The street children interviewed by Radio Nederland are of a diverse ethnic background, but the language that they use is very similar. Colloquial Indonesian has its roots in Betawi Malay, a Malay based creole with an estimated 2.7 million speakers, spoken by the indigenous population of Jakarta or Batavia as it was known until 1942. Betawi Malay has two variations, conventional Betawi Malay, spoken by the indigenous population of Jakarta, and modern bahasa Jakarta spoken by the younger generation and migrants. This variant of the Indonesian language is characterized by a large number of loan words from foreign languages (Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch etc.) but also from regional languages, especially Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese. The immense influence of Jakarta Malay upon Colloquial Indonesian as it is spoken in the cities and larger towns of the Indonesian archipelago can be explained by a continuous move of people who spend some years in the capital and then return to their place of origin, and of course by the influence of the media. Jakarta Malay is dispersed by popular teenager magazines such as Hai and Populer, and by many radio and television programs (for instance in the very popular soap operas).

Many loan words from Jakarta Malay such as nggak, kok and lho have already deeply penetrated the Indonesian language and are widely used in urban environments throughout Indonesia. Other words such as banget (sangat) kangen (rindu) or mendingan (lebih baik) or the particles sih, deh, nih, tuh and dong are also becoming increasingly popular, and should be considered as an essential part of colloquial Indonesian that every student of the Indonesian language should be familiar with. Unfortunately most textbooks and texts available for students of Indonesian tend to completely ignore this kind of Indonesian although almost every visitor to Indonesia will hear it when trying to verbally communicate with Indonesians.

Colloquial Indonesian differs only slightly from Standard Indonesian (SI) in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. It should also be emphasized that the rules of CI are to a large degree ‘inconsistent’ as many speakers will frequently use a mix of colloquial and standard language.

Please note that the following explanations have the sole purpose of providing students with a brief and practical introduction to the most important features of CI. Phonetically CI is very similar to SI, but there are some more or less regular changes:

• In some cases initial /s/ might be dropped. This is, however, mainly limited to three words, i.e. sudah, sama, and saja that regularly become udah, ama, and aja in CI. Sudah is also sometimes shortened to dah.
• Initial /h/ is frequently dropped: ilang, itam, abis. The final aspirated /h/ may also occasionally be dropped: tuju (tujuh), separo (separuh).
• In proper Betawi Malay final /a/ also changes to /e/ rendering ama to ame, and aja to aje. This, however, is mainly restricted to ‘true’ Betawi Malay, and only occasionally found in CI.
• The vowel /a/ in final closed syllables, however, almost always changes to the Schwa¹: seneng, pantes, bener, males, simpen, etc.
• The diphthong /au/ is usually contracted to /o/, sometimes followed by a glottal stop: kalau --> kalo --> kalok, atau --> ato, mau --> mo.
• The diphthong /ai/ is in final position often contracted to /e/: sampe, sunge.
• The diphthong /ai/ is occasionally replaced by /ae/ : maen, baek.
• When colloquial Indonesian is written (such as in letters, emails, weblogs etc.), expect some "fancy" irregularities. Especially popular is to substitute the letter j with z, as in aza (saja), and the letter k is also occasionally replaced by kh, especially in the case of the particle khan (kan). Final k (the glottal stop) is also occasionally rendered as q: koq.
• In CI the prefix me- is usually dropped while prenasalization of the root word is maintained. The following table illustrates this:

	SI	Example	CI	Example
a, e, i, o, u	meng-	mengambil	ng-	ngambil
b	mem-	membantu	m-	mbantu
c	men-	mencuci	ny-	nyuci
d	men-	mendengar	n-	ndenger
g	meng-	menggertak	ng-	nggertak
h	meng-	menghargai	nge-	ngehargain
j	men-	menjahit	nj-	njahit
k	meng-	mengejar	ng-	ngejar
l	me-	melamar	nge-	ngelamar
m,n	me-	memasak	-	masak
p	mem-	memikir	m-	mikir
r	me-	merasa	nge-	ngerasa
s	meny-	menyangka	ny-	nyangka
t	men-	meneruskan	n-	nerusin

 

Although this is a fairly straightforward process, we encounter some forms that do not have a Standard Indonesian meN- equivalent. The SI equivalent of mikir is usually berpikir not memikir, and that of neduh is berteduh and not meneduh. It must be emphasized at this point that, although very similar to Standard Indonesian, colloquial Indonesian of the Betawi Malay style, is indeed a different dialect with a slightly different grammar. This is quite clear in the different usage of the suffix -an – as for instance in temenan where it expresses reciprocity for which, in Standard Indonesian, the circumflex ber--an is employed. The same holds for the Betawi Malay prefix ke- that is (roughly, but not always) equivalent to the SI prefix ter-, and also for the Batawi Malay suffix -in that largely has the same functions as the SI suffixes -kan and -i, but again, there is no guarantee that root words with the suffix -in always do correspond with equivalent Indonesian -kan or -i forms. This is evident in the case of ngapain derived from apa. The Standard Indonesian equivalent is mengapakan (do what to): Mau diapakan tulisan ini? = Mau diapain tulisan ini? (What are you going to do with that text?). Ngapain has, however, a second meaning that is “do what’: Lagi ngapain sih? (What are you doing?).

This example clearly shows us that colloquial urban Indonesian follows its own rules, but for the sake of understanding the texts and soundtracks presented in this volume it is sufficient to address a few of the main areas where CI differs from SI.

Many of the colloquialism used in the interviews are very common words including bilang (= katakan, say), kasi (= beri give), telat (= terlambat, too late), sip (great, okay), short forms such as gini, gitu, gimana, dikit etc., or the preposition sama that, in colloquial speech, can replace almost every other preposition. While these words are included in the glossary, frequently occurring particles and interjections are not listed in the glossary but explained in the following table. It is important that students familiarize themselves with these words before they listen to the recordings.

The best way to learn these words is by listening to the sample soundtrack and recognizing the words in context.

¹Very short neutral vowel sound very frequently found in the English language (e.g. the a in about, the o in harmony, the y in syringe, or the u in medium). In Indonesian it is represented by the letter e, e.g. belum, sekali, etc. 

Identify all colloquialisms that you can identify in the sample dialog and provide their standard Indonesian equivalents. In order to do this exercise you need to have read the introduction to "Colloquial Indonesian". Note that particles and exclamation often do not have standard Indonesian equivalents. You don't have to include them in your table.

Example:

Colloquial Indonesian	Standard Indonesian
ngapain	sedang apa
aja	saja