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From: nukeme
Subject:
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@ z3ta - 16.02.16 - 11:13pm
The languages are mutually intelligible. They come from the same Malay language. The Indonesian language was adopted from the Riau Malay which is quite close in distance to modern Peninsular Malaysia.
There are thousands of languages in Indonesia, with Javanese being the majority spoken (by the majority ethnic). However, Malay was adopted as the national language because it has been the lingua franca all over the archipelago for centuries, so it is only natural that Malay was adopted as the basis of Indonesian national language -- as opposed to Javanese which is very complicated in nature - they vary so much in area and also in rank (the refined, middle and common/rough Javanese). This was considered a deterent to unity by our founding fathers.
Then in its development - the Malaysian Malay and Indonesian Malay developed in different directions first due to political separation. Indonesia was occupied by the Ducth and Malaysia by the Brits. This can be seen in the alphabet and the absorption of modern words such as 'televisyen' in Malay and 'televisi' in Indonesian - 'polis' and 'polisi' (police-politie) - 'Mac' and 'Maret' (March-Maart) and so on.
Some words even evolved in different directions. For instance the word 'percuma' - in Malay and old Indonesian it means gratis, or without paying -- but in Indonesian it now means 'no use' or 'worthless' -- so the sign 'Admission free' in Malay would be 'Masuk Percuma' -- and Indonesian would think 'what? why would we enter if it's no use' hehe.. sorry just a joke... in Indonesian it would read: 'Masuk Gratis' or simply 'Gratis'.
Another example would be the word for cars ... in Malay it is 'kereta' -- the same word in Indonesian means 'train' (and the word for car is 'mobil') -- maybe it's similar development as the English 'car'.
Hope this shed some light 
Thanks so much!! 
Made so much sense and very interesting!!
17.02.16 - 12:29am
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