Quote:
Originally Posted by localbest
Therefore there is a difference between Malay race and Ethnic Malay (Melayu)
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Although ethnic malay (orang melayu) only accounts for 2.3% of the total population in Indonesia, the language of ethnic malay (Bahasa Melayu) was adopted and taken as the national language of Indonesia. It is easy to use as it has no present/past tense, no masculine/feminine nouns, no singular/plural noun, just one single word can be used to represent many meaning.
Although Javanese accounts for 40% of the population however Javanese language is difficult to learn as it has many versions - speak to different class of people use different Javanese version. That's the reason why Bahasa Melayu was adopted as the national language of Indonesia but NOT Bahasa Java.
Until now I still failed to learn Bahasa Java despite my maid girlfriend been teaching me...
In fact Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Indonesia is a much easier language to learn...
Bahasa Melayu was also adopted as the national language of Malaysia although there are many ethnic group in Malaysia like kelantanese, Javanese, Bugis, Kadazhan, Minangkabau in negeri sembilan, iban, etc