Bahasa is the word for language in Indonesian and Malay. Related words meaning language are also found in other languages.
Etymology
Bahasa comes from the Sanskrit word भाषा (bhāṣā).
See also
- Thai: phasa (phasa thai)
- Bangla Bhasha
- Oriya Bhasha
- Hindi, Telugu, Urdu (used colloquially), Malayalam: bhasha
- Tamil, Kannada: bhashay
- Basa Madhura
Usage
It is often incorrectly used in English to refer to Indonesian or Malay. The question "Do you speak Bahasa?" literally means "Do you speak language?" Indonesian officials abroad and some Indonesian civilians refer to the Indonesian language as Bahasa when speaking to non Indonesians. This is grammatically incorrect. When Indonesians refer to other languages such as English for example, the term is "Bahasa Inggris" literally "English (language)", "Bahasa Jawa" for Javanese, or "Bahasa Jepang" for Japanese and "Bhasha Bangla" for Bangla which means language.
