Indonesian Dutch

Ethnicity500,000 (1984)^[a]Latin (Dutch and Indonesian alphabets)Language codesISO 639-3–GlottologNoneThis article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Indonesian Dutch (Dutch: Indonesisch-Nederlands) is a regional variety of the Dutch spoken in Indonesia. In its development, Dutch has become the language used by colonial rulers for centuries in Indonesian Archipelago, when it was, or was partly, colonized by the Netherlands. It was an official language in the Dutch East Indies, and also in Netherlands New Guinea, before the handover of Western New Guinea to Indonesia in 1963.

The general use of Dutch only began at the end of the colonial period in Indonesia. During the time of the VOC, Dutch was almost meaningless, and many areas actually use Low Malay as a lingua franca and trade language.

People who can speak Dutch have more rights. Only natives who could speak Dutch were allowed to wear hats and native women were only allowed to marry Europeans if they could speak Dutch.

Dutch schools were established in Ambon and Batavia. However, not everyone was allowed to attend these schools, their numbers were small, and they were usually only accessible to the elite and nobility. At school people speak Dutch, but at home they often speak Malay or Javanese.

The Ambonese and Minahasan peoples are famous for their loyalty to the Dutch colonialists, most of the men joined the KNIL troops, and also absorbed the Dutch lifestyle and language. This also provides a legacy that until the time of Indonesian independence, these two ethnic groups were the most fluent or at least somewhat able to speak Dutch compared to other native ethnic groups. Many of their communities now form a large diaspora in the Netherlands, especially Ambonese and other Maluku peoples.^[3]

Malay, like Dutch, became increasingly important. However, besides being a regional language, Malay is also used in the neighboring British colonial countries of Malacca, Singapore, and Brunei, where it is also used as a lingua franca.^[4] Since the 20th century, Dutch has acquired real status in Indonesia. Many Indonesians now also use Dutch among family and friends who have Dutch ancestry. In 1942, when Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies, they banned the Dutch language and only Asian native languages, such as Malay and Japanese, were allowed to be used.

After Indonesia became independent in 1945, but was only recognized by the Netherlands in 1949, many continued to speak Dutch for a long time, especially those who had historical ties with the Netherlands. In some areas, being able to speak Dutch is still evidence of a person's good education. Although Indonesians were very hostile towards the Dutch after the politionele acties (includes military aggression I and II), many continued to respect the Dutch language, even after the outbreak of the Bersiap period. Sukarno, the first president and proclaimer of the Republic of Indonesia, also continued to speak Dutch and read many Dutch books every year. Dutch of course did not die out in the region, as the Netherlands still maintained its colony after 1949, Netherlands New Guinea. However, Sukarno claimed that the area belonged to Indonesia and had long been in negotiations with the Netherlands. Through colonial schools in Netherlands New Guinea, many Papuans, the indigenous inhabitants of today's Papua provinces, also learned the language.

Where Indonesians or half-blood those who are Dutch oriented, or have a past romantic relationship with the Dutch, are called by the discriminatory and derogatory term, Londo Ireng, from the Javanese term londo 'blonde or Dutch', and ireng 'black'. This refers to Black Dutchmen, a term in Indonesia for Indonesians whose parents, or grandparents sided with the Dutch colonial government in the past.^[5]

After Indonesia's independence, this does not mean that Dutch is no longer used. Dutch is the source language in Indonesia; and some documents in this language retain their official status as government documents.^[6] This language also had a function as a trade language in the past, although English is much more important in that regard today.^[7]

In fact, full mastery of Dutch is now mainly found only among older people and some of their younger relatives, especially in the larger cities of Java, Minahasa, Maluku, and Papua (due to the Netherlands presence in Papua until 1963), who learned the language in school and still use it with each other, at reunions, or with strangers.^[8]

Since 1971, the University of Indonesia in Jakarta has been the only university in Indonesia that has a "Dutch Language Section". The interest in learning Dutch is driven by the fact that Indonesian law is partly based on Dutch law, and many writings from the colonial era are still relevant today. Older historical, linguistic, philological, and medical sources are also often in Dutch. There are also other motives which mean that vocational training courses can be found in Semarang, Bandung, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta. These institutions are often aimed at a wider audience. The younger generation learns Dutch to understand their grandmother's language, to study Indonesian history or for tourism purposes (for example, wanting to become a guide). Besides English, Arabic, Japanese, and Mandarin, Dutch is a popular language of study and every year more than 10,000 Indonesians study it in schools and private courses.^[9]

Overall, Dutch has not completely disappeared from Indonesia. It is still used in the fields of history, linguistics, agriculture, forestry, anthropology, and jurisprudence. Lawyers are often required to be able to read Dutch. Because many laws and administrative documents have not been translated into Indonesian or have not been legally updated. Dutch is still an important language in some places, such as Depok (old city), Ambon, and Manado. In the larger cities of Indonesia, Dutch is mostly spoken by Indo-Europeans and to a lesser extent by the Western-oriented Chinese minority in Bandung, Malang, Semarang, Surabaya, and in parts of Jakarta it is still sometimes used.

The number of speakers was around 500,000 in 1984, according to M.C. van den Toorn (1985), referring to de Vries (1983). Most of the speakers are old people who still have memories of Dutch. The number is speculative, their numbers are difficult to estimate – they were only a negligible minority in a population of more than 130 million that year. However, if we look further back, specifically at the beginning of the outbreak of World War II in the 1940s, the number of speakers was not much different. Where 400,000 people are fluent in Dutch, most of them are of mixed and native Dutch descent, with another 200,000 people probably having at least some knowledge of Dutch or perhaps being able to speak it.^[2]

Relationship with Indonesian or Malay languages usually consists of loanwords that come in/from both languages.

Dutch also has a large influence and vocabulary contribution to Indonesian, Javanese, and other languages in the Indonesian Archipelago. There are around 10,000 Dutch words that have been absorbed into Indonesian, such as:^[10]

• knalpot, bekleding, vermaak, achteruit, absurd, afdruk, belasting, bestek, bom, bretel, debat, degen, doktorandus, drama, elan, fabel, flop, fotomodel, fraude, giro, gratis, handel, harem, hutspot, inklaring, jas, kabinet, kanker, kansel, krat, kop, lading, loket, marmer, masker, matras, mondeling, nota, notaris, oma, onderneming, oom, opa, pan, pater, punt, rekening, rimpel, salaris, seks, sigaret, skelet, tank, tante, testikel, tol, urine, vla, wastafel, wortel.

However, some of these words are no longer used. For example, hutspot is no longer common, and sigaret has been widely replaced by rokok. This last word is basically of Dutch origin: it comes from the word roken 'to smoke'.

There are also words that are written differently but often pronounced the same:

• adopsi, apel, asprak, bagasi, bandit, baterai, bioskop, debil, demisioner, duane, ekonomi, energi, ereksi, finansiil, frustrasi, garansi, generasi, granat, handuk, higiene, ideologi, imbesil, impoten, inflasi, jenewer, kampiun, kantor, kardiolog, kastrasi, kondom, kran, kristen, kuitansi, langsam, losion, makelar, marsepen, menstruasi, monarki, opas, operasi, overproduksi, panekuk, parlemen, pesimis, polisi, posbus, poskantor, resesi, revolusi, segregasi, sigar, skorsing, spanduk, tabu, taksi, tanpasta, toleran, vegetarir, verplehster, wanprestasi.

After Indonesia's independence, some of these loan words were deliberately changed to suit Indonesian pronunciation. For example, universitet and kwalitet were replaced with universitas 'university' and kualitas 'quality', which slightly reduces the Dutch character.

Other words seem to come from Dutch. For example, along with their Dutch equivalents:

• abésé (ABC, alfabet), air ledeng (leidingwater), amplop (enveloppe), arbei (aardbei), ateret (achteruit), besenegeng (bezuiniging), buku (boek), dasi (stropdas), dopercis (doperwten), dus (douche), efisen (efficiënt), ember (emmer), fakultas kedokteran (medische faculteit), gaji (gage), gemente (gemeente), hasyis (hasjies), hopagen (hoofdagent), insinyur (ingenieur), interviu ('interview', also from English), kakus (kakhuis, wc), kantor pos (postkantoor), keker (verrekijker), keroket (kroket), klep knalpot (uitlaatklep), komunis (communist), kopor (koffer), koterek (kurketrekker), lengseng (lezing), masase (massage), meisyes (muisjes, hagelslag), netral (neutraal), om (oom), ongkos (onkosten), otobus (autobus), pakansi/vakansi (vakantie), persnelling (versnelling) pipa (pijp), pofercis (poffertjes), puisi (poëzie), rebewes (rijbewijs), reboisasi (herbebossing), sakelek (zakelijk), stasiun (station), teh (thee), wese (wc), zeni (genie).

However, many of the words mentioned above are also loanwords into Dutch from other languages.

On the other hand, Dutch and Afrikaans also have words borrowed from Indonesian/Malay. Some of them are related to dishes:

• nasi, bami, babi pangang, ketjap, atjar, gadogado, kroepoek, emping, saté, mango, sambal, loempia, boemboe, trassi, klapper, sereh, peteh[bonen], laos, lombok, kemiri[bonen], pi(e)sang.

Other vocabulary includes, for example:

• kaki ('foot'), batik, pasar, kris, gamelan, baboe, wajang, piekeren (pikir, 'thinking'), pienter (pintar, 'smart'), amok, klamboe, karbouw, rimboe, orang oetan, soesa, senang, bakeleien, banjeren, amper, pakkie-an, gladjakker, branie, goeroe, soebatten, tabee, plopper, sarong, koelie, tang ('evil woman'), toko, patjakker, tempo doeloe, bazar, oorlam, kongsi, goenagoena, bersiap, beo, desa, gonje, guttapercha, kali, kassian, mandiën, negorij, krontjong, rotan, sawah, totok, toean, njai, nonna, liplap, kraton, klewang.

Some words in Afrikaans also come from Malay.

• baar ('inexperienced, newbie'; from the word baru), piesang, baie ('very', from the word banyak).

There are several Dutch-based creole languages, most of which are currently used by speakers who have migrated to the Netherlands, and also slowly but surely became extinct along with the disappearance of the first generation of Indo-Dutch people, the languages were Petjo and Javindo which were originally used in Java.

• Standard Dutch
• Surinamese Dutch

• Elektronisch tijdschrift voor de neerlandistiek at Neder-L
• Weg tot het Westen at Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL)
• Waar ben je nou Nederlands leren in Indonesië at Taal Unieversum