Embassy in Astana |language=id |ref=Dari sudut pandang linguistik, bahasa Indonesia adalah salah satu dari banyak ragam bahasa Melayu. Dasar yang dipakai adalah bahasa Melayu Riau (wilayah Kepulauan Riau sekarang) dari abad ke-19. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501173049/http://kbri-astana.kz/id/print/10-bahasa_dan_dialek.html |archive-date=1 May 2013  }}</ref><ref name="Melayu Online">{{cite web|url=http://melayuonline.com/ind/culture/dig/1349/bahasa-melayu-riau-dan-bahasa-nasional|title=Bahasa Melayu Riau dan Bahasa Nasional|publisher=Melayu Online|access-date=29 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122024301/http://melayuonline.com/ind/culture/dig/1349/bahasa-melayu-riau-dan-bahasa-nasional|archive-date=22 November 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> which despite its common name is not based on the vernacular Malay dialects of the [[Riau Islands]], but rather represents a form of [[Classical Malay]] as used in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the [[Riau-Lingga Sultanate]]. Classical Malay had emerged as a literary language in the royal courts along both shores of the [[Strait of Malacca]], including the [[Johor Sultanate]] and [[Malacca Sultanate]].<ref name="Abas 1987 26–28">{{cite book |last=Abas |first=Husen |date=1987 |title=Indonesian as a Unifying Language of Wider Communication : A Historical and Sociolinguistic Perspective |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/145414 |series=Pacific Linguistics, D-73 |pages=26–28 |publisher=Pacific Linguistics |doi=10.15144/PL-D73 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926072010/https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/145414 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |access-date=28 December 2020 |isbn=0858833581 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Sneddon">Sneddon 2003, ''The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society'', p. 70</ref><ref name="Nothofer 2009 677–680">{{cite book |last=Nothofer |first=Bernd |year=2009 |chapter=Malay |title=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World |editor1=Kevin Brown |editor2=Sarah Ogilvie |pages=677–680}}</ref> Originally spoken in Northeast [[Sumatra]],<ref name="ethnologue.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/|title=Ethnologue: Languages of the World|website=Ethnologue|access-date=27 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071227170852/http://www.ethnologue.com/|archive-date=27 December 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> Malay has been used as a [[lingua franca]] in the Indonesian [[archipelago]] for half a millennium. It might be attributed to its [[ancestor]], the [[Old Malay]] language (which can be traced back to the 7th century). The [[Kedukan Bukit Inscription]] is the oldest surviving specimen of Old Malay, the language used by [[Srivijayan]] empire.<ref name="1g1H"/> Since the 7th century, the Old Malay language has been used in [[Nusantara (archipelago)]] (Indonesian archipelago), evidenced by Srivijaya inscriptions and by other inscriptions from [[coast]]al areas of the archipelago, such as [[Sojomerto inscription]].<ref name="1g1H">{{cite web|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g1HZDUO7EVdaCXlKi0NwYKjYmqbOps-H/view?usp=sharing |title=BUKU PROFIL KEPAKSIAN.pdf - Google Drive |date= |access-date=2022-08-07}}</ref> 
Indonesian (in its standard form) has essentially the same material basis as the [[Malaysian language|Malaysian]] standard of Malay and is therefore considered to be a variety of the pluricentric Malay language. However, it does [[Comparison of Indonesian and Standard Malay|differ]] from Malaysian Malay in several respects, with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. These differences are due mainly to the Dutch and Javanese influences on Indonesian. Indonesian was also influenced by the {{lang|id|[[Malay trade and creole languages|Melayu pasar]]}} ({{lit|market Malay}}), which was the lingua franca of the archipelago in colonial times, and thus indirectly by other spoken languages of the islands.

Malaysian Malay claims to be closer to the classical Malay of earlier centuries, even though modern Malaysian has been heavily influenced, in lexicon as well as in syntax, by English. The question of whether High Malay (Court Malay) or Low Malay (Bazaar Malay) was the true parent of the Indonesian language is still in debate. High Malay was the official language used in the court of the [[Johor Sultanate]] and continued by the Dutch-administered territory of [[Riau-Lingga]], while Low Malay was commonly used in marketplaces and ports of the archipelago. Some linguists have argued that it was the more common Low Malay that formed the base of the Indonesian language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://melayuonline.com/ind/culture/dig/1626/bahasa-indonesia-memasyarakatkan-kembali-bahasa-pasar |title=Bahasa Indonesia: Memasyarakatkan Kembali 'Bahasa Pasar'? |publisher=Melayu Online |access-date=29 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630131527/http://melayuonline.com/ind/culture/dig/1626/bahasa-indonesia-memasyarakatkan-kembali-bahasa-pasar |archive-date=30 June 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Old Malay as ''lingua franca'' ===
[[File:Srivijaya Empire.svg|thumb|For centuries, [[Srivijaya]], through its expansion, economic power and military prowess, was responsible for the widespread of [[Old Malay]] throughout the [[Malay Archipelago]]. It was the working language of traders and it was used in various ports, and marketplaces in the region.<ref>[http://sea.lib.niu.edu/lang/malay.html Southeast Asia Digital Library: About Malay] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20070616131617/http://sea.lib.niu.edu/lang/malay.html |date=16 June 2007 }}</ref>|224x224px]]
[[Trade]] contacts carried on by various [[ethnic group|ethnic]] peoples at the time were the main [[vehicle]] for spreading the Old Malay language, which was the main [[communications]] medium among the traders. Ultimately, the Old Malay language became a [[lingua franca]] and was spoken widely by most people in the archipelago.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://melayuonline.com/ind/article/read/174/sriwijaya-dalam-telaah |title=Sriwijaya dalam Tela'ah |date=5 June 2007 |publisher=Melayu Online |access-date=1 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022105208/http://melayuonline.com/ind/article/read/174/sriwijaya-dalam-telaah |archive-date=22 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://melayuonline.com/eng/opinion/read/80/risen-up-maritime-nation |title=Risen Up Maritime Nation! |author=Bambang Budi Utomo |date=23 January 2008 |publisher=Melayu Online |access-date=1 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022091319/http://melayuonline.com/eng/opinion/read/80/risen-up-maritime-nation |archive-date=22 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The beginning of the common era saw the growing influence of Indian civilisation in the archipelago. With the penetration and proliferation of [[Sanskrit]] vocabulary and the influence of major [[Indian religions]] such as [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]], Ancient Malay evolved into the Old Malay. The oldest uncontroversial specimens of Old Malay are the 7th century CE [[Sojomerto inscription]] from [[Central Java]], [[Kedukan Bukit Inscription]] from [[South Sumatra]], [[Indonesia]] and several other inscriptions dating from the 7th to 10th centuries discovered in [[Sumatra]], [[Java]], other islands of the [[Sunda Islands|Sunda archipelago]], as well as [[Luzon]], [[Philippines]]. All these Old Malay inscriptions used either scripts of Indian origin such as [[Pallava script|Pallava]], [[Nāgarī script|Nagari]] or the Indian-influenced old Sumatran characters.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Molen |first=Willem van der |date=2008 |title=The Syair of Minye Tujuh |journal=Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde |volume=163 |issue=2/3 |pages=356–375 |doi=10.1163/22134379-90003689 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The Old Malay system is greatly influenced by [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] scriptures in terms of [[phonemes]], [[morpheme]]s, [[vocabulary]] and the characteristics of scholarship, particularly when the words are closely related to Indian culture. Further research stated that Old Malay and Modern Malay are forms of the same language,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Clavé |first1=Elsa |last2=Griffiths |first2=Arlo |date=2022-10-11 |title=The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: Tenth-Century Luzon, Java, and the Malay World |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.13185/ps2022.70202 |journal=Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=167–242 |doi=10.13185/ps2022.70202 |doi-broken-date=15 April 2025 |issn=2244-1093}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Adelaar |first=Alexander |author-link=K. Alexander Adelaar |title=The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar |date=2005 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9780415681537 |editor-last=Adelaar |editor-first=Alexander |editor-link=K. Alexander Adelaar |location=Abingdon |pages=1–42 |language=en |chapter=The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar: A historical perspective |editor-last2=Himmelmann |editor-first2=Nikolaus |editor-link2=Nikolaus P. Himmelmann}}</ref> in spite of some considerable differences between them.

=== Classical Malay of Riau-Lingga ===
Standard Indonesian is a [[standard language]] of "Riau Malay",<ref name="Indonesian Embassy: Astana">{{cite web |url=http://kbri-astana.kz/id/print/10-bahasa_dan_dialek.html |title=Bahasa dan dialek |publisher=Republic of Indonesia Embassy in Astana |language=id |ref=Dari sudut pandang linguistik, bahasa Indonesia adalah salah satu dari banyak ragam bahasa Melayu. Dasar yang dipakai adalah bahasa Melayu Riau (wilayah Kepulauan Riau sekarang) dari abad ke-19. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501173049/http://kbri-astana.kz/id/print/10-bahasa_dan_dialek.html |archive-date=1 May 2013  }}</ref><ref name="Melayu Online">{{cite web|url=http://melayuonline.com/ind/culture/dig/1349/bahasa-melayu-riau-dan-bahasa-nasional|title=Bahasa Melayu Riau dan Bahasa Nasional|publisher=Melayu Online|access-date=29 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122024301/http://melayuonline.com/ind/culture/dig/1349/bahasa-melayu-riau-dan-bahasa-nasional|archive-date=22 November 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> which despite its common name is not based on the vernacular Malay dialects of the [[Riau Islands]], but rather represents a form of [[Classical Malay]] as used in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the [[Riau-Lingga Sultanate]]. Classical Malay had emerged as a literary language in the royal courts along both shores of the [[Strait of Malacca]], including the [[Johor Sultanate]] and [[Malacca Sultanate]].<ref name="Abas 1987 26–28"/><ref name="Sneddon"/><ref name="Nothofer 2009 677–680"/> The period of Classical Malay started when [[Islam]] gained its foothold in the region and the elevation of its status to a [[state religion]]. As a result of [[Islamisation]] and growth in trade with the [[Muslim world]], this era witnessed the penetration of [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Persian language|Persian]] vocabulary as well as the integration of major [[Islamic culture]]s with local Malay culture. The earliest instances of Arabic lexicons incorporated in the pre-Classical Malay written in Kawi was found in the [[Minye Tujoh inscription]] dated 1380 CE from [[Aceh]] in [[Sumatra]]. Nevertheless, pre-Classical Malay took on a more radical form more than half a century earlier as attested in the 1303 CE [[Terengganu Inscription Stone]] as well as the 1468 CE [[Pengkalan Kempas|Pengkalan Kempas Inscription]], both from the Malay Peninsula. Both inscriptions not only serve as the evidence of Islam as a state religion but also as the oldest surviving specimen of the dominant classical [[Orthography|orthographic]] form, the [[Jawi script]]. Similar inscriptions containing various adopted Arabic terms with some of them still written the Indianised scripts were also discovered in other parts of Sumatra and Borneo.<ref>{{harvnb|Collins|1998|pp=12–15}}</ref><ref name="Abdul Rashid 2006 29">{{harvnb|Abdul Rashid|Amat Juhari|2006|p=29}}</ref>

=== Dutch East Indies Colonial Malay ===
When the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC) first arrived in the archipelago at the start of the 1600s, the Malay language was a significant trading and political language due to the influence of the [[Malacca Sultanate|Malaccan Sultanate]] and later the [[Portugal|Portuguese]]. However, the language had never been dominant among the population of the Indonesian archipelago as it was limited to mercantile activity. The VOC adopted the Malay language as the administrative language of their trading outpost in the east. Following the [[bankruptcy]] of the VOC, the [[Batavian Republic]] took control of the colony in 1799, and it was only then that education in and promotion of Dutch began in the [[colony]].

The 19th century was the period of strong [[Western world|Western]] political and commercial domination in the archipelago. The Dutch colonists, realising the importance of understanding the local languages and cultures, began establishing various centres of linguistic, literary and cultural studies in universities like [[Leiden University|Leiden]] and [[University of London|London]]. The use of [[Latin script]] began to expand in the fields of administration and education whereby the influence of [[Dutch literature]]s and languages started to penetrate and spread gradually into the language.

Even then, Dutch administrators were remarkably reluctant to promote the use of Dutch compared to other colonial regimes. Dutch thus remained the language of a small elite: in 1940, only 2% of the total population could speak Dutch. Nevertheless, it did have a significant influence on the development of Malay in the colony: during the colonial era, the language that would be standardized as Indonesian absorbed a large amount of Dutch vocabulary in the form of [[loanwords]].

The Dutch colonial government recognised the Malacca-Johor Malay used in [[Riau-Lingga]] as "High Malay" and promoted it as a medium of communication between the Dutch and local population. The language was also taught in schools not only in Riau but also in [[East Sumatra]], [[Java]], [[Kalimantan]] and East Indonesia.<ref name="Abdul Rashid 2006 33">{{harvnb|Abdul Rashid|Amat Juhari|2006|p=33}}</ref> In 1984, the Dutch colonial government was therefore decided to disseminate this language - and not Dutch - throughout the colony.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Salverda |first=Reinier |date=2000 |title=The History of Dutch Language Policy in Colonial Indonesia 1600-1950, The Low Countries. Jaargang 7 |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_low001199901_01/_low001199901_01_0043.php |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=DBNL |language=nl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Malik |first1=Abdul |last2=Shanty |first2=Isnaini Leo |last3=Wahyusari |first3=Ahada |last4=Elfitra |first4=Legi |last5=Loren |first5=Fabio Testy Ariance |date=2024 |editor-last=bin Surif |editor-first=J. |editor2-last=Jacobs |editor2-first=G.M. |editor3-last=Wei Dai |editor3-first=D. |editor4-last=Reddy |editor4-first=M.V. |editor5-last=Yamamoto |editor5-first=T. |editor6-last=Pardi |editor6-first=H. |title=Improving the Malay Language to Become an International Language |journal=SHS Web of Conferences |volume=205 |pages=06009 |doi=10.1051/shsconf/202420506009 |issn=2261-2424|doi-access=free }}</ref> To this end, the colonial government stimulated the study, standardisation and modernisation of Malay, imposing it via its institutions, via education, the missions and the media, and via the literary works produced by the state publishers Balai Poestaka. In this respect, the Dutch pursued a non-chauvinistic cultural policy.<ref name=":1" /> Another catalyst in the movement towards standardization of Malay in Western script was an amalgam of philology and a growing consciousness of an Indies identity such that a "lingua franca" justification for Malay had become insufficient.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Hoffman |first=John |year=1979 |title=A Foreign Investment: Indies Malay to 1901 |url=https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/6b77474a-3203-4aed-b9e2-be826926c279/content |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240413130100/https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/6b77474a-3203-4aed-b9e2-be826926c279/content |archive-date=2024-04-13 |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=ecommons.cornell.edu}}</ref> In reality, Klinkert's pure Malacca or Riau Malay was unusable in the eastern part of Indies even in the coastal regions.<ref name=":2" /> In 1910, Sasrasoeganda Koewatin, a prominent Malay language teacher of Kweekschool and OpIeidingschool in Yogyakarta, wrote a Malay grammar book entitled ''Kitab Jang Menjatakan Djalannja Bahasa Melajoe'' in which is the first Malay grammar book in Latin script which became the basis for the Indonesian language in use today.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sasrasoegonda |first=Koewatin |title=Kitab jang menjatakan djalan bahasa Melajoe |publisher=Balai Pustaka |year=1986 |editor-last=Stokhof |editor-first=Wim |location=Jakarta |publication-date=1917 |language=ms |trans-title=The book that explains the way of the Melajoe language}}</ref>
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Nila speaking Indonesian.webm|thumb|Indonesian speaker]]

=== The birth of Indonesian: adoption as the national language ===

The [[Indonesian National Awakening|nationalist movement]] that ultimately brought Indonesian to its national language status rejected [[Dutch language|Dutch]] from the outset. However, the rapid disappearance of Dutch was a very unusual case compared with other colonized countries, where the colonial language generally has continued to function as the language of politics, [[bureaucracy]], education, [[technology]], and other fields of importance for a significant time after independence.<ref name="Swaan"/> The Indonesian scholar {{ill|Soenjono Dardjowidjojo|id}} even goes so far as to say that when compared to the situation in other Asian countries such as India, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, "Indonesian is perhaps the only language that has achieved the status of a national language in its true sense" since it truly dominates in all spheres of [[Culture of Indonesia|Indonesian society]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Soenjono Dardjowidjojo |year=1998 |title=Strategies for a successful national language policy: the Indonesian case |journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language |issue=130 |pages=35–47 |doi=10.1515/ijsl.1998.130.35|s2cid=143634760 }}</ref> The ease with which Indonesia eliminated the language of its former colonial power can perhaps be explained as much by Dutch [[policy]] as by Indonesian nationalism. In marked contrast to the [[France|French]], [[Spain|Spanish]] and Portuguese, who pursued an [[cultural assimilation|assimilation]] colonial policy, or even the [[British Empire|British]], the Dutch did not attempt to spread their language among the indigenous population. In fact, they consciously prevented the language from being spread by refusing to provide education, especially in Dutch, to the native Indonesians so they would not come to see themselves as equals.<ref name="Swaan"/> Moreover, the Dutch wished to prevent the Indonesians from elevating their perceived social status by taking on elements of Dutch culture. Thus, until the 1930s, they maintained a minimalist regime and allowed Malay to spread quickly throughout the archipelago.[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Opening van de Volksraad door gouverneur-generaal Van Limburg Stirum op 18 mei 1918 op Java TMnr 10001373.jpg|thumb|''[[Volksraad (Dutch East Indies)|Volksraad]]'' session held in July 1938 in Jakarta, where Indonesian was formally used for the first time by Jahja Datoek Kajo|left]]Dutch dominance at that time covered nearly all aspects, with official forums requiring the use of Dutch, although since the Second Youth Congress (1928) the use of Indonesian as the national language was agreed on as one of the tools in the independence struggle. As of it, [[Mohammad Hoesni Thamrin]] inveighed actions underestimating Indonesian. After some criticism and protests, the use of Indonesian was allowed since the ''Volksraad'' sessions held in July 1938.<ref>{{cite web|author=George Quinn|title=Bahasa Indonesia: The Indonesian Language|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/indolang/malay.html |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050508115242/http://www.hawaii.edu/indolang/malay.html|archive-date=8 May 2005}}</ref> By the time they tried to counter the spread of Malay by teaching Dutch to the natives, it was too late, and in 1942, the Japanese conquered Indonesia. The Japanese mandated that all official business be conducted in Indonesian and quickly outlawed the use of the Dutch language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fogg |first=Kevin W. |year=2015 |title=The standardisation of the Indonesian language and its consequences for Islamic communities |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022463414000629/type/journal_article |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |language=en |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=86–110 |doi=10.1017/S0022463414000629 |s2cid=145518202 |issn=0022-4634}}</ref> Three years later, the Indonesians themselves formally abolished the language and established ''bahasa Indonesia'' as the national language of the new nation.<ref name="Paauw"/> The term ''bahasa Indonesia'' itself had been proposed by [[Mohammad Tabrani]] in 1926,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Government of Jakarta |title=Mohammad Tabrani |url=https://jakarta.go.id/artikel/konten/2486/mohammad-tabrani |access-date=27 November 2019 |language=id |date=2017 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801215405/https://jakarta.go.id/artikel/konten/2486/mohammad-tabrani |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Tabrani had further proposed the term over calling the language [[Malay language]] during the First Youth Congress in 1926.<ref name="Cambridge University Press">{{cite book |last1=Leitner |first1=Gerhard |last2=Hashim |first2=Azirah |last3=Wolf |first3=Hans-Georg |title=Communicating with Asia: The Future of English as a Global Language |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-47296-5 |page=180 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7OnCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:MuseumSumpahPemuda-13-IndonesischClubgebouw.jpg|thumb|The [[Youth Pledge]] was the result of the Second Youth Congress held in [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] in October 1928. On the last pledge, there was an affirmation of Indonesian language as a ''unifying language'' throughout the archipelago.]]

{{Quote box
| quote = ''"Jang dinamakan "bahasa Indonesia" jaitoe bahasa Melajoe jang soenggoehpoen pokoknja berasal dari "Melajoe Riau" akan tetapi jang soedah ditambah, dioebah atau dikoerangi menoeroet keperloean zaman dan alam baharoe, hingga bahasa itoe laloe moedah dipakai oleh rakjat di seloeroeh Indonesia; pembaharoean bahasa Melajoe hingga kini mendjadi bahasa Indonesia itoe haroes dilakoekan oleh kaoem ahli jang beralam baharoe, ialah alam kebangsaan Indonesia."'' (Indonesian for "What is called "Indonesian" is the Malay which originally came from "Riau Malay" but which has been added to, changed or modified according to the needs of the times and the new world, so that the language is now used by the people throughout Indonesia; the renewal of the Malay until now to become Indonesian must be carried out by experts who are from the new world, namely the Indonesian national world.")
| source = — Excerpt of [[Ki Hadjar Dewantara]]'s "Bahasa Indonesia didalam pergoroean", a paper presented at the First Indonesian Language Conference at [[Surakarta]], 25–28 June 1938.<ref name="KBI1&2@Lampau">{{Cite book|last=Kridalaksana |first=Harimurti |title=Masa Lampau Bahasa Indonesia. Sebuah bunga Rampai |publisher=Kanisius |year=1991 |isbn=979-413-476-7 |location=Yogyakarta |pages=240–241 |language=id |trans-title=Past of the Indonesian Language. An Anthology |chapter=Kongres Bahasa Indonesia I (1938) dan Kongres Bahasa Indonesia II (1958) |trans-chapter=The First Indonesian Language Congress (1938) and the Second Indonesian Language Congress (1958)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title= Indonesian language for Higher Education (eng) |last1=Nurdjan |first1=Sukirman |last2= Firman|first2=Mirnawati|year=2016|publisher= Aksara Timur|location=Indonesia |isbn= 978-602-73433-6-8|page=4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iiurDwAAQBAJ |access-date=30 Dec 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://tirto.id/sejarah-kongres-bahasa-indonesia-i-meresmikan-bahasa-persatuan-ecjH |title=History of The Indonesian Language Congress I: Inaugurating The United Language (eng) |last= Ardanareswari|first=Indira |date= 25 June 2019 |website=tirto.id |publisher= Tirto |access-date=28 December 2020}}</ref>
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Several years prior to the congress, Swiss linguist, [[Renward Brandstetter]] wrote ''[[s:An Introduction to Indonesian Linguistics|An Introduction to Indonesian Linguistics]]'' in 4 essays from 1910 to 1915. The essays were translated into English in 1916. By "Indonesia", he meant [[names of Indonesia#Indonesia|the name of the geographical region]], and by "Indonesian languages" he meant [[Malayo-Polynesian languages]] west of New Guinea, because by that time there was still no notion of Indonesian language.

[[Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana]] was a great promoter of the use and development of Indonesian and he was greatly exaggerating the decline of Dutch. Higher education was still in Dutch and many educated Indonesians were writing and speaking in Dutch in many situations (and were still doing so well after independence was achieved). He believed passionately in the need to develop Indonesian so that it could take its place as a fully adequate national language, able to replace Dutch as a means of entry into modern international culture. In 1933, he began the magazine ''Pujangga Baru'' (New Writer — ''Poedjangga Baroe'' in the original spelling) with co-editors Amir Hamzah and Armijn Pane. The language of Pujangga Baru came in for criticism from those associated with the more classical School Malay and it was accused of publishing Dutch written with an Indonesian vocabulary. Alisjahbana would no doubt have taken the criticism as a demonstration of his success. To him the language of Pujangga Baru pointed the way to the future, to an elaborated, Westernised language able to express all the concepts of the modern world. As an example, among the many innovations they condemned was use of the word ''bisa'' instead of ''dapat'' for 'can'. In Malay ''bisa'' meant only 'poison from an animal's bite' and the increasing use of Javanese ''bisa'' in the new meaning they regarded as one of the many threats to the language's purity. Unlike more traditional intellectuals, he did not look to Classical Malay and the past. For him, Indonesian was a new concept; a new beginning was needed and he looked to Western civilisation, with its dynamic society of individuals freed from traditional fetters, as his inspiration.<ref name="The Indonesian Language 2004. Page 14" />{{Quote box
| quote = ''"Bahasa Indonesia ialah bahasa Melajoe Perhoeboengan, jang diperkaja dengan zat-zat dari Melajoe Kesoesastraan, bahasa Djawa, bahasa Belanda dan dengan lebih koerang bahasa Austronesia jang Iain-lain, sedang peroebahan saraf banjak terdjadi dan begitoe poela peroebahan tinggi boenji dan tekanan. Bahasa Indonesia soedah djadi bahasa keboedajaan dan akan toemboeh dengan keboedajaan Indonesia."'' (Indonesian for "Indonesian is a communication Malay, enriched with elements from literary Malay, Javanese, Dutch and to a greater extent other Austronesian languages, while many grammar changes have occurred and so have changes in the pitch and stress. Indonesian has become the language of culture and will grow with Indonesian culture.")
| source = — Excerpt of [[Sanoesi Pane]]'s "Sedjarah Bahasa Indonesia", a paper presented at the First Indonesian Language Conference at [[Surakarta]], 25–28 June 1938.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kridalaksana |first=Harimurti |title=Masa Lampau Bahasa Indonesia. Sebuah bunga Rampai |publisher=Kanisius |year=1991 |isbn=979-413-476-7 |location=Yogyakarta |pages=240 |language=id |trans-title=Past of the Indonesian Language. An Anthology |chapter=Kongres Bahasa Indonesia I (1938) dan Kongres Bahasa Indonesia II (1958) |trans-chapter=The First Indonesian Language Congress (1938) and the Second Indonesian Language Congress (1958)}}</ref>
| align = right
| width = 45%
| salign = right
}}

=== Indonesian language in Japanese occupation, Old Order, and New Order ===
Once the Japanese overturned Dutch rule, a prohibition on the use of the Dutch language led to an expansion of Indonesian language newspapers and pressure on them to increase the language's wordstock. The Japanese agreed to the establishment of the Komisi Bahasa (Language Commission) in October 1942, formally headed by three Japanese but with a number of prominent Indonesian intellectuals playing the major part in its activities. Soewandi, later to be Minister of Education and Culture, was appointed secretary, Alisjahbana was appointed an 'expert secretary' and other members included the future president and vice-president, Sukarno and Hatta. Journalists, beginning a practice that has continued to the present, did not wait for the ''Komisi Bahasa'' to provide new words, but actively participated themselves in coining terms. Many of the Komisi Bahasa's terms never found public acceptance and after the Japanese period were replaced by the original Dutch forms, including ''jantera'' (Sanskrit for 'wheel'), which temporarily replaced ''mesin'' (machine), ''ketua negara'' (literally 'chairman of state'), which had replaced ''presiden'' (president) and ''kilang'' (meaning 'mill'), which had replaced ''pabrik'' (factory). In a few cases, however, coinings permanently replaced earlier Dutch terms, including ''pajak'' (earlier meaning 'monopoly') instead of ''belasting'' (tax) and ''senam'' (meaning 'exercise') instead of ''gimnastik'' (gymnastics). The Komisi Bahasa is said to have coined more than 7000 terms, although few of these gained common acceptance.<ref name="The Indonesian Language 2004. Page 14" />

[[File:Poster Propaganda Jepang.jpg|left|thumb|[[Propaganda]] posters from [[Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies|Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies]] ]]

The adoption of Indonesian as the country's national language was in contrast to most other post-colonial states. Neither the language with the most native speakers (Javanese) nor the language of the former European colonial power (Dutch) was to be adopted. Instead, a local language with far fewer native speakers than the most widely spoken local language was chosen (nevertheless, Malay was the second most widely spoken language in the colony after Javanese, and had many L2 speakers using it for trade, administration, and education).

In 1945, when Indonesia declared its independence, Indonesian was formally declared the national language,<ref name="uud"/> despite being the native language of only about 5% of the population. In contrast, Javanese and Sundanese were the mother tongues of 42–48% and 15% respectively.<ref name="Kratz">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kratz |first=U. |title=Indonesia: language situation |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics |edition=Second |year=2006 |pages=639–641 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01720-X|chapter=Indonesia * : Language Situation |isbn=9780080448541 }}</ref> The combination of [[nationalism|nationalistic]], [[politics|political]], and [[pragmatism|practical]] concerns ultimately led to the successful adoption of Indonesian as a national language. In 1945, Javanese was easily the most prominent language in Indonesia. It was the native language of nearly half the population, the primary language of politics and [[economics]], and the language of [[court]]ly, [[religion|religious]], and literary tradition.<ref name="Swaan">{{cite book |last1=de Swaan |first1=Abram |title=Words of the World |date=2001 |publisher=Polity |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=978-0745627489 |pages=81–95 }}</ref> What it lacked, however, was the ability to unite the diverse Indonesian population as a whole. With thousands of islands and hundreds of different languages, the newly independent country of Indonesia had to find a national language that could realistically be spoken by the majority of the population and that would not divide the nation by favouring one ethnic group, namely the Javanese, over the others. In 1945, Indonesian was already in widespread use;<ref name=Kratz/> in fact, it had been for roughly a thousand years. Over that long period, Malay, which would later become standardized as Indonesian, was the primary language of [[commerce]] and [[travel]]. It was also the language used for the propagation of [[Islam]] in the 13th to 17th centuries, as well as the language of instruction used by Portuguese and Dutch missionaries attempting to convert the indigenous people to [[Christianity]].<ref name=Swaan/> The combination of these factors meant that the language was already known to some degree by most of the population, and it could be more easily adopted as the national language than perhaps any other. Moreover, it was the language of the sultanate of [[Brunei]] and of future [[Malaysia]], on which [[Greater Indonesia|some Indonesian nationalists had claims]].

Over the first 53 years of [[Proclamation of Indonesian Independence|Indonesian independence]], the country's first two presidents, [[Sukarno]] and [[Suharto]], constantly nurtured the sense of national unity embodied by Indonesian, and the language remains an essential component of Indonesian identity. Through a language planning program that made Indonesian the language of [[politics]], [[education]], and nation-building in general, Indonesian became one of the few success stories of an [[indigenous language]] effectively overtaking that of a country's colonisers to become the ''[[de jure]]'' and ''[[de facto]]'' official language.<ref name="Paauw">{{cite journal|last1=Paauw |first1=Scott|title=One Land, One Nation, One Language: An Analysis of Indonesia's National Language Policy|journal=University of Rochester Working Papers in the Language Sciences|date=2009|volume=5|issue=1|pages=2–16 |url=http://www.rochester.edu/college/cls/assets/pdf/working/Paauw.pdf|access-date=18 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218024007/http://www.rochester.edu/college/cls/assets/pdf/working/Paauw.pdf|archive-date=18 December 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Today, Indonesian continues to function as the language of [[national identity]] as the Congress of Indonesian Youth envisioned, and also serves as the language of education, [[literacy]], [[modernization theory|modernization]], and [[social mobility]].<ref name="Paauw" /> Despite still being a second language to most Indonesians, it is unquestionably the language of the Indonesian nation as a whole, as it has had unrivalled success as a factor in nation-building and the strengthening of Indonesian identity.

=== Modern and colloquial Indonesian ===
{{further|Indonesian slang}}
[[File:Sukarno hatta airport - Terminal - Jakarta - Indonesia.jpg|thumb|right|Road signs in an [[airport terminal]]]]
[[File:Kuta Bali Indonesia Tol-Station-Nusa-Dua-01.jpg|thumb|Toll gate in [[Bali]]]]
[[File:Jakarta Indonesia Bus-stop-Monumen-Nasional-02.jpg|thumb|right|Indonesian language used on a [[Kopaja]] bus advertisement]]

Indonesian is spoken as a [[mother tongue]] and national language. Over 200 million people regularly make use of the national language, with varying degrees of proficiency. In a nation that is home to more than 700 native languages and a vast array of ethnic groups, it plays an important unifying and cross-archipelagic role for the country. Use of the national language is abundant in the media, [[government]] bodies, [[school]]s, [[University|universities]], [[workplace]]s, among members of the upper-class or nobility and also in formal situations, despite the 2010 census showing only 19.94% of over-five-year-olds speak mainly Indonesian at home.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://sp2010.bps.go.id/files/ebook/kewarganegaraan%20penduduk%20indonesia/index.html | title=Publication Name | access-date=4 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710134114/http://sp2010.bps.go.id/files/ebook/kewarganegaraan%20penduduk%20indonesia/index.html | archive-date=10 July 2017 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

Standard Indonesian is used in books and newspapers and on television/radio news broadcasts. The standard dialect, however, is rarely used in daily conversations, being confined mostly to formal settings. While this is a phenomenon common to most languages in the world (for example, spoken English does not always correspond to its written standards), the proximity of spoken Indonesian (in terms of grammar and vocabulary) to its normative form is noticeably low. This is mostly due to Indonesians combining aspects of their own local languages (e.g., [[Javanese language|Javanese]], [[Sundanese language|Sundanese]], and [[Balinese language|Balinese]]) with Indonesian. This results in various vernacular varieties of Indonesian, the very types that a foreigner is most likely to hear upon arriving in any Indonesian city or town.<ref>[http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180703-why-no-one-speaks-indonesias-language Why no-one speaks Indonesia's language], BBC, by David Fettling, 4 July 2018</ref> This phenomenon is amplified by the use of [[Indonesian slang]], particularly in the cities. Unlike the relatively uniform standard variety, Vernacular Indonesian exhibits a high degree of geographical variation, though Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian functions as the ''de facto'' norm of informal language and is a popular source of influence throughout the archipelago.<ref name="Sneddon-2003" /> There is [[language shift]] of [[first language]] among Indonesian into Indonesian from other language in Indonesia caused by ethnic diversity than urbanicity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pepinsky |first1=Thomas B. |last2=Abtahian |first2=Maya Ravindranath |last3=Cohn |first3=Abigail C. |date=2022-03-24 |title=Urbanization, ethnic diversity, and language shift in Indonesia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01434632.2022.2055761 |journal=Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development |volume=45 |issue=7 |language=en |pages=2503–2521 |doi=10.1080/01434632.2022.2055761 |issn=0143-4632}}</ref>

The most common and widely used colloquial Indonesian is heavily influenced by the [[Betawi language]], a [[Malay trade and creole languages|Malay-based creole]] of [[Jakarta]], amplified by its popularity in Indonesian popular culture in mass media and Jakarta's status as the national capital. In informal spoken Indonesian, various words are replaced with those of a less formal nature. For example, {{lang|id|tidak}} (no) is often replaced with the Betawi form {{lang|id|nggak}} or the even simpler {{lang|id|gak/ga}}, while {{lang|id|seperti}} (like, similar to) is often replaced with {{lang|jv-Latn|kayak}} {{IPA|ms|kajaʔ|}}. {{lang|id|Sangat}} or {{lang|id|amat}} (very), the term to express intensity, is often replaced with the Javanese-influenced {{lang|id|banget}}. As for pronunciation, the diphthongs ''ai'' and ''au'' on the end of base words are typically pronounced as {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}}. In informal writing, the spelling of words is modified to reflect the actual pronunciation in a way that can be produced with less effort. For example, {{lang|id|capai}} becomes {{lang|id|cape}} or {{lang|id|capek}}, {{lang|id|pakai}} becomes {{lang|id|pake}}, {{lang|id|kalau}} becomes {{lang|id|kalo}}. In verbs, the prefix ''me-'' is often dropped, although an initial nasal consonant is often retained, as when {{lang|id|mengangkat}} becomes {{lang|id|ngangkat}} (the basic word is {{lang|id|angkat}}). The suffixes ''-kan'' and ''-i'' are often replaced by ''-in''. For example, {{lang|id|mencarikan}} becomes {{lang|id|nyariin}}, {{lang|id|menuruti}} becomes {{lang|id|nurutin}}. The latter grammatical aspect is one often closely related to the Indonesian spoken in Jakarta and its surrounding areas.