![]() ![]() Nor is it related to the inland languages of New Guinea, the Aboriginal languages of Australia or the Sino-Tibetan languages of China and continental Southeast Asia. Indonesian is not related, even remotely, to English. In English we call the language “Indonesian”: it is not correct to call it simply “Bahasa”. Its name was changed to Bahasa Indonesia, literally: “the language ( bahasa) of Indonesia”. In 1928 the Indonesian nationalist movement chose it as the future nation’s national language. Malay is just one of many scores, perhaps hundreds, of different languages in the area now occupied by the Republic of Indonesia. It is understood in parts of the Sulu area of the southern Philippines and traces of it are to be found among people of Malay descent in Sri Lanka, South Africa and other places. It is also an important vernacular in the southern provinces of Thailand, in East Timor and among the Malay people of Australia’s Cocos Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean. With dialect variations it is spoken by more than 200 million people in the modern states of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. ![]() Depending on how you define a language and how you count its number of speakers, today Malay-Indonesian ranks around sixth or seventh in size among the world’s languages. Indonesian is a 20th century name for Malay. Bahasa Indonesia: The Indonesian Language
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