Indonesian/Lessons/Alphabet

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Go to Exercise: Rhyme Game

There are only 21 native consonants and 5 vowels in Indonesian.

Indonesian is made up of syllables

There are 4 types of syllables, and they each require at least one vowel.

The 1st type of syllable consists of a consonant, followed by a vowel. For Example..."Nasi." It means Steamed Rice. /na/ and /si/. Each one is made up of a consonant and a vowel.

The 2nd kind of syllable consists of a consonant, a vowel, and then a final consonant. For Example..."Habis." It means "Finished". This one is made up of two syllables as well, but this time, Each one is made up of a consonant-vowel syllable, /ha/ and it is followed by a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable /bis/.

The 3rd kind only contains a vowel. For Example "Anak." It means "Child." In this word, we have the vowel /a/ It is followed by a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable /nak/.

The 4th kind is the vowel plus consonant syllable. For Example "Anjing," which means "Dog." In this word, the first syllable /an/ has a vowel, /a/ and a consonant, /n/. The second syllable is yet another consonant-vowel-consonant syllable, with the consonant j, /dʒ/ the vowel /i/ and the sound written as two letters, ng, /ŋ/

The alphabet and its pronunciation
Indonesian letters are the same as those used in English. Historically, the languages of Indonesia had been written in Indian alphabets or the Arabic alphabet. All of the letters A through Z are used, as in English, though some of the letters are pronounced differently. However, unlike English, Indonesian spelling is very consistent: letters are largely pronounced as they are spelled and no letters are silent. You will find that some of the sounds are similar to Spanish.

Below is a table of the Indonesian alphabet. The pronunciation column shows how each letter is pronounced in Indonesian. The sound column shows how it sounds in English. Where the sound isn't spelled out, it is roughly the same as in English.

Listen to how Indonesians pronounce the alphabet: ;

^ Indonesian ^ | << How to use this Indonesian Wikibook  | Lesson 0: The Alphabet | Lesson 1: Greetings >>

Enseignement de l'indonésien/Leçons/Alphabet