Today's Indonesian Lesson

Posted by lara Mon, 25 Apr 2005 02:32:00 GMT

For all of you out there who are wondering, the linguist in me has been having great fun learning some Indonesian. So, here is your lesson for the day: cognates.

I have been searching my dictionary, and here are some words in Indonesian that are similar to the word in English. How many can you figure out? (Pronunciation is mostly like Spanish, but with a few of our English-like vowel sounds - schwa, etc. Also, "c" always sounds like "ch".)

asuransi
batere
bir
biru
bis
botol
bufet
buku
cek
cokelat
direktur
dokter
drama
eksportir
Eropa
es
es krim
fakultas
farmasi
film
firma
fiskal
foto
fotokopi
garasi
gas
gitar
guru
helikopter
hotel
importir
jangkar
juri
kalendar
kanker
kapten
karton
kartu
kartu post
kasir
kecap (which you normally think of being always made out of tomatoes, but in this case they use the word to for sweet soy sauce. To say "ketchup" they say "saus tomat.")
kelas
komentar
kompas
kondektur
kopi
korupsi
Kristen
kursus
laboratorium
lampu
limun
lipstik
liter
meter
mil
militer
mobil
musik
musium
mutasi
nama
nasional
netral
nihil
nomor
notaris
ons
operasi
organisasi
otomatis
pena
pensiun
pepaya
Perancis
peras
persis
piano
pilot
pincil (not to be confused with pencil, which means "isolated")
polisi
politik
pompa
pos
presiden
produksi
propinsi
proyek
radio
rak
republik
restoran
rotan
sabun
sama
saus
sekolah
sekretaris
selada (not quite what you expect, but almost)
Spanyol
stasiun
stempel
sirene
sirup
stensil
steril
taksi
taktik
teh (not a misspelled "the")
tekstil
telepon
televisi
teori
termometer
tomat
truk
universitas
variasi
ventilasi
visa
vitamin
vokal
wol (comes from a sheep)

Months of the year:
Januari
Pebruari
Maret
April
Mei
Juni
Juli
Agustus
September
Oktober
Nopember
Desember

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Comments

  1. Mom J said 5 days later:
    Only you, Lara!! Glad you are enjoying you time!!
  2. Mom E said 6 days later:
    Wow! That is one long list of words! I think I found chocolate in there... but then I can find chocolate anywhere! We continue to pray for your time there -- that you are blessed as much as you are a blessing to them.
  3. Joy King said 9 days later:
    Wow! I lived in Indonesia for 9 years and I never realized there were so many similar words.
  4. patar said 9 days later:
    Hi Marshall, do you have lattest picture that we have in teh beach? thanx, Patar

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