Editing Indonesian language (section)

=== 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]]