--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
> Aren't Malay and Indonesian the same language?
Richard Wordingham wrote:
> They each have an army and a navy, and they used to have significantly
different orthographic rules.
> I believe there's a difference between the standards. Ethnologue
states that Indonesian and 'standard Malay' are 'over 80% cognate'.
In the word lists we've been discussed, they differ in only one word.
Yes, "bad" Ml. jahat, BI buruk. The Bahasa Indonesia list at
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/language.php?id=233
gives BI jahat. (Unfortunately, they don't seem to have a Malaysian Malay
list--I'd be interested to see the data for Ethnologue's 80%+). According to
my BI dictionary (and what I've used/heard/read) jahat refers more to
behavior, buruk to physical condition (it also means 'rotten', which is the
gloss assigned to its proto-form too).
The two languages IMO are just marginally more diverse than US/UK English;
minor differences in pronunciation and vocab; they differ of course as to
sources of loanwords (English vs. Dutch), and BI has many more borrowings
from regional languages that aren't likely to show up in a Swadesh-type
list. The "correct" grammar of both is essentially the same, based on the
Malay literary standard. The fact that BI is (or was) a second language for
almost everyone makes a difference too.