On 27/11/13 19:21, Scott Kostyshak wrote:
Finally, on the question about discrimination, I understand that assuming "bahasa" to mean "Indonesian" could be discriminatory,
I wouldn't use the term "discriminatory" about this; rather, I'd just say it might be potentially ambiguous.
but couldn't assuming "Indonesian" to mean "Bahasa Indonesia" be discriminatory as well? There appear to be 742 languages of Indonesia [1]. Are those languages not "Indonesian"?
While there are many hundreds of other languages spoken in Indonesia (see also http://www.ethnologue.com/country/ID/languages), which thus may be referred to as "Indonesian languages", they are not actually named "Indonesian"; they each have their own name(s).
"Indonesian" itself is a recognized English name for the lingua franca and official language of the country, also known (especially among Indonesian or Malay speakers) as "Bahasa Indonesia" or sometimes simply (but perhaps ambiguously, depending on context) "Bahasa", a form of Malay.
JK
