Are Malaysian and Indonesian the same?

Lesson #2 for Kiwis: Malaysian vs Indonesian.

We often get the question, "Aren't Indonesian and Malaysian the same language? I mean, they both use the term "Bahasa" don't they?"

Short and simple, they aren't the same language. Strongly related, mutually comprehensible in certain situations, yes, but not the same.

"Bahasa" just means language in both Malaysian and Indonesian. It does not imply any mutual comprehensibility. In fact the word "bahasa" has a Sanskrit base, and is used in languages as diverse as Javanese, Thai and Khmer to mean the same thing; "language".

So where, and when should you be using these different languages, and what, if any, other languages should you be considering?

Let's look at Malaysian first. Malaysian of course is the first language of Malaysia, yet which confusingly originated in Sumatra. It is also an official language in Singapore and Brunei, and is widely used in Western Sumatra. Historically Malaysian was the trade lingua franca of South East Asia and across the Indian Ocean; there are still communities speaking dialects of Malaysian as far abroad as Southern China, Vietnam and Cambodia, while Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar off the east coast of Africa, is of Malaysian origin.

Indonesian, by contrast, is linguistically termed a dialect of Malay. It is the official language of the nation of Indonesia, used in government, trade and education. Yet of a nation of 240 million only 23 million call it their first language; over 140 million people designate themselves as second language speakers (although they may well be fluent in Indonesian as well as their first language). This leaves some 60 million Indonesians who either term Indonesian as a third language or who cannot speak Indonesian with any degree of confidence.  Compare this with Javanese (the language of Java, the main island of Indonesia), which boasts as many as 85 million native speakers. However, given that Indonesian is the official language of education, expect that over time the use of the national language will increase.

While both languages have absorbed many Sanskrit and Arabic terms, Indonesian was strongly influenced by Javanese and also Dutch languages, the Dutch having ruled Java and many of the islands of Indonesia since the 16th Century. Malaysian, by contrast, received more influence from Tamil and Hindi, and also English.

So should NZ exporters consider one translation for Malay and Indonesian speaking customers? If your translation is for front end marketing purposes, then short answer is no. Aside from the actual language differences, as with all close neighbours there is always a certain amount of tension, and using a Malaysian translation in Indonesia (or vice versa) may not go down to well. And be aware, that particularly in Indonesian, a very strong slang exists often using word plays and borrowings from other native languages (Madurese, Javanese etc.). For documents such as operating manuals etc. then if cost is a serious consideration, then possibly it can work.

Postcript:
On a further review of previous customer enquiries, please don't confuse Malaysian with Malayalam. Malayalam is the language of the Kerala state of south-west India, and has nothing to do with Malaysian.