Bahasa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bahasa is the word for language in Indonesian and Malay. Related words meaning language are also found in other languages.
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[edit] Etymology
Bahasa comes from the Sanskrit word भाषा (bhāṣā).
[edit] Other languages
- Thai: phasa
- Hindi, Telgu, Urdu (used colloquially), Malayalam: bhasha
- Tamil language, Kannada language: bhashay
[edit] Incorrect usage
It is often incorrectly used in English to refer to one of these languages:
- Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) - Indonesia
- Malay (Bahasa Melayu) - Malaysia
It is a common misconception that many people make when referring to "Bahasa" as the name of either of the languages, especially Indonesian. The question "Do you speak Bahasa?" literally means "Do you speak language?" which makes little to no sense in English. The correct forms are "Do you speak Indonesian?" to ask if someone speaks the national language of Indonesia or "Do you speak Malay?" for the Malaysian language.
When Indonesians refer to other languages such as English for example, the term is "Bahasa Inggris" literally "English (language)", "Bahasa Jawa" for Javanese, or "Bahasa Jepang" for Japanese.
