Last updated on December 8, 2021
Letter C
Do you know how to Pronounce ‘C’ in Sambal ABC, the chilli sauce? For the most part the spelling of Indonesian is regular and fairly faithfully follows the sounds of the language. But there is one letter in Indonesian that represents a different sound from what is usually represented by the same letter in English. The Indonesian letter “c” stands for the sound /ch/ as in the English words “cheese”, “church” etc.
So the Indonesian word Cina (China) is pronounced /CHEE.nā/ (not /KEE.nā/ or /SEE.nā). And the word Prancis (France) is pronounced /p’RĀN.chees/ (not /p’RĀN.kees/ or /p’RĀN.sees/).
Another examples:
- cuci (to wash) is pronounced /CHOO.chee/
- cucu (grandchild) is pronounced /CHOO.choo/
- cari (to look for) is pronounced /CHĀ.ree/
Dutch-style Pronunciation
It is still quite common to hear variant pronunciations of some letters. The letter C is still quite often pronounced like “say” as it used to be before the spelling reform of 1972.
The term WC (a toilet) is still widely pronounced “way say” rather than “way chay” (although the latter pronunciation is sometimes heard too). Similarly the term AC (air conditioning) is usually pronounced “ah say”.
Until now you will still hear people pronounce popular ABC’s products, such as, syrup, kecap (sweet soy sauce), saus tomat (tomato ketchup) and sambal (hot chili sauce) as Sambal “aah bay say” rather than Sambal “ah bay chay”.
Sometimes too you hear people use “ee grek” for the letter Y and “koo” for the letter Q. But these are exceptions for noting only. Apart from saying “way say” and “ah say” you probably won’t need to practise using them.
The Indonesian alphabet, with its combination of Arabic terminology and European letters that are pronounced Dutch-style, preserves a memory of the history of literacy in Indonesia.
Contributed . by: Dr. Uli Kozok, Indonesian Way, and Ms. Iem Brown
About the author: Dr. Uli Kozok is the professor at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, USA. He is a German philologist who rocked the world of ancient linguistics and history in Indonesia when he discovered an ancient Malay manuscript in Kerinci, Jambi, in 2002. Uli has been one of the expert contributors for Bahasa Kita since 2007.
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