List of loanwords in Indonesian

Most of Indonesian's vocabulary is natively derived from Malay, but some might ultimately be loanwords from the Minang language. Yet it is unclear, since Malay and Minang are closely related, and some might consider Minang to have been an ancestral dialect of Malay.[3]

Compared to the Malay language spoken as the native regional language in Sumatra and the Malay peninsula or the standardized version of Malaysian, Indonesian differs profoundly by the large amount of Javanese loanwords incorporated into their already rich vocabulary. This is mostly contributed by Java's position as the center of Indonesian politics, education, and culture, since the capital is located in Jakarta on Java island, albeit in the area where the Javanese are not the majority. The disproportionate number of Javanese that dominate Indonesian politics is reflected by the fact that six out of seven Indonesian presidents have been ethnic Javanese. The result is that the Javanese began to pour their own vocabulary into Indonesian to describes terms and words that do not have exact counterparts in the Malay language. It is also important to note that most of Indonesian's Sanskrit loanwords have been transmitted through Old Javanese, a language whose Sanskrit borrowings number almost 50% of the total vocabulary. Javanese loanwords, unlike those from other native languages, have entered the basic vocabulary of Indonesian to such an extent that, for many, they are no longer perceived to be foreign.

Besides Javanese, Sundanese is another local language that has influenced Indonesian's vocabulary, albeit to a lesser extent. This can be attributed to the fact that the capital, Jakarta, was formerly a part of West Java, a province which, together with Banten, before it too was divided, constituted the Pasundan (Sundanese world), the most significant non-Javanese region in an otherwise Javanese-dominated Java island. Some of the most populous cities in Indonesia are also located in the Pasundan, including West Java's capital, Bandung, and Jakarta's four satellite cities (Bekasi, Bogor, Depok, and Tangerang).

Betawi is a Malay-based creole that arose from influences by foreign traders who stopped at the capital, Jakarta, including those from China and Arabia. Most of its speakers are inhabitants of Jakarta, and its influence upon Indonesian is attributed to its frequent usage in Indonesian mass media, including radio and television. Its status as a "hip" language by other portions of Indonesian society is another contributing factor as well.

Balinese, or simply Bali, is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.3 million people (as of 2000) on the Indonesian island of Bali as well as northern Nusa Penida, western Lombok and eastern Java.

Although Hinduism and Buddhism are no longer the major religions of Indonesia, Sanskrit, the language vehicle for these religions, is still held in high esteem, and its status is comparable with that of Latin in English and other Western Indo-European languages. Sanskrit is also the main source for neologisms; these are usually formed from Sanskrit roots. For example, the name of Jayapura city (former Hollandia) and Jayawijaya Mountains (former Orange Range) in the Indonesian province of Papua were coined in the 1960s; both are Sanskrit origin name to replace its Dutch colonial names. Some Indonesian contemporary medals of honor and awards, such as Bintang Mahaputra medal, Kalpataru award and Adipura award, are also Sanskrit derived names.

The loanwords from Sanskrit cover many aspects of religion, art and everyday life. The Sanskrit influence came from contacts with India long ago before the 1st century.[4] The words are either directly borrowed from India or through the intermediary of the Old Javanese language. In the classical language of Java, Old Javanese, the number of Sanskrit loanwords is far greater. The Old Javanese — English dictionary by Prof. P.J. Zoetmulder, S.J. (1982) contains no fewer than 25,500 entries. Almost half are Sanskrit loanwords. Sanskrit loanwords, unlike those from other languages, have entered the basic vocabulary of Indonesian to such an extent that, for many, they are no longer perceived to be foreign.

Pali (Pāli) is a Prakrit language and belongs to the Indo-European language family together with Sanskrit. As Sanskrit is the language vehicle of Hinduism, Pali is the language vehicle for Buddhism, especially the Theravada tradition which is mainly adhered to by Buddhists within Indosphere Southeast Asia. Virtually every word in Pāḷi has cognates in the other Middle Indo-Aryan languages, the Prakrits. The relationship to Vedic Sanskrit is less direct and more complicated; the Prakrits were descended from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars.

Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी, IAST: Hindī) is a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language. Hindi is an Indo-European, and specifically an Indo-Aryan language. It is descended from Sanskrit and is considered part of the Central Indo-Aryan subgroup.

Loanwords from Tamil, while also an Indian language (though not Indo-European like Sanskrit), mainly exist in cuisine, like Chinese and unlike Sanskrit. It is a Dravidian language and not an Indo-Aryan language. However, Hinduism had great impact in Tamil, there are several Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil and they are possibility to list them in Indo-Aryan loanwords, such as Sanskrit.

Interaction between Tamil speakers and Malay speakers has been established from ancient time. Tamil influence has been around such as Palava usage as ancient script in Indonesia (Palava dynasty was existed on 275 CE–897 CE) and Chola invasion of Srivijaya in 1025. It mainly entered the lexicon of Malay (and by extension, Indonesian) with the immigration of South Indian traders who settled around the Strait of Malacca.

The loanwords from Arabic are mainly concerned with religion, in particular with Islam. Allah is the word for God even in Christian Bible translations. Many early Bible translators, when they came across some unusual Hebrew words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer translations, this practice has been discontinued. They now turn to Greek names or use the original Hebrew word. For example, the name Jesus was initially translated as 'Isa, but is now spelt as Yesus.

Persian is an Indo-European language under the Indo-Iranian branch, wherein Sanskrit and Hindi belongs.

The Chinese loanwords are usually concerned with cuisine, trade or often just exclusively things Chinese. According to the 2000 census, the relative number of people of Chinese descent in Indonesia (termed the peranakan) is almost 1% (totaling to about 3 million people, although this may likely be an underestimate due to an anti-Chinese sentiment that exists in some circles of the population), yet the peranakan are the most successful when it comes to business, trade, and cuisine. Words of Chinese origin (presented here with accompanying Hokkien/ Mandarin pronunciation derivatives as well as traditional and simplified characters) include pisau (匕首 bǐshǒu – knife), mie (T:麵, S:面, Hokkien mī – noodles), lumpia (潤餅 (Hokkien = lūn-piáⁿ) – springroll), teko (T:茶壺, S:茶壶 = cháhú [Mandarin], teh-ko [Hokkien] = teapot), 苦力 kuli = 苦　khu (bitter) and 力　li (energy) and even the widely used slang terms gua and lu (from the Hokkien 'goa' 我 and 'lu/li' 你 – meaning 'I/ me' and 'you'). Almost all loanwords in Indonesian of Chinese origin come from Hokkien (福建) or Hakka (客家).

Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 126 million people, primarily in Japan, where it is the official language and national language. The influx of Japanese loanword can be classified into two periods, Japanese colonial administration period (1942–1945) and globalisation of Japanese popular culture (1980-now). As Indonesian is written using Latin script, Japanese romanisation systems influence the spelling in Indonesian.

In contrast with Chinese and Japanese, Korean loanwords are mostly related to Korean culture. These loanword is attributed to increasing popularity of South Korean culture. Since the turn of the 21st century, South Korea has emerged as a major exporter of popular culture and tourism, aspects which have become a significant part of its burgeoning economy. This phenomenon is called Korean Wave.

The European influence on Indonesian is largely related to European intervention and colonialism. The most significant consequence is the continued use of the Latin alphabet instead of various local scripts.

The Portuguese arrived first in the archipelago and influenced the original Malay language after their conquest of Malacca. Portuguese dominance over trade in the region and control of the spice islands of Moluccas significantly increased Portuguese influence, as did the introduction of Christianity in the region.

However, Dutch has had the most influence on the language, as a result of the Dutch having controlled Indonesia for 300 years after eliminating Portuguese influence in the archipelago. The Dutch language itself was not introduced into the archipelago before 1799, when the Dutch government took over the colony from the already bankrupt VOC (Dutch East India company). Previously, the Malay language had adopted by the VOC due to its trade and diplomatic benefit, which led to large numbers of loanwords being introduced into the language.

English has also exerted a certain influence on the archipelago's language, being the third most favored foreign language by the educated in colonial days. More recently, English has played an increasingly large role in the nation's official language as a result of globalization.

Alongside Malay, Portuguese was the lingua franca for trade throughout the archipelago from the sixteenth century through to the early nineteenth century. The Portuguese were among the first westerners to sail east to the "Spice Islands". Loanwords from Portuguese were mainly connected with articles the early European traders and explorers brought to Southeast Asia.[13]

As Portuguese, Spanish loanword come from colonialism in East Indies. In 1606, the Spaniards established some form of trade links with the Maluku Islands. Manado was further developed by Spain as a centre of commerce for the Chinese traders who traded the coffee in China; with the help of native allies, the Spanish took over the Portuguese fortress in Amurang in the 1550s, and Spanish settlers also established a fort at Manado so that eventually Spain controlled all of the Minahasa. In 1529, Charles I of Spain relinquished all claims to the Spice Islands to Portugal in the treaty of Zaragoza. Thus, there are fewer loanwords from Spanish than Portuguese or Dutch.[14]

The former colonial power, the Netherlands, left an extensive imprint on Indonesian vocabulary. These Dutch loanwords, as well as other non Italo-Iberian European language loanwords which were introduced via Dutch, cover all aspects of life. Some Dutch loanwords possessing clusters of multiple consonants pose difficulties for speakers of Indonesian. This problem is usually solved by the insertion of the schwa. For example, Dutch schroef [ˈsxruf] → sekrup [səˈkrup]. Many Indonesian vocabulary ending "-i" (e.g.:administras-i) can also be traced to the influence of Dutch vocabulary "-ie" (e.g.:administrat-ie). The months from January (Januari) to December (Desember) used in Indonesian are also derived from Dutch. It is estimated that 10,000 words in the Indonesian language can be traced back to the Dutch language.[15]

It is notable that some of the loanwords that exist in both Indonesian and Malaysian languages are different in spelling and pronunciation mainly due to how they derived their origins: Malaysian utilizes words that reflect the English usage (as used by its former colonial power, the British), while Indonesian uses a Latinate form reflected in the Dutch usage (e.g. aktiviti (Malaysian) vs. aktivitas (Indonesian), universiti (Malaysian) vs. universitas (Indonesian)).