There are number of Indonesian language like Bahasa, Sudanese and Javanese. Researches show that there are about seven forty two languages in Indonesia. The numbers of living languages in Indonesia are 737 and three are extinct. The languages of Indonesia mostly fall in the category of Austronesian languages which are also in practice in the other south East Asian countries. The official language or lingua franca of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia which means ‘Language’ in Indonesian. This language was given the official status when the country gained independence in 1945. This language is gradually gaining ground towards becoming one of the most spoken languages in the entire world.
Languages in Indonesia are not limited to the Malay languages or indigenous tribal dialects but the European languages like Portuguese, Tetum and English are also commonly used around the country. The regional dialect which is spoken all over Indonesia is sometimes referred to as Indonesian slang. There is no use of grammatical gender in Indonesian Bahasa. The language of Indonesia has uncanny similarity with other Asian languages like Burmese, Chinese and Bengali. Like these languages measure words are also in vogue in Bahasa. The dialect has been influenced by various languages like Chinese, Dutch, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. The influence of the two religions on the Indonesian culture from the ancient era is behind the influence of Sanskrit in the language. The alphabets used in Indonesian Bahasa are Latin. All forms of education and government work are done in Bahasa and its official status in Indonesia is not just in name.
