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=== 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=35β47 |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=86β110 |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 = β Excerpt of [[Ki Hadjar Dewantara]]'s "Bahasa Indonesia didalam pergoroean", a paper presented at the First Indonesian Language Conference at [[Surakarta]], 25β28 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=240β241 |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> | align = right | width = 45% | salign = right }} 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 β ''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 = β Excerpt of [[Sanoesi Pane]]'s "Sedjarah Bahasa Indonesia", a paper presented at the First Indonesian Language Conference at [[Surakarta]], 25β28 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 }}
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