Sundanese language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sundanese
Basa Sunda ᮘᮞ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ بَاسَا سُوْندَا
The word Sunda written in the Sundanese script
Pronunciation	(dialectal)
Native to	Indonesia
Region	West Java, Banten, Jakarta, small parts of western Central Java, and southern Lampung
Ethnicity	Sundanese Baduy Bantenese Cirebonese Benteng Chinese
Native speakers	32 million  (2015)e27
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Sundanese
Early forms:	Old Sundanese Classical Sundanese Sundanese
Standard forms	Priangan Sundanese
Dialects	Baduy (sometimes seen as a separate language) Banten Banyumas (no longer spoken) Northern Coast Priangan Central–Eastern
Writing system	Latin script (most common today) Sundanese script (also used today) Pégon script (used for religious writing) Old Sundanese script (used long ago)
Official status
Regulated by	Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa Lembaga Basa jeung Sastra Sunda [id]
Linguasphere	31-MFN-a
Areas where most people speak Sundanese      Areas with many Sundanese speakers      Areas with some Sundanese speakers
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

A map showing where the Sundanese language is spoken in Indonesia.

Sundanese (pronounced sun-duh-NEEZ) is a language spoken by about 32 million people, mainly in the western part of the island of Java in Indonesia. The people who speak it are called the Sundanese. They make up about 15% of Indonesia's total population, making Sundanese one of the country's most spoken languages!

Where Does Sundanese Come From?

Sundanese is part of the Austronesian language family. This is a huge family of languages spoken across a vast area, from Madagascar in Africa to Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.

Linguists (people who study languages) believe Sundanese is closely related to Malay and other languages spoken on the island of Borneo. They figured this out by noticing that these languages share many similar words.

Who Speaks Sundanese and Where?

A map of the different dialects of Sundanese spoken across several provinces in Indonesia.

Sundanese is mostly spoken in the western part of Java, an area often called Tatar Sunda or Pasundan. It's also spoken in parts of Central Java, like the Brebes and Cilacap regions. This is because ancient Sundanese kingdoms once ruled these areas. You can still find many place names there that come from the Sundanese language.

For hundreds of years, Sundanese was the official language of powerful kingdoms like Tarumanagara, Sunda, and Galuh. During this time, the language was used for everything from government to art and daily life. Many old books and stone carvings were written in an early form of Sundanese.

Today, Sundanese speakers are not just in Java. Many have moved to other parts of Indonesia and even to other countries like Taiwan, Japan, and Australia.

Different Ways of Speaking Sundanese

Like many languages, Sundanese has several dialects. A dialect is a version of a language spoken in a particular area. The main dialects of Sundanese are:

• Western dialect: Spoken in the province of Banten.
• Northern dialect: Spoken in areas like Bogor and the northern coast of West Java.
• Southern (Priangan) dialect: This is the most widely spoken dialect. It's used in cities like Bandung and Tasikmalaya. This is the version of Sundanese that is taught in schools.
• Mid-east dialect: Spoken in places like Cirebon and Majalengka.
• Northeast dialect: Spoken in Kuningan and Brebes.
• Southeast dialect: Spoken in Ciamis and Cilacap.

Even though these dialects sound a bit different, speakers can usually understand each other.

How to Write in Sundanese

The word "Sunda" written in several different scripts that have been used for the language.

The Sundanese language has been written in several different alphabets, or scripts, over the centuries.

• Old Sundanese Script: This was one of the earliest scripts used for the language. It was used to write important old texts on palm leaves.
• Pegon Script: When Islam arrived in the region, a version of the Arabic script called Pegon was used, especially for writing about religion.
• Latin Script: After Europeans came to Indonesia, the Latin alphabet (the same one used for English) became common. Today, most Sundanese books, newspapers, and websites are written in the Latin script.
• Standard Sundanese Script: In recent years, there has been a big effort to bring back the traditional Sundanese script. You can now see it used on road signs and in public places in West Java and Banten.

The Sundanese Latin Alphabet

The modern Sundanese alphabet uses Latin letters. It's mostly phonetic, meaning the letters usually make the same sound. It includes some special letters for sounds not found in English, like é, e, and eu.

Polite vs. Casual: Choosing Your Words

The first page of an old manuscript called Carita Waruga Guru, written in the Old Sundanese script and language.

A very interesting feature of Sundanese is its system of speech levels. This means you use different words depending on who you are talking to and how much respect you want to show. It's a way of being polite.

In the past, there were many levels, but today it has been simplified to two main ones:

• Basa Hormat (Respectful Language): This is the polite and formal way to speak. You would use it when talking to older people, teachers, or people you don't know well.
• Basa Loma (Casual Language): This is the everyday, informal language you use with friends and family. Most books and magazines are written in Basa Loma.

For example, if you want to say "read," you would say maca to a friend (loma), but you would say maos to a teacher (hormat). Choosing the right level is an important part of speaking Sundanese correctly.

A Quick Look at Sundanese Grammar

Grammar is the set of rules for how a language works. Here are a few fun facts about Sundanese grammar.

Making Words Plural

In English, we usually add an "-s" to make a word plural (like "cat" becomes "cats"). Sundanese does something different and very cool! It adds a small piece, called an infix, inside the word. The infix is usually -ar-.

For example:

• Budak means "child."
• Barudak means "children." The -ar- is placed after the first letter.

If the word starts with "l" or has an "r" in it, the infix changes to -al-.

• Lumpat means "run."
• Lalumpat means "they run" (plural).

Basic Words

Here are some common words in Sundanese. Notice how some words have a casual (loma) and a polite (lemes) form.

Numbers

Learning to count is a great way to start with any language.

See also

• Sundanese alphabet
• Sundanese (Unicode block)
• Sundanese Wednesday