Bahasa

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Bahasa is the word for language in Indonesian and Malay. Related words meaning language are also found in other languages. Bahasa Melayu as it is called in Malaysia is spoken usually at home and English is spoken during the day at work or all around.

[edit] Etymology

Bahasa comes from the Sanskrit word भाषा (bhāṣā).

[edit] See also

[edit] Usage

It is often incorrectly used in English to refer to Indonesian or Malay. The question "Do you speak Bahasa?" literally means "Do you speak language?"

Indonesian officials abroad and some Indonesian civilians refer to the Indonesian language as Bahasa when speaking to non Indonesians. This is grammatically incorrect. Indonesian speakers refer to other languages (in fact any object/property of a country) with the noun followed by the country name, e.g.

  • "Bahasa Inggris" for the English language, the language that originated in "Inggris" (England)
  • "Ratu Inggris" when referring to the queen (ratu) of England
  • "Bahasa Jepang" for Japanese (the language)
  • "Mobil Jepang" for "Japanese car"
  • Japan the nation is "Jepang"
  • "Bahasa Indonesia" for the language of the nation Indonesia.

Asking an Indonesian whether he speaks Bahasa would be similar to asking a Frenchman "Do you speak langue?".