Sundanese language

Sundanese
ᮘᮞ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ Basa Sunda
Native to Indonesia
Region West Java, Banten, Jakarta, parts of western Central Java, southern Lampung
Ethnicity Sundanese, Bantenese, Cirebonese, Badui
Native speakers
42 million (2016)[1]
Dialects Baduy language, Bantenese language
Cacarakan (historical)
Latin (present)
Pranagari (historical)
Sundanese script (present)
Vatteluttu (historical)
Official status
Official language in
Banten (regional)
West Java (regional)
Language codes
ISO 639-1 su
ISO 639-2 sun
ISO 639-3
sun  Sunda
Glottolog sund1251[3]
Linguasphere 31-MFN-a
A Sundanese lontar manuscript written in Sundanese script.
The first page from manuscript of Carita Waruga Guru which use the Old Sundanese script and Old Sundanese language.
Aksara Sunda (Sundanese script)

Sundanese /sʌndəˈnz/[4] (Basa Sunda /basa sʊnda/, in Sundanese script ᮘᮞ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ, literally "language of Sunda") is the language of about 39 million people from the western third of Java or about 15% of the Indonesian population.

Dialects

Sundanese appears to be most closely related to Madurese and Malay, and more distantly related to Javanese. It has several dialects, conventionally described according to the locations of the people:

Priangan, which covers the largest area of Sunda (Tatar Pasundan in Sundanese), is the most widely spoken type of Sundanese language, taught in elementary till senior-high schools (equivalent to twelfth-year school grade) in West Java and Banten Province.

Writing

Sundanese can be written in different writing systems, the Old Sundanese script (Aksara Sunda Kuno) and Pegon in historical times, and in modern times the Latin script and the modern Sundanese script.

Phonology

Sundanese orthography is highly phonetic (see also Sundanese script). There are seven vowels: a /ɑ/, é /ɛ/, i /i/, o /ɔ/, u /ʊ/, e /ə/, and eu /ɤ/. The consonantal phonemes are transcribed with the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c (pronounced /tʃ/), j /d͡ʒ/, h, ng (/ŋ/), ny /ɲ/, m, n, s /s/, w, l, r /r~ɾ/, and y /j/. Other consonants that originally appear in Indonesian loanwords are mostly transferred into native consonants: f → p, v → p, sy → s, sh → s, z → j, and kh /x/ → h.

According to Yayat Sudaryat (1991,35) there are 16 consonants in Sundanese phonology: /b/, /tʃ/, /d/, /g/, /h/, /dʒ/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/, /ŋ/, /t/; /ɲ/, however, influences from foreign languages have introduced several additional consonants such as /f/, /v/, /z/ (as in fonem, qur'an, xerox, zakat).

There are also /w/ and /j/ as semi vowels, they function as glide sound between two different vowels, as in the words:

Phonemes /w/ and /j/ function as glide sounds between two different vowels as in the words:

Basic grammar

Root word

Root verb

English Sundanese
(normal)
Sundanese
(polite)
eat .. dahar .. tuang ..(for other)
neda ..(for myself)
drink .. inum .. leueut ..
write .. tulis .. serat ..
read .. maca .. maos ..
forget .. poho .. hilap ..
remember .. inget .. emut ..
sit .. diuk .. calik .. linggih
standing .. nangtung .. adeg ..
walk .. leumpang .. papah ..

Plural form

Other Austronesian languages commonly use reduplication to create plural forms. However, Sundanese inserts the ar infix into the stem word. If the stem word starts with l, or contains r following the infix, the infix ar becomes al. Also, as with other Sundanese infixes (such as um), if the word starts with vowel, the infix becomes a prefix. Examples:

  1. Mangga A, tarahuna haneut keneh. "Please sir, the bean curds are still warm/hot." The plural form of tahu 'bean curd, tofu' is formed by infixing ar after the initial consonant.
  2. Barudak leutik lalumpatan. "Small children running around." Barudak "children" is formed from budak (child) with the ar infix; in lumpat (run) the ar infix becomes al because lumpat starts with l.
  3. Ieu kaen batik aralus sadayana. "All of these batik clothes are beautiful." Formed from alus (nice, beautiful, good) with the infix ar that becomes a prefix because alus starts with a vowel. It denotes the adjective "beautiful" for the plural subject/noun (batik clothes).
  4. Siswa sakola eta mah balageur. "The students of that school are well-behaved." Formed from bageur ("good-behaving, nice, polite, helpful") with the infix ar, which becomes al because of r in the root, to denote the adjective "well-behaved" for plural students.

However, it is reported that this use of al instead of ar (as illustrated in (4) above) does not to occur if the 'r' is in onset of a neighbouring syllable. For example, the plural form of the adjective curiga (suspicious) is caruriga and not *caluriga, because the 'r' in the root occurs at the start of the following syllable.[5]

The prefix can be reduplicated to denote very-, or the plural of groups. For example, "bararudak" denotes many, many children or many groups of children (budak is child in Sundanese). Another example, "balalageur" denotes plural adjective of "very well-behaved".

Active form

Most active forms of Sundanese verbs are identical to the root, as with diuk "sit" or dahar "eat". Some others depend on the initial phoneme in the root:

  1. Initial /d/ is eliminated and changed to the prefix nga like in ngadahar.
  2. Initial /i/ is eliminated and changed to prefix ng like in nginum "drink".
  3. Initial /b/ is eliminated and changed to prefix m like in maca "read".

Negation

Abdi henteu acan neda. "I have not eaten yet."

Buku abdi mah sanes nu ieu. "My book is not this one."

Question

Dupi -(question)

example:saya

Polite-

Passive form

Buku dibantun ku abdi. "The book is brought by me." Dibantun is the passive form ngabantun "bring".

Pulpen ditambut ku abdi. "The pen is borrowed by me."

Soal ieu digawekeun ku abdi. "This problem is done by me."

Adjectives

Examples:

teuas (hard), tiis (cool), hipu (soft), lada (hot, usually for foods), haneut (warm), etc.

Prepositions

Place

English Sundanese
(normal)
Sundanese
(polite)
above .. diluhureun .. diluhureun ..
behind .. ditukangeun .. dipengkereun ..
under .. dihandapeun .. dihandapeun ..
inside .. di jero .. di lebet ..
outside .. di luar .. di luar ..
between ..
and ..
di antara ..
jeung ..
di antawis ..
sareng ..
front .. hareup .. payun ..
back .. tukang .. pengker ..

Time

English Sundanese
(normal)
Sundanese
(polite)
before saacan sateuacan
after sanggeus saparantos
during basa nalika
past baheula kapungkur

Miscellaneous

English Sundanese
(normal)
Sundanese
(polite)
from tina tina
for jang kanggo

See also

References

  1. Mempertahankan Eksistensi Bahasa Sunda | Pikiran Rakyat
  2. Karl Andebeck, 2006. 'An initial reconstruction of Proto-Lampungic'
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Sundanese–Badui". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  5. Bennett, Wm. G. (2015). The Phonology of Consonants: Harmony, Dissimilation, and Correspondence. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. (Page 132).

Further reading

Rigg, Jonathan (1862). A Dictionary of the Sunda Language of Java. Batavia: Lange & Co. 

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