Appendix:Indonesian spellings

This appendix details the orthographical considerations for Indonesian according to the 2015 Pedoman Umum Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Spelling General Guidelines) by the Indonesia Minister of Education and Culture and its 2022 update, the Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan (Perfected Indonesian Spelling). The spellings rules detailed here are also used to determine the main spelling of Indonesian entries in Wiktionary.

History

For the purpose of this appendix, Indonesian refers to the standard form of Malay that was adopted as the national and official language of Indonesia. Wiktionary sets the start of Indonesian at 1928, the year the Youth Pledge (Sumpah Pemuda) was written and recited.

The first orthography for Indonesian was the 1901 Van Ophuijsen orthography, which was based on Dutch orthography and was used for writing Malay as spoken in the Dutch East Indies. It has these features:

• oe was used to represent modern Indonesian u
• The digraphs ch, dj, nj, sj and tj were used to represent modern kh, j, ny, sy and c.
• j was used for /j/ (modern Indonesian y)
• Glottal stops are written with an apostrophe
• Diaeresis was used to indicate double vowels or distinguish vowel clusters from diphthongs
• Borrowings from Dutch are kept in their original spelling.

However, by the time of Indonesian independence, shortcomings of the system such as the irregular spellings of loanwords and the noticeable lack of u have required the adoption of a new orthography. Called the Republican Spelling System (Ejaan Republik) or the Soewandi spelling (after the Indonesian education minister of that time), the new orthography was adopted in 1947. While digraphs and the usage of j from the 1901 spelling remained, oe was eliminated and replaced with u, but it remained in use in names of people born before the spelling reform. In addition, spelling of glottal stops was changed: it is unwritten at syllable onset and it is spelled with K at the end of syllables. Loanwords from Dutch were also massively respelled to fit the new orthography and match their Indonesian realizations.

By that time, Malay, as spoken in Malaya (present Malaysia), Singapore and Brunei, was using a different orthography, called the Za'aba Spelling, which was in turn based on English. By the time Malaya became independent as Malaysia, the need for a common orthography across the two largest Malay-speaking countries has become apparent. Issues have been around the differing use of letters and digraphs, and the spelling of loanwords. With Standard Malay having an English-based orthography and Indonesian a Dutch-based one, harmonization of spelling has been a goal during the period of détente between the two nations after the Indonesian-Malaysian confrontation.

The modern Indonesian orthography, called the Perfected Spelling System (Ejaan yang Disempurnakan or EYD), was promulgated in 1972, alongside the reformed Standard Malay spelling called the New Rumi Spelling (Ejaan Rumi Bersama or ERB). This resulted in harmonization of spelling between the two standard Malay varieties. For Indonesian, the major changes are the replacement of ch, dj, j, and nj, with modern kh, j, y, and ny already used in Malay. Pre-1972 Indonesian digraphs sj and tj were replaced with sy and c respectively, which also replaced sh and ch in Standard Malay respectively. Reduplications, previously marked with a 2 beside the word being reduplicated, were now written in full, with a hyphen. Additional letters were also added to the Indonesian alphabet to accommodate loanwords from Dutch, English and foreign languages. Spelling of most words in the two languages have become identical, but some minor differences remain for historical and political reasons, such as different predominant sources of modern loanwords (i.e. Dutch for Indonesian, and English for Standard Malay).

Alphabet

Indonesian uses the 26-letter basic Latin alphabet, and each letter has a name based on their Dutch names. Recognized diphthongs are ai, au, ei, eu, oi, and digraphs are kh, ng, ny and sy. The diphthong eu from Acehnese and Sundanese was added in 2022.

There are two forms of the letters E, depending on their pronunciation. An E without a diacritic is used where it is pronounced /ɛ/ or /e/, while Ê is used where pronounced as a schwa. In the 2015-2022 orthography, Ê, È, and É are used for the schwa, /ɛ/ and /e/ respectively. Wiktionary continues to use the 2015-2022 treatment of E for its clarity.

Capitalization

The following are capitalized in Indonesian.

• Personal names
• Names of God, deities, religious figures, religions and religious texts (e.g. Allah, Tuhan, Yesus, Islam, Kristen, Al-Qur'an). Pronouns referring to God may also be capitalized.
• Honorary, religious and academic titles preceding a personal name
• Positions and ranks where preceding a personal name
• Names of nationalities, ethnic groups and languages
• Names of days, months, and holidays (e.g. Januari, Minggu, Lebaran)
• Names of historical events (e.g. Perang Dunia II)
• Place names
• Words in the formal names of countries, institutions, organizations and documents, except common prepositions and conjunctions (e.g. Republik Indonesia, Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa, Perhimpunan Bangsa-Bangsa Asia Tenggara, Uni Eropa)
• Words in the names of books and other literary works, except common prepositions and conjunctions
• Initialisms and the first letter of abbreviations of capitalized words

Affixes

Affixes on a word are written together with the root, without hyphens or spaces. Examples:

• berjalan

However, if the affix comes before a capitalized word, it should be separated by a hyphen.

Reduplications

Words in reduplications (such as pluralized nouns) are separated with a hyphen. Examples:

• kanak-kanak
• hari-hari

If the pluralized word is a compound, only the first element is reduplicated.

Compounds

Components of compound words are written separately, with a space.

• duta besar
• orang tua
• cendera mata
• rumah sakit

If there is a risk of misunderstanding, a compound may be written with a hyphen (although in practice rare).

If an prefix or suffix is added to a compound, the space should be retained, but if a circumfix is added, the compound should be written without a space.

• bertanggung jawab (root: tanggung jawab)
• pertanggungjawaban (root: tanggung jawab)

Some older established compounds are written without a space.

• bagaimana
• matahari

Syllabification

Rules on syllabification are as follows:

1. Where there are two vowels in-word, the syllable is divided between the two (e.g. bu-ah, ma-in, sa-at)
2. Diphthongs should not be syllabified (e.g. pan-dai, sau-da-ra, sur-vei)
3. If there is a consonant (including digraphs) between two vowels, the word is syllabified between the vowel and the consonant or digraph (e.g. ba-pak, de-ngan, la-wan)
4. If there is a consonant cluster that is not a digraph in the middle of the word, the word is syllabified between the consonants (e.g. Ap-ril, cap-lok, ikh-las)
5. If there are three consecutive consonants (including digraphs) in the middle of the word, the word is syllabified between the first two consonants (e.g. ul-tra, in-stru-men)

Abbreviations and acronyms

The abbreviation of a personal name, title, salutation, position or rank are followed with a period for each element.

• Kol. (for Kolonel)
• Sdr. (for Saudara)
• S.Kom. (for Sarjana Komunikasi)

Initialisms of government organizations, educational institutions, bodies, organizations and official document names are written without periods

• DPR (for Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat)
• UI (for Universitas Indonesia)
• UUD (for undang-undang dasar)

Initialisms where they do not stand for personal names or associated elements are also written without periods

• KTP (for kartu tanda penduduk)
• SD (for sekolah dasar)
• SIM (for surat izin mengemudi)

Abbreviations composed of three or more letters are written with a period

• dll. (for dan lain-lain)
• dsb. (for dan sebagainya)
• hlm. (for halaman)