Sundanese language

Not to be confused with Sudanese.
Sundanese
ᮘᮞ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ Basa Sunda
Native to Indonesia
Region West Java, Banten, Jakarta, parts of western Central Java, southern Lampung
Ethnicity Sundanese, Bantenese, Cirebonese, Badui
Native speakers
 38 million (2007)[1]
Cacarakan (historical)
Latin (present)
Pranagari (historical)
Pegon alphabet (religious use)
Sundanese script (present)
Vatteluttu (historical)
Official status
Official language in
 Banten (regional)
West Java (regional)
Language codes
ISO 639-1 su
ISO 639-2 sun
ISO 639-3 Either:
sun – Sunda
bac – Badui
Glottolog sund1251[3]
Linguasphere 31-MFN-a
A Sundanese lontar manuscript written in Sundanese script.
The first page from manuscript of Carita Waruga Guru which use the Old Sundanese script and Old Sundanese language.
Aksara Sunda (Sundanese script)

Sundanese /sʌndəˈniːz/[4] (Basa Sunda /basa sʊnda/, in Sundanese script ᮘᮞ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ, literally "language of Sunda") is the language of about 39 million people from the western third of Java or about 15% of the Indonesian population.

Dialects

Sundanese appears to be most closely related to Madurese and Malay, and more distantly related to Javanese. It has several dialects, conventionally described according to the locations of the people:

Priangan, which covers the largest area of Sunda (Tatar Pasundan in Sundanese), is the most widely spoken type of Sundanese language, taught in elementary till senior-high schools (equivalent to twelfth-year school grade) in West Java and Banten Province.

Writing

Main article: Sundanese alphabet

Sundanese can be written in different writing systems, the Old Sundanese script (Aksara Sunda Kuno) and Pegon in historical times, and in modern times the Latin script and the modern Sundanese script.

Phonology

Sundanese orthography is highly phonetic (see also Sundanese script). There are five pure vowel sounds: a /ɑ/, é /ɛ/, i /i/, o /ɔ/, u /ʊ/, and two neutral vowels; e /ə/, and eu /ɤ/. The consonantal phonemes are transcribed with the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c (pronounced /tʃ/), j, h, ng (/ŋ/), ny /ɳ/, m, n, s /ɳ/, w, l, r (trilled or flapped), and y /j/. Other consonants that originally appear in Indonesian loanwords are mostly transferred into native consonants: f → p, v → p, sy → s, sh → s, z → j, and kh /x/ → h.

According to Yayat Sudaryat (1991,35) there are 16 consonants in Sundanese phonology: /b/, /tʃ/, /d/, /g/, /h/, /dʒ/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/, /ŋ/, /t/; /ɳ/, however, influences from foreign languages have introduced several additional consonants such as /f/, /v/, /z/ (as in fonem, qur'an, xerox, zakat).

There are also /w/ and /j/ as semi vowels, they function as glide sound between two different vowels, as in the words:

Phonemes /w/ and /j/ function as glide sounds between two different vowels as in the words:

Basic grammar

Root word

Root verb

English Sundanese
(normal) 		Sundanese
(polite)
eat .. dahar .. tuang ..(for other)
neda ..(for myself)
drink .. inum .. leueut ..
write .. tulis .. serat ..
read .. maca .. maos ..
forget .. poho .. hilap ..
remember .. inget .. emut ..
sit .. diuk .. calik .. linggih
standing .. nangtung .. adeg ..
walk .. leumpang .. papah ..

Plural form

Other Austronesian languages commonly use reduplication to create plural forms. However, Sundanese inserts the ar infix into the stem word. If the stem word starts with l, or contains r following the infix, the infix ar becomes al. Also, as with other Sundanese infixes (such as um), if the word starts with vowel, the infix becomes a prefix. Examples:

  1. "Mangga A, tarahuna haneut keneh" (Please sir (offering), the tofus are still warm/hot), The plural form of tahu 'tofu' is formed by infixing ar after the initial consonant.
  2. "Barudak leutik lalumpatan" (Small children running around), formed from budak (child) with the ar infix and modified to barudak to create plural child (children); in lumpat (run) the ar infix becomes al because lumpat starts with l.
  3. "Ieu kaen batik aralus sadayana" (All of this batik clothes are beautiful), formed from alus (nice, beautiful, good) with the infix ar that becomes a prefix because alus starts with a vowel. It denotes the adjective "beautiful" for the plural subject/noun (batik clothes).
  4. "Siswa sakola eta mah balageur" (The students of that school are well-behaved), formed from bageur (good-behaving, nice, polite, helpful) with the infix ar (becomes al because of r in the root) to denote the adjective "well-behaved" for plural students.

However, it is reported that this use of al instead of ar (as illustrated in (4) above) does not to occur if the 'r' is in onset of a neighbouring syllable. For example, the plural form of the adjective curiga (suspicious) is caruriga and not *caluriga, because the 'r' in the root occurs at the start of the following syllable.[5]

The prefix can be repeated twice to denote very-, or the plural of groups. For example, "bararudak" denotes many, many children or many groups of children ("budak" is child in Sundanese). Another example, "balalageur" denotes plural adjective of "very well-behaved".

Active form

Most of active form in Sundanese verb are in their root verb like 'diuk' or 'dahar'. Some other depend on first phonem in root verb:

  1. first phoneme in 'd' is eliminated and changed to prefix 'nga' like in 'ngadahar'
  2. first phoneme in 'i' is eliminated and changed to prefix 'ng' like in 'nginum'
  3. first phoneme in 'b' is eliminated and changed to prefix 'm' like in 'maca'

Negation

"Abdi henteu acan neda". (I have not eaten yet.) Explanation: From the above example, "henteu" is used for negative term. "Buku abdi mah sanes nu ieu". (My book is not this one.) Explanation: From the above example, "sanes" is used for negative term.

Question

Dupi -(question)

example:saya

Polite-

Passive form

"Buku dibantun ku abdi". (The book is brought by me.) Explanation: "dibantun" (to be brought/passive) and "ngabantun" (active) The other examples: "Pulpen ditambut ku abdi". (The pen is borrowed by me.) "Soal ieu digawekeun ku abdi". (This problem is done by me.)

Adjectives

example:

teuas (hard), tiis (cool), hipu (soft), lada (hot, usually for foods), haneut (warm), etc.

Prepositions

Place

English Sundanese
(normal) 		Sundanese
(polite)
above .. diluhureun .. diluhureun ..
behind .. ditukangeun .. dipengkereun ..
under .. dihandapeun .. dihandapeun ..
inside .. di jero .. di lebet ..
outside .. di luar .. di luar ..
between ..
and .. 		di antara ..
jeung .. 		di antawis ..
sareng ..
front .. hareup .. payun ..
back .. tukang .. pengker ..

Time

English Sundanese
(normal) 		Sundanese
(polite)
before saacan sateuacan
after sanggeus saparantos
during basa nalika
past baheula kapungkur

Miscellaneous

English Sundanese
(normal) 		Sundanese
(polite)
from tina tina
for jang kanggo

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
  2. ↑ Karl Andebeck, 2006. 'An initial reconstruction of Proto-Lampungic'
  3. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Sundanese–Badui". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  4. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  5. ↑ Bennett, Wm. G. (2015). The Phonology of Consonants: Harmony, Dissimilation, and Correspondence. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. (Page 132).

External links

Sundanese edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Sundanese.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sundanese language.
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