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The differences between Malay (''Bahasa Melayu'' or ''Bahasa Malaysia'') and Indonesian (''Bahasa Indonesia'') are slightly greater than those between British English and American English. They are mutually intelligible, but with differences in spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary.For non-native speakers of the two languages, Malay and Indonesian may seem almost identical, but for native speakers, the differences can lead to incomprehension when used in formal conversation or written communication. These differences also affect broadcasting business in relation to foreign language subtitling, for example DVD movies or TV cable subscriptions. In order to reach out to a wider audience, sometimes both Indonesian and Malay subtitles are displayed in a movie side by side with other language subtitles.

Orthography

Before the 20th century, Malay was written in a modified form of the Arabic alphabet known as Jawi. After the 20th century, Malay written with Roman letters, known as Rumi, has almost completely replaced Jawi in everyday life. The romanisations originally used in Malaya (now part of Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) reflected their positions as British and Dutch possessions respectively.

In Indonesia, the vowel in the English word 'moon' was formerly represented in Indonesian as ''oe'', as in Dutch, and the official spelling of this sound was changed to ''u'' in 1947.

Similarly, until 1972, the initial consonant of the English 'chin' was represented in Malay as ''ch'', whereas in Indonesian, it continued to follow Dutch and used ''tj''. Hence the word for 'grandchild' used to be written as ''chuchu'' in Malay and ''tjoetjoe'' in Indonesian, until a unified spelling system was introduced in 1972 (known in Indonesia as ''Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan'' or the 'Perfected Spelling') which removed most differences between the two varieties: Malay ''ch'' and Indonesian ''tj'' became ''c'': hence ''cucu''.

Indonesian abandoned the spelling ''dj'' (for the consonant at the beginning of the word 'Jakarta') to conform to the ''j'' already in use in Malay, while the old Indonesian ''j'' for the semivowel at the beginning of the English 'young', was replaced with ''y'' as in Malay. Likewise, the velar fricative which occurs in many Arabic loanwords, which used to be written 'ch' in Indonesian, became ''kh'' in both languages.

However, ''oe'' was retained in some proper names, such as the name of the first President, Sukarno (written as ''Soekarno''), and his successor Suharto, (written as ''Soeharto''). The ''ch'' and ''dj'' letter combinations are still encountered in names such as ''Achmad'' and ''Djojo'' (pronounced as ''Akhmad'' and ''Joyo'' respectively), although the post-1972 spelling is now favoured.

Although the representations of speech sounds are now largely identical in the Indonesian and Malay varieties, a number of minor spelling differences remain, usually for historical reasons. For instance, the word for 'money' is written as ''wang'' in Malay, but ''uang'' in Indonesian, the word for 'try' is written as ''cuba'' in Malay, but ''coba'' in Indonesian, the word for 'because' is written as ''kerana'' in Malay, but ''karena'' in Indonesian, while the word for 'cake' is written as ''kuih'' in Malay, but ''kue'' in Indonesian.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation also tends to be very different, with East Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia speaking a dialect called ''Bahasa Baku'',date=April 2007 where the words are pronounced as spelt and enunciation tends to be clipped, staccato and faster than the Malay spoken in the Malay Peninsula, which is spoken at a more languorous pace. Many vowels are pronounced (and were formerly spelt) differently in Peninsular Malaysia: ''tujuh'' is pronounced (and was spelt) ''tujoh'', ''pilih'' as ''pileh'', etc., and many final ''a'''s tend to be pronounced as schwas.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary differences

Indonesian differs from Malay in having words of Javanese and Dutch origin although Indonesian based on Malay in Riau province (''Bahasa Melayu Riau''). For example, the word for 'post office' in Malay is ''pejabat pos'' (in Indonesian this means 'post officer'), whereas in Indonesian it is ''kantor pos'', from the Dutch word for office, ''kantoor''. There are also some Portuguese influences: in Indonesian, Christmas is known as ''Natal'', whereas Malay uses ''Krismas'', derived from English. But now, the word 'Natal' is often used in Malaysia rather than 'Krismas'. There are also instances where the Malay version derives from English pronunciation while the Indonesian version takes its cue from Latin: compare Malay ''kualiti'', ''kuantiti'', ''majoriti'', ''minoriti'' and ''universiti'' with Indonesian ''kualitas'', ''kuantitas'', ''mayoritas'', ''minoritas'' and ''universitas''.

False friends

Besides vocabulary differences, there are also a number of false friends in both languages. As these words are in quite common use in either or both of the languages, misunderstandings can arise.

Sample

Convergence of vocabulary

The Malay language in Malaysia is not pervasively used in all spheres of life compared to Indonesia. Competition from the English language, the emotional attachment of the Malaysian Malays to the language and the desires by the non-Malays to preserve the use of their mother tongues are probably the reasons for this state of affairs. As a result, the Malay language in Malaysia is not dynamic as the Indonesian language in the introduction of new words through adaptation from other languages especially English. Many Malays are adverse to the 'Malay-ing' of English words. They rather prefer to find obscure Malay words or words from the Malay archipelago that are equivalent to the English term. For example, the English word 'plaster' or stucco would have been easily Malayised both in terms of pronunciation and common usage. However the word 'lepa' (spread) is used instead. Many new words introduced in Malay are taken from Indonesian due to this preference. For example, the word canggih (complicated) is a Javanese word that is used for translating 'sophisticated' to denote a higher status meaning (as in a sophisticated lady) instead of the Malay equivalent of 'rumit' (complicated). These words are usually adopted some ten years after its popular use in the Indonesian media.

Trivia

During the May 1998 Revolution, when calls for political reform or reformasi in Indonesia led to the resignation of President Suharto, Malaysian satirists Instant Cafe lampooned a government broadcast in which 'Malaysians are reminded that ''reformasi'' is an Indonesian word, which has no equivalent in Bahasa Melayu.'