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Indo/Malay intelligibility percentage? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6259 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes  Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 1 of 7 17 January 2011 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Title: Mala/Indonesian mutual intelligibility percentage. In Prof. Arguelles video about Malay, he asked the two students (the guy is Indonesian, the girl is Malay) how do they estimate the percentage of the mutual intelligibilty between Malay and Indonesian to be. I was shocked when they said %60 to %70. Although I don't speak the language, I know that is not correct. So if anyone here studied one of these languages, I want to hear a more accurate percentage. Is the difference between them like the difference between Danish/Norwegian or Swedish? What is the MI percentage between Danish and Swedish? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| polyglHot Pentaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5066 days ago 173 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 7 17 January 2011 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Of course it is only 60 percent, due to the fact that most Indonesians speak Javanese or
Sundanese as a first language, and none of them speaks pure or formal Indonesian/Malay in daily life. The same goes for Norwegian. I speak a dialect, but Norwegian people can understand me. However immigrants living in Oslo have no chance. When I speak with them or people from Denmark or Sweden I prefer English, because I would have to switch to the Oslo accent which I don't like. I understand Swedish and Danish though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6702 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 3 of 7 18 January 2011 at 4:47am | IP Logged | ||
What did you expect the mutual intelligibility to be? Higher or lower? While they do share a lot of the same vocabulary and grammar, they use it differently. I know that my wife, an Indonesian, hates trying to read Malaysian subtitles because of all the differences. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| gambi Newbie New Zealand Joined 5109 days ago 37 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English Studies: Indonesian, Burmese | Message 4 of 7 19 January 2011 at 9:19am | IP Logged | ||
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The degree of mutual intelligibility between Malay and Indonesian really depends on factors like the register or dialect of the language being spoken and the context in which the language is being used. Remember the Malay language is heavily dialectised, and the Indonesian language (although based on Standard Malay) is influenced more or less by regional languages like Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Batak etc.
So for example, a Malaysian diplomat and his Indonesian counterpart engaging in dialogue to discuss matters like trade, economy etc. wouldn't have much difficulty understanding one another. In fact, the level of mutual intelligibility would be around 98% (assuming that the Indonesian diplomat isn't speaking with a heavy Javanese Medok accent) :P But a highly informal conversation between two teenage girls on the streets of Jakarta using alot of Betawi-influenced colloquialism and non-standard grammar would be significantly difficult to comprehend for people in say... Kelantan in northern Malaysia. Likewise the dialect of Malay spoken in Kelantan and southern Thailand would be quite hard to decipher for someone in Jakarta. In that kind of situation, the level of mutual intelligibility would only be around 50-60%. So do you get my point? It really depends on what register of the language people are using and the context in which it is spoken which determine how mutually intelligible Malay and Indonesian are. Edited by gambi on 19 January 2011 at 9:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6259 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 5 of 7 19 January 2011 at 11:12am | IP Logged | ||
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So is it like the difference between European Spanish and Latin American Spanish? or the difference between Moroccan Arabic and Egyptian Arabic? what about the written form? Here is a sample from Wikipedia, I don't see a big difference: Indonesian text sample Ensiklopedia, atau kadangkala dieja sebagai ensiklopedi, adalah sejumlah buku yang berisi penjelasan mengenai setiap cabang ilmu pengetahuan yang tersusun menurut abjad atau menurut kategori secara singkat dan padat. Kata 'ensiklopedia' diambil dari bahasa Yunani; enkyklios paideia (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία) yang berarti kumpulan instruksi atau pengajaran yang lengkap. Maksudnya, ensiklopedia adalah sebuah sarana pendidikan lengkap yang mencakup semua bidang ilmu pengetahuan. Seringkali ensiklopedia disalahartikan sebagai kamus. Hal ini disebabkan karena ensiklopedia-ensiklopedia awal memang berkembang dari kamus-kamus. Malaysian text sample Ensiklopedia, atau kadangkala dieja sebagai ensaiklopedia, merupakan koleksi maklumat atau himpunan fakta mengenai setiap cabang ilmu pengetahuan yang tersusun menurut abjad atau menurut kategori secara singkat dan padat. Kata 'ensiklopedia' diambil daripada bahasa Yunani εγκύκλιος παιδεία, egkyklios paideia (a circle of instruction) yang bererti sebuah lingkaran atau pengajaran yang lengkap. Ini bermaksud ensiklopedia itu merupakan sebuah pendidikan sempurna yang merangkumi semua aspek ilmu pengetahuan. Seringkali ensiklopedia disalahertikan sebagai kamus. Mungkin ini kerana ensiklopedia-ensiklopedia awal memang berkembang daripada kamus. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| gambi Newbie New Zealand Joined 5109 days ago 37 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English Studies: Indonesian, Burmese | Message 6 of 7 19 January 2011 at 11:36am | IP Logged | ||
Hmm...abit hard for me to say, since I'm only a beginner in Indonesian although I have read an excellent book on the history of the Indonesian language, and have been interested in Indonesian/Malay for quite some time. Also I don't speak Spanish or Arabic, but I do know some things about them. I don't think the difference between Standard Malay and Standard Indonesian is anywhere as great as that between Moroccan Arabic and Egyptian Arabic. I think it's more like that between Dutch and Afrikaans or Hindi and Urdu. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| topaztrex Triglot Newbie Indonesia Joined 6169 days ago 20 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Indonesian*, English | Message 7 of 7 06 November 2011 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here is an example of a Malay speaker (Daud Yusof) and an Indonesian speaker (Ruth
Sahanaya) having a conversation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UgWMzwFoP0 I would say it is almost 100% mutually intelligible when spoken in a very formal (forced) way, as you can observe in the aforementioned video. However, informal and more slangy version might be hard to understand, and that's why sometimes I prefer using English when talking to Malay speakers. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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