Indonesian
is written with the Latin alphabet. Consonants are represented in a way
similar to Italian, although ‹c› is always /tʃ/ (like English ‹ch›),
‹g› is always /ɡ/ ("hard") and ‹j› represents /dʒ/ as it does in
English. In addition, ‹ny› represents the palatal nasal /ɲ/, ‹ng› is
used for the velar nasal /ŋ/ (which can occur word-initially), ‹sy› for
/ʃ/ (English ‹sh›) and ‹kh› for the voiceless velar fricative /x/. Both
/e/ and /ə/ are represented with ‹e›.
It is important to note the
spelling changes in the language that have occurred since Indonesian
independence. The changes include:
Old
spelling New
spelling
oe u
tj c
dj j
j y
nj ny
sj sy
ch kh
The
first of these changes (‹oe› to ‹u›) occurred around the time of
independence in 1947; all of the others were a part of the Perfected
Spelling System, an officially-mandated spelling reform in 1972. Some of
the old spellings (which were derived from Dutch orthography) do
survive in proper names; for example, the name of a former president of
the Indonesia is still sometimes written Soeharto, and the central Java
city of Yogyakarta is sometimes written Jogjakarta.
[edit] Pronunciation and grammar