Photo: Farhan Abas (Unsplash License)
Spoken by over 200 million people, though most grow up with a home language first. · 1 writing systems
Language of Indonesia
Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia made up of thousands of islands. The official language is Indonesian, known as Bahasa Indonesia. It's used in schools and government and is one of the most widely spoken languages globally. People often speak several local languages too!
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About the Script
Indonesian uses the same ABCs you do, and the spelling is very regular, so words sound just as they look. A few letters surprise you: 'c' says 'ch' (so cinta sounds like CHEEN-ta), and the stress usually lands on the second-to-last part of a word.
Script Explorer
The same ABCs, a few new sounds
Indonesian is written with the same 26 Latin letters you already know, and spelling is wonderfully regular: words are said just as they look. Only a handful of letters make a different sound.
Phrase Cards
Fun Fact
Bahasa Indonesia has borrowed many words from Dutch, courtesy of colonial history!
Fun Fact
Papua New Guinea has the most languages of any country (over 800), and Indonesia is close behind with more than 700 living languages spoken across its islands.
Cultural Note
Many Indonesians are multilingual, often speaking their local language along with Bahasa Indonesia.
Vocabulary
Did you know Bahasa Indonesia and Malaysian Malay are very similar, like cousins?
