Language in Indonesia: What You Should Know

You’re likely to encounter a lot of languages in Indonesia. Most of them are not well-documented. Others are just not common outside of small communities.

Several months ago, I wrote a guide to the languages you might encounter in Belize. That post seems to be pretty popular, and I had fun making it. So I thought I’d write another one for Indonesia, since I’ve written a guide to the grammar of Bahasa Indonesia previously. You don’t need to read that one to understand this, or vice versa. (But if you find this post interesting, definitely check out that one!)

The Official Language in Indonesia: Bahasa Indonesia

Bahasa Indonesia is actually a dialect of Malay, a language that extends beyond just Indonesia. This is the official language of the country, and is widely spoken, but… also isn’t. I’ll explain.

While Bahasa Indonesia is taught all across the country, it is actually not the preferred language of most people within the country. It acts as a common language for people from different parts of the country to communicate, even if they normally speak entirely different ones.

I’ve talked before about how standardizing and enforcing the use of certain language can lead minority languages to die off. But in Indonesia’s case, it’s somewhat the opposite.

See, Indonesia is split into 17,508 islands. Across these islands there are almost 700 languages. Unifying all of these groups as one nation is a daunting task. This is when a common, national language that everyone learns can come in useful. And, if the non-official languages are still allowed to prosper, nobody is harmed by its use, at least not directly.

Of course, I don’t know the specifics of how these interactions actually play out or the political situation there. I am not a citizen and have yet to visit the country. (Though I certainly plan to!)

If you learn some phrases or grammar from Bahasa Indonesia, you’ll do just fine navigating here. Nearly everyone speaks the language even if it isn’t their preferred language. This will be especially true in urban/ dense areas where you’re likely to be anyway. (And in these areas, you’re also likely to encounter English speakers.)

Non-official (But Native) Languages in Indonesia

Like I said before, there are almost 700 languages spoken in Indonesia. (About 1/10 of the languages spoken in the world!) Because they’re scattered across so many islands, census takers cannot always obtain an accurate count. It’s hard to travel to 17,000+ islands efficiently. (Here’s a full map of the cultures across the country!)

This also means that native languages in these areas can still thrive, somewhat. Indonesia doesn’t have a specific goal or intention of eliminating these languages, but this can often happen anyway for reasons beyond anyone’s control. (See Language Death and Why You Should Care for more info.)

Fortunately, many of these languages are spoken more often than Bahasa Indonesia in their respective locations, making Bahasa Indonesia widely-known but not as widely-spoken. It’s like if Americans all knew English but spoke indigenous languages within our own communities.

Most of the languages spoken in Indonesia fall under the Austronesian language family. This includes Bahasa Indonesia. But let’s get into some others:

Javanese Language in Indonesia

Javanese, a language native to the island of Java, is, depending on what data you look at, either the most or second-most widely spoken language in Indonesia. It’s mainly found across the central regions of the island. The other big languages of the country are also primarily found on this island.

The island of Java has the highest population and is the location of Indonesia’s capital, so it makes sense why the language is so widely spoken out of the languages there. It’s spoken by around 40% of the population and has several regional dialects.

I often talk about how language reflects and influnces worldview. Javanese is a perfect example of this, as the social hierarchy of the Javanese is built into the language. Other than some small bits of influence on words or grammar (in both directions), Javanese differs entirely from Bahasa Indonesia.

Sundanese

Sundanese, the third largest Indonesian language, is also spoken primarily on the island of Java, though in different parts of the island than Javanese. (Primarily the western side.) Again, the density here plays a large part in the prevalence of the language. It’s spoken by about 32 million people, about 15% of the population.

It used to have six different formality levels but they have since been reduced to only two, with a third that is often used only when angry. This third formality level is also only present in certain dialects.

Sundanese has a lot of oral history and musical/ folk traditions. If you’re in the right areas, you might hear some of it!

Madurese

Madurese, another major language in Indonesia, is spoken around the northeastern coast of Java island, near the island of Madura (where the language is also spoken). There are around 10-13 million speakers but it is in decline. It does have several dialects as well.

It has very unique sounds and patterns compared to other languages in the area, and is more closely related to other languages in this list than to Javanese.

Balinese

Sporting a lot of unique religious texts, Balinese also has a caste-based system built into its language (like Javanese) through politeness. The higher levels of this language borrow from Javanese quite heavily.

You’ll primarily encounter Balinese on the island of Bali, just east of Java. Like the other languages here, it’s in a fairly large population center. It’s not classified as endangered with around 1 million speakers, but that number used to be much higher at 3.3 million.

What About Foreign Languages in Indonesia?

I’m glad you asked, hypothetical reader!

Like most countries and cultures, there is influence from the outside. Even among the languages in Indonesia, there are indicators of their interactions. I don’t doubt that the presence of Bahasa Indonesia across the archipelago has altered the other languages in some way, and vice versa. That’s a big factor in the growth of dialects. Across any part of the country, people are likely to speak Bahasa Indonesia in different ways based on the influence of other cultures. On the flipside, the other native languages would be affected in a similar way.

But this section is about foreign languages in Indonesia. And those have certainly had influence.

The biggest of these is Dutch. It isn’t widely spoken in most places across Indonesia but does still have some influence. You might hear some traders or workers speak it occasionally. But don’t expect it to be super common.

English is in a similar situation, but is more prominent now than Dutch. Especially if you’re in a tourist-heavy area, you’ll likely encounter some English.

Bahasa Indonesia also uses the same script as Dutch and English, which makes it easier to read for English speakers.

Written Language in Indonesia

That last part about writing brings me to my final point. You are likely to encounter many different writing scripts if you travel to Indonesia, depending on where you go.

Indonesian languages borrow scripts from all over the place. They often alter the scripts in their own ways, too:

Sundanese uses a variation of Brahmic script, which comes from India, but there have been a lot of changes to the preferred script over time. There are some efforts to switch to Latin script or the original script of Sundanese.
Madurese uses a modified Arabic script, but also leans more towards the Latin script now. It used to use the same script as Javanese.
Javanese primarily uses the Brahmic script but sometimes uses Arabic script, too. Like I said, the Arabic script is in decline.
Balinese uses Brahmic script, too.
Bahasa Indonesia is the one you’re most likely to encounter, especially in big population centers. It uses the Latin script, just like English.

Conclusion: A Land of Languages

You’re likely to encounter a multitude of languages in any given part of Indonesia. As a traveler, it’s important to be able to communicate with others.

By learning even a little bit of Bahasa Indonesia (I have a guide for it here), you should get around well enough. It might surprise you, too, how much you can communicate with simple body language and gestures.

Don’t let language barriers stop you from really exploring the linguistic diversity of the country. There is so much history and culture to be found there!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about anything I wrote, feel free to leave them below!

Also, what country or language would you like a guide to next? Let me know below!