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)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian Malayo-Sumbawan ? Lampung–Sunda? Sundanese
Writing system	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

A Sundanese lontar manuscript written in Sundanese script.

Sundanese /sʌndəˈniːz/ (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:

• Western dialect, spoken in the provinces of Banten & some parts of Lampung,
• Northern dialect, spoken in Bogor & northern coastal area of West Java,
• Southern or Priangan dialect (Bandung & its surroundings),
• Mid-east dialect, spoken in Majalengka & Indramayu,
• Northeast dialect, spoken in Kuningan, Cirebon & Brebes (Central Java),
• Southeast dialect, spoken in Ciamis, Banjar & Cilacap (Central Java).

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 /s/, 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:

• kuéh - /kuwɛh/
• muih - /muwih/
• béar - /bejar/
• miang - /mijaŋ/

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

• wa - rung
• wa - yang
• ba - wang
• ha - yang
• ku - ya

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.

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-

• Dupi Bapa aya di bumi? (is your father at home?)
• Dupi bumi di palih mana? (where do you live?)

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

Languages Spoken in Java

Sundanese dictionary

Habib Usman bin Yahya wrote an Arabic-Malay-Sundanese dictionary called Kamus kecil Arabic: قاموس كچيل‎‎] with all three languages written in the Arabic script.

Arabic]: قاموس كچيل‎‎] (Arabic: قاموس عربية ملايو سوندا‎‎ an Arabic, Malay, Sundanese dictionary) by ʻUthmān ibn ʻAbdallāh ibn ʻAqīl ibn Yaḥyā al-ʻAlawī (born 1822- died 1914) Kamus kecil Arabic: قاموس كچيل‎‎ (Arabic: قاموس عربية ملايو سوندا‎‎ an Arabic, Malay, Sundanese dictionary) by ʻUthmān ibn ʻAbdallāh ibn ʻAqīl ibn Yaḥyā al-ʻAlawī (born 1822- died 1914)

See also

• Kidung Sunda
• Sundanese alphabet
• Sundanese (Unicode block)

External links

• Sundanese-Indonesian and Indonesian-Sundanese Dictionary
• Sundanese converter Latin-Sudanese script (Aksara Sunda)
• Indonesian-Sundanese Translator

• http://unicode-table.com/en/sections/sundanese/