Aug 14, 2015

Indonesian Alphabet

Alphabet is called alfabet or abjad in Indonesia. Alphabet in Indonesia is similar to english alphabet. The difference lies only in the pronunciation.

Unlike in english, in Bahasa you can count on every letter to always sound the same (except for vowel 'e', consonant 'k' and some diphthongs which we will learn later) in any words. In English, 'g' in 'game' is pronounced differently from 'g' in 'magic'. In Bahasa, it's always the 'g' as in 'game' , 'go', 'greet', 'magazine', 'magnet', 'logo', etc.
Let's get started.
a [a] == ahb [be] == ba(y)
c [ce] == cha(ir)
d [de] == da(y)
e [e] == ae
f [ef] == eph
g [ge] == ga(y)
h [ha] == hu(b)
i [i] == ee
j [je] == ja(y)
k [ka] == co(me)
l [el] == el
m [em] == am
n [en] == end
o [o] == oh
p [pe] == pa(y)
q [ki] == key
r [er] == err(or) (with stronger and clearer 'r')
s [es] == as
t [te] == ta(il)
u [u]== oo
v [fe] == fe(y)
w [we] == wa(y)
x [ex/eks] == ex
y [ye] == ya(y)
z [zet] == zet(h)

There are also diphthongs and digraphs. I'll explain them in other posts.

The letters inside the parenthesis are meant to be omitted (not read) but the rest of the letters are to be pronounced as if the letter in the parenthesis is not omitted. For example: letter 'd' is to be pronounced halfway of 'day'. You should read it like there is no 'y' sound in the end.

Inside the square bracket is how Indonesian would read it. If you want to listen to how I pronounce the alphabet, please download the file here. I've recorded my voice twice.

PS: You would probably hear some wind-like sounds in the recordings but it's not really the wind. It's just my breathing problem. :D

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