Are Malaysian & Indonesian the SAME LANGUAGE?

🚀If you are interested in trying Ling app to learn those languages:

0:00 How Similar are Malaysian and Indonesian?
0:36 Historical Background
2:34 Shared Linguistic Basis
4:16 Dealing with a Lack of Verbal Tense
4:32 Context Markers
5:35 Aspect Markers
8:18 Affixes in Malay and Indonesian
12:16 Opinion of a Malaysian polyglot
13:29 Second opinion
14:59 Answer: How Similar are Malaysian and Indonesian?

Have you ever wondered how similar Malaysian and Indonesian really are? If so, this is the right video you are looking for to understand many different aspects of the two languages and find out the answer for this question?

[Tololsapiens]

Noodles and Bread are two different things even though they are both made from Flour

[trebelmeker]

well said Alexander, many Malaysians claim they can understand Indonesian with no problem while Indonesians can't understand Malay, let me rephrase that statement. Malaysians can understand Jakartans (Indonesian media) while Jakartans can't understand Malay well. it really depends on the ethnic background, I can vouch for Alexander, I spent years in Borneo and I have no problem understanding Malay even some of the local Malay dialects of Malaysia, meanwhile, I doubt that Malaysians can get by in Ambon or Madura with just Malay. these are 2 standard varieties of the same "language origin" Melayu Pasar/Bazar, but each one has undergone extreme development and is still evolving. And with how it is going right now, not far in the future the mutual intelligibility of the 2 will go down even lower. in my field of work, I communicate every day with people from Malaysia and Singapore, even tho we can all probably understand each other, we communicate in English to make sure no miscommunication can happen, because clarity across the board must be ensured.

[boonchienello]

I chuckle at comments that insinuate peninsular Malaysia being the origin of the Malay language.

First of all, not a single Indonesian who went to school denies that the roots of Bahasa Indonesia (BI) are Riau Malay Language — not Malaysian Malay Language (BMM). This historical fact is taught in school.

However, historically here is an overview of the ancient Malay language which in turn became the Riau Lingga Malay language and then became Bahasa Indonesia:

- The tribe that used letters for the first time in Sumatra was the Batak tribe, namely the Rencong letters (because they had been trading with Ancient Egypt for more than 2000 BC. Remember that the city of Barus was named after the wood used to preserve the bodies of the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs).

- Then it developed into Palawa letters in the 7th century which became the forerunner of the ancient Malay language in the Srivijaya era (long before the Malacca kingdom) as evidenced by the Kedukan Bukit and Talang Tuwo inscriptions (in Jambi and Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia).

- With the invasion of the peninsula by Srivijaya and Majapahit, the ancient Malay language spread to the peninsula and developed into Malay.

- In the period approaching the collapse of the Majapahit kingdom (collapsed in the 16th century), new kingdoms emerged in Sumatra (Indonesia) such as the Samudera Pasai kingdom (13th century), Pagaruyung in the 14th century (in West Sumata), apart from using the local language they also used Malay (the kingdom Negeri Sembilan is a descendant of the Pagaruyung kingdom).

- After the emergence of the Malacca kingdom in the 15th century and the Johor-Riau kingdom in 1722 which covered the peninsula and east coast of northern Sumatra (Jambi, Riau, Riau Islands), Malay language developed again into a language of communication (lingua franca).

- Furthermore, in the 19th century, the Dutch East Indies government was looking for a solution so that residents in the Dutch East Indies could communicate with each other, so Riau-Lingga Malay was chosen as the language of official communication and government administration (the Dutch East Indies government actually wanted the native population not to be able to speak Dutch so that they unable to read Dutch language textbooks). The Dutch East Indies government then designated Riau Malay as the official language through Staatblad 1901 No. 77 with the spelling Van Ophuijsen (1901-1947).

- At the 2nd youth congress in 1928 through the Youth Pledge, the Riau-Lingga Malay language was designated as the Unitary/National Language, and was renamed Bahasa Indonesia (BI).

- Subsequently, the BI spelling was further refined to become the Suwandi spelling/new spelling (1947-1972) and then to the Improved Spelling (1972-present).

So:

1. From history it appears that Malay language developed from ancient Malay language in the Srivijaya era which originated from SUMATRA, not from the tip of the Medini Peninsula (evidenced by the inscriptions in Kedukan Bukit and Talang Tuwo). The Malay people of the peninsula are only users.

2. BI is rooted in the Riau-Lingga Malay language in Sumatra. So, it is not true that BI is the Malay language of the peninsula.

3. Malaysia cannot claim that they own the Malay language, because the origin of the Malay language is ancient and the Malay language comes from Sumatra, and Sumatra has a Malay tribe.

4. BI in its development was created according to the development of spellings starting from Van Ophuijsen until now, unlike peninsular Malay which is still left as the language of market/rough communication. So from language development, BI developed in a different way from Malay (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei).

5. The development of the Malaysian Malay language now is due to the MABBIM (Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia) language collaboration, where much of the vocabulary in the Malaysian Malay Dictionary is taken from the big Indonesian Dictionary (roughly 62, 000 words).

6. BI has been the language of unity since 1928, long before Indonesia became independent in 1945 and Malaysia did not exist on earth (only 1957 and 1963).

7. BI is used by 277 million people, not the 32 million population on the peninsula. So don't claim that Malay is spoken by 300 million people. So they will never be able to beat bigger language users.

[dienz]

orang luar mungkin mengatakan sama. tpi orang indonesia selain suku melayu akan tidak nyambung ngobrol sama orang malaysia

[zayyanah]

As a Bruneian, I can say that we sound very different compared to Malaysians and Indonesians when we speak in Bruneian Malay language (not standard, maybe its a dialect?). However, I do agree that in a school or work setting, we do speak in standard Malay which is very similar to Malaysian Standard Malay. But when speaking colloquially, I find that Bruneians (and even Sabah Malaysians) sound very similar to some Indonesian regional dialects, might be Sumatra, might be Batak, im still trying to figure this out tbh. Coz i love learning languages and whenever I watch Malaysian and Indonesian entertainment or educational videos/songs, etc, I notice all these differences and similiarities and it's rather fascinating.

Can't really narrow down the language coz it's quite vast and unique all throughout. I don't think we should be prideful or fight over where it came from, ultimately languages all over the world meshes together and evolves so that we could better communicate with one another and i think that's a beautiful thing. It's a pleasure to share these similarities between Malaysians, Indonesians, Singaporeans and even Thais in who speak Malay (Petani region). I'm glad we're able to communicate with one another despite our differences and are able to share and teach new things. :)

[sudiharno]

Bahasa Indonesia dan Malaysia jelas entitas bahasa yang berbeda, walaupun akar bahasa dari area penutur Bahasa Melayu Riau Indonesia, sedangkan Bhasa Melayu sendiri memiliki kurang lebih 70 dialek, dan dari asal kata serapan Bahasa Indonesia dipengaruhi banyak dari Bahasa Portugal, Belanda, Arab, Sansekerta dll serta kata-kata serapan dari 800 lebih bahasa daerah di Indonesia. Lalu kalau perbandingan yyang dicontohkan hanya 1 kalimat pendek tentu hanya sedikit bedanya, tapi kalau kalimat berita full seperti artikel dikoran atau teks yang lebih casual seperti subtitle film, pastinya jauh berbeda, kata perkata, makna dll dari kalimat perkalimat. Sekarang kalau kita nonton animasi Malaysia Upin Ipin aja harus pakai subtitle kalau ga pakai pasti tidak nyambung cuma 50% aja dipahami.Berbeda kalau Film atau lagu dari Indonesia dikonsumsi oleh penutur Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu pastinya 95% mereka akan mengerti tanpa kebingungan tentang makna dan arti yang dimaksud, karena standard maupun casual/slang Bahasa Indonesia lebih solid secara struktur kata dan kalimatnya. Lagipula kalau Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu saat digunakan di Indonesia lebih terkesan formal dan old fashioned word yang jarang digunakan dalam percakapan sehari-hari, kecuali ada dalam puisi, pantun atau rima-rima kata tradisional jadul. Setuju dengan polyglot dari Malaysia yang menyatakan Bahasa Indonesia dan Malaysia dua bahasa yang berbeda walaupun pasti pihak Malaysia tidak sependapat menurutnya, tapi sangat setuju dengan pernyataannya.

[keparatnation]

Malaysia language now is more similar with bahasa indonesia because they absorb more indonesian phrase from mabbim (brunei, indonesia, malaysia language assembly) and list them in their dictionary (which they called it "melayu baku") when mabbim still exist, now mabbim is no longer exist due to malaysia's political goals regarding language not in line with indonesia, so now we go separate ways

[maswawan]

One more input is that, Indonesia education system will use bahasa Indonesia in all the education level, and the text books are in bahasa indonesia translation, while in Malaysia ... they are a bit difficult to maintain their malay language in text book in education system. That's why ... the vocabulary of Bahasa Indonesia is growing, while Malaysia tends to more lend words from English .... or try to absorb english sounds to Malay

[maswawan]

Hi .. nice video. I just want to make a little correction on the prefix. There is no meng- prefix ... it derived from prefix me- .... so the real prefix is me- ... then there will be a change from me- to meng- meny- and others etc.

[iindj]

Bhs Indonesia lebih menyenangkan utk digunakan.

[newbabies]

In the east we usually speak Eastern Malay, but nowadays we just call it as Bahasa Indonesia but kinda different with Bahasa Indonesia that people in Java or Sumatra are used to. In the east Indonesia the way we pronounce certain words is kinda different compared to those in Malaysia or those who are in Java and Sumatra Indonesia .
For example "i want to eat there" in Malaysia they would say "aku nak makan kat sana" and in general Indonesian "aku pengen/mau makan di sana", while in Eastern Indonesia "sa mo makan disana" the word sa=saya, mo=mau

[Zelaot]

I love you sir and your videos 🤩 my wife is Indonesian 😇🥰 thank you for your work sir you are the best

[chinmi]

Some corrections:
10:14 the correct word is BERCAKAP...not BERCAPAK.
13:00 it´s not regional Malay dialects but languages..because so many local languages found in Indonesia are completely different one to another, even some of them have their own alphabet

[Norman_Lazarevich]

As a Bruneian malay just neighbouring Malaysian state of Sarawak and Sabah, our Malay accent is similar to that of Sabahan Malaysian except that Sabahan Malay intonation or tone is more aggressive and loud. On top of that their chosen words when speaking is also quite different.

From my experience I can easily understand the Malay spoken in peninsular Malaysia as well as standard/formal Malay except from Northern Malay accent and/or the "Pantai Timur" accent.

For Bahasa Indonesia I still can understand it when spoken uhmm formally I guess? Maybe because from what I understand both languages originated from Johor-Riau Malay. However it's so difficult for me to get what Indonesian is saying from the various Indonesian videos I watched on Youtube. Reading comments in Indonesian is even harder to understand as they add syntax on places that I find quite odd like " Sebut'in', Coba'in' " plus with all the Indonesian regional language/dialect they add.

What surprised me is that I encountered many times that Indonesian use many English words that they turn into Bahasa Indonesia which I find quite odd because I thought it would be Malay that use more English loan words. One example that I remember is the English word invasion, in Indonesian it would be "invasi" and in Malay it would be "penaklukan" which is completely different than English. Another example is the English word to invest, in Indonesian it would be "menginvestasi" while in Malay it would be "Melabur". I should have noted all the English loan words used in Indonesian because it's just too many. Another comparison is many mathematical terms used in Malay is in Malay language itself while in Indonesian it would be loanwords from English/Latin/Greek. I'm sorry I can't recall what the words are even in Malay language because the Maths curriculum in Brunei is in English medium so I'm not familiar with the Malay terms. However Malaysian maths curriculum is in Malay language. I bought their SPM Maths textbooks from this Malaysian book publisher called PNI Neuron if I remember correctly and they are in Malay and English. I remember many of the Malay terms are in pure Malay and not English loanwords.

[amzariblack]

Indonesia language = Malay language dialect Indonesia

[tankgod]

Although both languages looked similar, both country speakers may prefer using English during business conversation to avoid misunderstanding. Casual, still ok to speak our respective Malay or Indonesian for bonding.

[rusmansugondo]

We have nothing to do with Malaysia....we are 1000%

[Hsgfychanel]

Bahasa indonesia lebih banyak penuturnya dan lebih mudah pengucapanya

мы в России не любим малайзийский язык, они сделаны на английском языке

[DeihanDzilky]

*_Why Malay language will never become ASEAN language?_*
*_ASEAN Countries proposed new ASEAN common Language for second International Language apart of English, just like E.U has another Language other than English such as French and Spanish. The problem emerge whether Malay should be the next ASEAN common second Language? Which Malay? Malay Malaysian? Malay the Local Language of Indonesia? Or BAHASA INDONÉSIA? Well BAHASA INDONÉSIA vs Malay Malaysia vs Malay Local vernacular in Indonesia vs Malay vernacular of Malaysian are really different in term of many things. For example Betawi Malay (coloquial vernacular of native Jakartan) is different with BAHASA INDONÉSIA eventhough Jakarta is the Capital City of Indonesia so does Malay of Johor Vs Malay of Terengganu._*
*_In term of users, BAHASA INDONÉSIA is used by 280 million INDONÉSIAN & understand by more than 25 million Malay of Malaysian, Bruneian, Thai, Timor Léste & Singapore. In other hand Malay Malaysian only spoken by around 20 million Malay Malaysian, because in Malaysia, Malaysian Chinese/Tamil don't speak/understand Malay perfectly. Not only that, English is commonly spoken in the University & Business Centers in Malaysia, also as lingua franca or bridge for all Races to communicate. Many Foreigner who learn Malay Malaysian in their Home Country & later come to Malaysia to practice the Language was so surprised, they hardly find People who speak Malay especially in Kuala Lumpur or Penang. In their own Homeland, Bahasa Malay Malaysian can not unite its People of all Races, how come Malay Language of Malaysia will be used to unite ASEAN??_*
*_In term of vocabularies, BAHASA INDONÉSIA has double more vocabularies than Malay Malaysian. Simple example in Malay Malaysian Keraja'an means Kingdom & Government in English, but BAHASA INDONÉSIA Kingdom is Keraja'an, Government is Pemerintah. The Head of Indonesia/Philippines Government is President, not a King (Raja), but according to Malaysian Malay they will say all government as "Keraja'an/Diraja (Kingdom in English)". That is why Singaporean Malay uses Pemerintah to refer Government of Singapore (Pemerintah Singapura, not Keraja'an Singapura - Kingdom of Singapore in English). Boleh in Malay Malaysian means allowed or able to, but in INDONÉSIAN boleh means allowed but "able to" is bisa or dapat. See, BAHASA INDONÉSIA more specific & complicated but will make conversation runs more smoothly. Those are some of example that Malay Malaysian vocabulary is limited, there are many example like that._*
*_BAHASA INDONÉSIA is also more Popular than Malay Malaysian in term of Foreign speaker, number of International Universities that offer BAHASA INDONÉSIA, soft power in the Movie, Social Media Users, Song etc..._*
*_So do you think BAHASA INDONÉSIA deserve to be the next ASEAN Language?_*