Indonesia is the fourth most populated nation in the world, and thus the demand for Indonesian translations is high. Indonesian is an Austronesian language and is a modern dialect of Malay. It is the official language of Indonesia and is spoken throughout the country.
Apart from Indonesia, it is also used in East Timor in Southeast Asia. Besides Indonesian speakers are also found in Philippines, Netherlands, Australia, New Caledonia, Saudi Arabia, Suriname and the USA. Considering Indonesia is the fourth most populated nation, Indonesian is fast becoming one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
Indonesian vocabulary & influence of various languages
Written using the Latin alphabet, Indonesian vocabulary has borrowed extensively from various languages such as Dutch, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Persian, Chinese, Arabic, Tamil and few Austronesian languages. Indonesia was once a Dutch colony and hence the influence of Dutch language on Indonesian is immense.
Several words in Indonesian which have been derived from the Dutch language include kamer, kantoor, klas, politie and so on. Similarly several words in the Indonesian language have originated from the Sanskrit language such as 'raja' which means king, 'aksara' meaning letter, 'bhakti' meaning devotion and so on. Several loanwords from the Arabic language in Indonesian include 'salam' meaning greeting, 'majlis' meaning assembly, 'sabtu' meaning Saturday and so on.
Spelling system in Indonesian
At the time of independence in 1947, various changes in spelling were made such as 'oe' was changed to u. And later on in 1972 , various changes were officially made in the spelling system of Indonesian language. Thus when you require Indonesian translations, make sure you approach the experts be it an Ottawa translation company or Calgary translation services provider who have in-depth understanding of the Indonesian language and are familiar with the changes that have taken place in the language.
