Bahasa Indonesia 101, part 2.

I have to do my math homework...but it's Saturday; I want to do nothing.
So, I log on to my blog instead. Sure, no big deal, rite?

One thing that I realize from writing my first post is that... people have to learn how we pronounce the tinee beeniee littlee syllables.

Well, in my last post, I wrote about how Indonesians pronounce the vocals: a,e,i,o,u.

So, it's about the time I tell you how to pronounce the consonants.

b- bhe
c- che
d- dhe
f- f (yes, it's completely similar)
g- ghe
h- hah
j- jay
k- kha
l- l (yep, no big deal)
m- m
n- n
o- o
p- phe
q- khi
r- errrrrrr (front e, roll your tongue, yesss, roll it fast, faster, FASTER. MUAHAHAHHAA)
s - esssssssss
t- te (open e/front e)
v- vhe
w- whe
x- ex
y- yhe
z- zhet

thus...
ba- bha/ be- bhe/ bi- bee/ bo- boh/ bu- boo
ca- cha/ ce- che/ ci- chee/ co- cho/ cu- coo
da- dha/ de- dhe/ di- dee/ do- doh/ du- doo
fa- fa / fe- fhe/ fi- fee/ fo- foh/ fu- foo
and so on...

Now, here is something weird about Bahasa:
the four random digraphs: ng, ny, kh, sy.
ng- eng
ny- nye
kh- khe
sy- sya

well, I definitely can't give equivalent sound produced for these four random digraphs in English pronunciation. I kinda can't think of a way.

hey, since these stuffs above are straight up boring, let's just dully memorize some stuffs without having to know how to pronounce it correctly!

I love Indonesia - Saya cinta Indonesia. (sha-yha chin-tha in-do-neh-see-ah)
The beaches are awesome - Pantainya mengagumkan. (phan-thai-nyah meng-nga-goom-khan)
How much does this cost? - Berapakah harganya/biayanya? (bhe-rha-pah-kah har-gha-nyah/ bee-ah-yah-nyah?)
Where is the nearest hotel? - Di manakah hotel terdekat? (dee-mah-nah-kah ho-tel ther-dhe-khat?)
Where is the nearest police station? - Di manakah pos polisi terdekat? (dee-mah-nah-kah pos pho-lee-see ther-dhe-khat?)
What is this? - Ini apa? (ee-nee ah-pha?)
We don't serve pork. We only serve chicken and beef. - Kami tidak menyajikan daging babi. Kami hanya menyajikan daging ayam dan sapi. (kha-mee tee-dhak mhe-nyah-gee-khan dha-ghing bha-bee. kha-mee hah-nyah mhe-nyah-gee-khan dha-ghing ah-yham dunn sha-pee)

This is kinda important.
In many languages, there are silent 'h' and super-strong 'h'.
Indonesians love strong 'h'.
So, h - the alphabet- is pronounced as just as h in help, but with super strong breathy h.
But well, it is kinda silent at the end of the word. Di manakah, for example, isn't pronounced with strong h; It kinda has silent h.

Oh, and while I'm writing this, I research on the internet and find something quite useful.
ch is pronounced in the similar manner as ch in cheap.
ng is pronounced in the similar manner as ng in sing.

Writing this tires me up, just saying.
It's just as tiring as trying to making me pronouncing 'th' in the right manner.

ps. this happens to be my 100th post. Cheers!

further references:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/indonesian.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/indonesian.php
http://www.angelfire.com/nt/teague/phrase.html