Sanskrit ( संस्कृत ) Words ............................................... in Indonesian Language (Bahasa Indonesia) Part - I

Apart from fascinating Culture , the another most striking factor of Indonesia is it's Language (Bahasa Indonesia). I was really amazed to hear similar words from my maid when first time came to Indonesia. Words from Sanskrit Language , the root language of Official Indian language Hindi , are mix with Bahasa Indonesia (भाषा इंडोनेशिया). Some Sanskrit / Hindi words which are still being used in Bahasa Indonesia , are obsolete from spoken Hindi in India .. like for " Wife - Istri स्त्री and Husband - Suami स्वामी ". Lol ..... I too had a hard time to call my Husband Suami (स्वामी ) and my self Wife Istri (स्त्री) where ever ... when ever an introduction of both of us is required as Husband and Wife.

Sanskrit words and sentences are also used in Names, Titles, and Mottoes of the "Indonesian National Police" and "Indonesian Armed Forces" which add a Powerful Meaning to its Titles and Mottoes. Sanskrit words also contribute more subtle meaning to Official and Formal Languages of Indonesia .

I would love to quote Part of a Research Paper "The Competition of Religious Terms in Sanskrit and Arabic" submitted by Nazar Gendut in reference to Sanskrit / Hindi words which are still being used in Indonesian Language despite of its Islamic Majority.

QUOTE

" ..... However, we still can feel the Effects of Sanskrit Language from some of the recipient language, which used to be borrowing from Sanskrit. Indonesian language is one of the evidence that showed the effects of Sanskrit. I can say that Sanskrit had introduced Indonesian people with Religious Concepts. On the transitional period Islam had already came to Indonesia and started spreading through Indonesian Culture, which already was strongly influenced by Hindu Culture.

From the "Hikayat Si Miskin Manuscript", it can be concluded that Islam influences in Indonesia could not totally effect Indonesian language, especially the Religious Concepts of Indonesian people. We can see from the evidence that some Sanskrit words in Religious Terminology still having HIGH durability in Indonesian Language vocabulary.

The interesting point on the data in Islam seems that it could not replace some meaning element, which already had strong roots with Sanskrit. For example, the Sanskrit word Surga (स्वर्ग) ‘Heaven’ and Neraka (नर्क) ‘Hell’, which both derived from Sanskrit are still being widely used by Indonesian speaker until present times. Some of Indonesian people names are mentioning the Hindu’s God names such as Indera इंद्र, Brahma ब्रह्मा, Wisnu विष्णु, Dewa देव, Siva शिव etc.

On the Mythological Category, Indonesian Language had borrowed Bidadari (विद्या धरी) "Angel , a messenger from a deity" and Raksasa (राक्षस) from Sanskrit and Jin from Arabic. Besides that, Indonesian language also borrowed the word Malaikat and Nabi from Arabic. The example of the term for death and life hereafter category is the use of word Surga (स्वर्ग) and Neraka (नर्क) from Sanskrit and Kiamat from Arabic.

In the field of Religious activity, Indonesian language has two different words for ‘pray’, which are Sholat from Arabic and Sembahyang from Javanese and Sanskrit blending. One of the interesting case in Indonesia is Indonesian language had chosen to use Puasa ‘ fast ’ from Sanskrit Upvaas (उपवास) than using Shaum from Arabic. The examples for the last category are the words Moksa (मोक्ष) from Sanskrit and Ikhlas from Arabic. Other words which are derived from Sanskrit is Dosa (दोष) ‘Sin’ and Kurnia (करुणा) ‘Bless’. Moslem in Indonesia are mixed with Hindu Culture. For example, in some area in Java, the people sometimes still pray to the Goddess of the "Sea" and ask for favour to that Goddess instead of Allah.

As I said before some Arabic words may be succeeded in replacing Sanskrit words, such as Sholat and Sujud nevertheless, that did not truly replacing the whole content of the word. The effect of some Arabic words exclusively became PART to Islam Terminology only in Indonesia , not Religious Terminology in General Contexts."

UNQUOTE

Being mixture of Sanskrit / Hindi / Urdu and Arabic words , which are commonly spoken in Modern Hindi day to day life in India , Indonesian Language is quite easy to adapt.

As the Script of Bahasa Indonesia is Roman , letters are written and spoken in a different way unlike Sanskrit which is written in Devnagari देवनागरी Script. Below is an Indonesian Alphabet Table for better understanding.

Alphabet	Pronunciation   in  English	Close Pronunciation in Hindi हिन्दी
A	AA	आ
B	Bay	बे
C	Chey	चे
D	Dey	डे
E	Eay	ए
F	EF	एफ
G	Gey	गे
H	Ha	हा
I	EE	ऐ
J	Jey	जे
K	Ka	का
L	El	एल
M	Em	एम
N	En	एन
O	O	ओ
P	Pey	पे
Q	Ki , KEE	की
R	Er	अर्
S	Es	स
T	Tay	ते, त
U	OO	ऊ
V	Fe , FAY	फे , फ
W	We , Wey	वे
X	EKS	एक्स
Y	Ye , YAY	ये
Z	Zet	जेत

Continued Part - II --- List of some Sanskrit / Hindi Words in Indonesian Language.

http://indonesiaasisee.blogspot.com/2015/01/sanskrit-words-in-indonesian-language.html