Notes on Indonesian Pronunciation, Stress and Grammar

1. Pronunciation

Notes

• In Indonesian p t k care unaspirated, meaning they are produced without a strong burst of air.
• k at the end of words, for instance in the word duduk 'to sit' is a glottal stop like the sound that occurs in 'uh-oh.'
• q occurs on words mostly borrowed from Arabic, however, Indonesian speakers usually pronounce q with k like in 'skate.'
• ris pronounced with a trill (rolling 'r').
• v occurs in loan words (words borrowed from other languages) but is usally pronounced with 'f.'
• x occurs in loan words but is usually pronounced with 's.'
• z occurs in loan words but is usually pronounced with 'j.'

2. Word Stress

• For more than one syllable word the stress falls on the second to the last syllable of a word. When that syllable carries a weak vowel, for instance a schwa (?) (in 'but'), the stress will fall on the last syllable. Stress syllables are written in capital letters.

3. Brief Notes on Grammar

• Word order for Noun Phrases:
• Modifiers (e.g. noun, adjective and personal pronouns, etc.) come after head  nouns.

Tense is not marked in the verbs. Tense and aspect are marked by independent words (adverbs of time, auxiliaries/time markers, etc.) or determined by contexts.

• Common sentences consist of a subject and a predicate.

Source: John Wolff,  et.al. Beginning Indonesian through Self Instruction, 1992