The Indonesian and Standard Malay forms of the Indonesian languages are generally mutually intelligible, but differ in spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. The differences can range from those mutually unintelligible with one another to those having a closer familial resemblance. The regionalized and localized varieties of Malay can become a catalyst for intercultural conflict, especially in higher education.
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Perception
To non-native speakers the two varieties may seem identical, but to native speakers, the differences are noticeable through diction and accent. These differences often lead to incomprehension when used in formal conversation or written communication. They also affect the broadcasting industry with regard to foreign language subtitling, for example, in DVD movies and on cable TV. In order to reach a wider audience, sometimes both Indonesian and Malay subtitles are displayed in a movie with other language subtitles. Another example is Malaysian TV providing Malay subtitling on Indonesian sinetrons (TV dramas) aired in Malaysia.
The Malay language in Indonesia and Malaysia also differs in recognition and general perception by the people and government of the two countries. Ignorance of these subtleties may result in misconceptions.
The term "Malay" (Bahasa Melayu) in Indonesia and Malaysia invites different perceptions. To Malaysians, the Malay language is generally the national language of Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia being the name for the Malaysian standardized form of Malay. Between 1986 and 2007, the term Bahasa Melayu was used instead of Bahasa Malaysia, until the latter was reinstated, in order to instil a sense of belonging among Malaysians of all races, rather than just Malays. Therefore, there is no clear distinction between the use of the term Malay (Bahasa Melayu) and the national language of Malaysia (Bahasa Malaysia). In Brunei, where Malay is also an official language, the language is known as Bahasa Melayu and in English as "Malay".
In Indonesia, however, there is a clear distinction between "Malay" (Bahasa Melayu) and "Indonesian" (Bahasa Indonesia). Indonesian is the national language which serves as the unifying language of Indonesia. The term "Malay" is reserved for the language indigenous to the Malay people. Thus, "Malay" is considered a regional language in Indonesia, enjoying the same status as Javanese, Bataknese, Sundanese, Buginese, Balinese and others. Moreover, to some Indonesians, the term "Malay" is more often associated with Malaysia and the Malaysian national language.
In Malaysia, the terms "Indonesian Malay" and "Malaysian Malay" are sometimes used for Indonesian and Malay as spoken in Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Indonesian Malay" refers to the Malay spoken by the Malay people in Indonesia, that is, to Malay as a regional language in Sumatra, though it is rarely used. Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Melayu are used interchangeably in reference to Malay in Malaysia.
Orthography
Before the 20th century, Malay was written in a modified form of the Arabic alphabet known as Jawi. During the 20th century, Malay written with Roman letters, known as Rumi, almost completely replaced Jawi in everyday life. The romanisations originally used in Malaya (now part of Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) reflected their positions as British and Dutch possessions respectively. In Malaya, the romanisation of Malay, devised by Richard Wilkinson was influenced by English, whereas in the Dutch East Indies, the system devised by C A Van Ophuijsen was influenced by Dutch. As a result, in Indonesia, the vowel in the English word 'moon' was formerly represented oe, as in Dutch, although the official spelling of this sound was changed to u in 1947.
Similarly, until 1972, the initial consonant of the English 'chin' was represented in Malaysia as ch, whereas in Indonesia, it continued to follow Dutch and used tj. Hence the word for 'grandchild' used to be written as chuchu in Malaysia and tjoetjoe in Indonesia, until a unified spelling system was introduced in 1972 (known in Indonesia as Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan or the 'Perfected Spelling') which removed most differences between the two varieties: Malay ch and Indonesian tj became c: hence cucu.
Indonesia abandoned the spelling dj (for the consonant at the beginning of the word 'Jakarta') to conform to the j already in use in Malaysia, while the old Indonesian j for the semivowel at the beginning of the English 'young', was replaced with y as in Malaysia. Likewise, the velar fricative which occurs in many Arabic loanwords, which used to be written 'ch' in Indonesian, became kh in both languages.
However, oe was retained in some proper names, such as the name of the first President, Sukarno (written as Soekarno), and his successor Suharto, (written as Soeharto). The ch and dj letter combinations are still encountered in names such as Achmad and Djojo (pronounced as Akhmad and Joyo respectively), although the post-1972 spelling is now favoured.
Although the representations of speech sounds are now largely identical in the Indonesian and Malay standards, a number of minor spelling differences remain, usually for historical reasons. For instance, the word for 'money' is written as wang in Malaysia, but uang in Indonesia, the word for 'try' is written as cuba in Malaysia, but coba in Indonesia, the word for 'because' is written as kerana in Malaysia, but karena in Indonesia, while the word for 'cake' is written as kuih in Malaysia, but kue in Indonesia.
One notable difference in punctuation between the two languages is the use of different decimal marks; Indonesian, influenced by Dutch, uses the decimal comma, whereas Malay, influenced by English, uses the decimal point.
Pronunciation
Pronunciation also tends to be very different, with East Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia pronouncing words in a form called Bahasa Baku, where the words are pronounced as spelt and enunciation tends to be clipped, staccato and faster than on the Malay Peninsula, which is spoken at a more languorous pace. Many vowels are pronounced (and were formerly spelt) differently in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra: tujuh is pronounced (and was spelt) tujoh, pilih as pileh, etc., and many final a's tend to be pronounced as schwas; [e] and [o] are also allophones of /i/ and /u/ in closed final syllables in peninsular Malaysian, Singaporean, and Sumatran varieties of Malay.
Vocabulary differences
Indonesian differs from Standard Malay in the quantity of loanwords from Javanese, Dutch, and other languages. For example, the word for 'post office' in Malaysia is "pejabat pos" (in Indonesia this means 'post officer'), whereas in Indonesia it is "kantor pos", from the Dutch word for office, kantoor. There are also some Portuguese influences: in Indonesia, Christmas is known as "Natal", whereas Malaysia uses "Krismas", derived from English (or in some cases also "Natal", due to Indonesian influence). Pronunciation of some loanwords in Standard Malay follows English, while some in Indonesian follows Dutch, for example Malay "televisyen" (from English: television) and Indonesian "televisi" (from Dutch: televisie), the "-syen" and "-si" also prevail in some other words. There are also instances where the Malay version derives from English pronunciation while the Indonesian version takes its cue from Latin. The Latin preference of the (older) Indonesian intellectuals in these instances may be ascribed to the influence of their classical-oriented education when Gymnasium schools were established during the Dutch colonial period : compare Malay kualiti, kuantiti, majoriti, minoriti and universiti with Indonesian kualitas, kuantitas, mayoritas, minoritas and universitas.
Some words which are spelt the same in both languages may even carry entirely different meanings in the other language, potentially leading to humorous or embarrassing situations: while baja means "steel" in Indonesian, in Malay it means "fertiliser". Also, whereas the Indonesian word butuh means "require" or "need", in Malaysia it is a vulgar slang term equivalent to "cunt/cock". Conversely, where the word "banci" seems innocuous enough in Malaysia ("census"), in Indonesia it is a derogatory term for "transvestite".
The relatively large share of Islamic (Arabic or Persian) loan words shared by Malay and Indonesian often poses no difficulty in comprehension and usage, although some forms may have developed a (slightly) different meaning or have become obsolete either in Malay or in Indonesian, e.g. khidmat, wakil (see below).
False friends
Besides vocabulary differences, there are also a number of false friends in both languages. As these words are in quite common use in either or both of the languages, misunderstandings can arise.
The influence of English
One of the most important aspect in differences between Indonesian and Malay is the degree of influence from English. Apart from being heavily influenced by the Dutch language, Indonesian language also adopted a significant number of English loan words in its vocabulary, although English didn't play significant role on the Indonesian language and in fact most of these vocabulary are of Dutch origin (note that Dutch and English share a similar Germanic origin). There have been many changes in Indonesian language as a result of its historical development. Words have been freely borrowed from English and only partly assimilated, in many cases, to the Indonesian patterns of structure. By the late 1970s, English words pouring into the language, leading one commentator, writing in 1977, to refer to the "trend towards Indo-Saxonisation". A great many borrowings from English sometimes fulfill no communicative need, expressing concepts adequately covered by existing words. Among the examples are: akurat instead of tepat (accurate), aliansi in the place of sekutu (alliance), eksis rather than ada (exist), kandidat as well as calon (candidate), konklusi instead of kesimpulan (conclusion) kontaminasi in the place of pencemaran (contamination), opini rather than pendapat (opinion) and opsi in the place of pilihan (option). Contrary to its Indonesian counterpart, Malaysian Malay has shown a remarkable resilience, despite being a former colony of British empire.
Some in Indonesia view this trend of excessive borrowings as "language dynamism", while some Malay linguists called it mass "language pollution", and lack of creativity in creating new terms.
These days a widespread use of English in the Indonesian and Malay Twittersphere can be observed. Basilectal and mesolectal English usage couched within Malay, and other local language are common. Twitter has, as an example, become extremely widely used by all sections of society and the next twenty years should see a lot of language-rub from which we could expect to see more Anglicisims move into acrolectical or printed Indonesian and Malay.
Example
The original text in Indonesian:
Apabila peraturan pakta stabilitas Eropa dihormati sampai ke detailnya, rasio utang publik dibanding produk domestik bruto pada hari krisis akan berada di posisi 10 persentase poin kurang dalam zona euro, katanya.The same text rendered in Malay:
Apabila peraturan pakatan kestabilan Eropah dihormati secara terperinci, nisbah hutang awam berbanding keluaran dalam negara kasar pada zaman krisis akan berada di kedudukan 10 mata peratusan kurang dalam zon euro, kata beliau.English translation:
If the European stability pact rules had been respected in detail, the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product on the days of crisis would have been at the position 10 percentage points less in the eurozone, he said.Convergence of vocabulary
The rift of evolution between the two languages is based more on political nuance and the history of their formation than on cultural reasons. As a result, views regarding each other's languages differ among Malaysians and Indonesians. In Malaysia, the national language is Malay; in Indonesia, it is Indonesian. Malaysians tend to assert that Malay and Indonesian are merely different varieties of the same language, while Indonesians tend to treat them as separate – albeit related – languages. The result of this attitude is that the Indonesians feel little need to synchronize their language with Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, whereas the Malaysians are keener to coordinate the evolution of the language with the Indonesians. However, both parties have realized that communication benefits from mutually comprehensible and intelligible languages, which motivated efforts to synchronize the languages' development. The effort to synchronize both languages' evolution to increase their mutual intelligibility has been embarked by imposing standard rules of language. This process is headed by Pusat Bahasa on the Indonesian side and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka as its Malaysian counterpart.
Sample
The following texts are excerpts from the official translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Malay and Indonesian, along with the original declaration in English.