Tuttle More Indonesian for Kids Flash Cards. Linda Hibbs

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      Rice is the main crop grown in Indonesia, so nearly all meals are eaten with rice although sometimes noodles are also included. Some well known dishes include sate (savory meat on skewers grilled over hot coals), nasi goreng (fried rice) and mie goreng (stir-fried noodles). As Indonesian food is very spicy the Indonesian language includes a special word, pedas, that means spicy hot rather than panas (hot in heat).

      About the Indonesian Language

      Most islands in Indonesia have their own language. In fact, there are different languages spoken in different regions of each island. For example, the people of West Java speak a different language from those in Central and East Java. So that everyone could communicate and understand each other an “Indonesian language” called Bahasa Indonesia was established as the national language in 1928. It was first introduced into schools in the 1950s. While it originated from the Malay language it also incorporates words from local languages, Arabic and Dutch.

      Pronouncing Indonesian

      There are 26 letters, just like in the English alphabet. The only difference is the pronunciation. Indonesian is easy to pronounce since it is phonetic (spelled how it sounds). However, watch out for the various forms of e (listen carefully to the audio), and for the letter c which is pronounced ch: for example, cicak (gecko) is pronounced chi chak.

      In Indonesian, syllables receive almost equal stress. If there are more than two syllables in a word (for example, selamat), there is slightly more emphasis on the second to last syllable: se-la-mat.

      If you use other resources or find some helpful sites on the Internet as you explore Indonesian, you may occasionally notice some differences in spelling. This is because much of the spelling system changed in the 1970s.

      The Indonesian Alphabet

      Pronounced like this: