SUNDANESE LANGUAGE

Sundanese (Basa Sunda, literally "language of Sunda") is the language of about 27 million people from the western third of Java or about 15% of Indonesian population.

It is classified in Austronesian - Malayo-Polynesian - Western Malayo-Polynesian - Sundic language family and has several dialects based on the locations of the people:

• Banten,
• Bogor,
• Priangan, and
• Cirebon.

Priangan, which cover the most area of Sunda, is the main dialect of Sundanese language taught in elementary till junior-high schools (equivalent to ninth-year school grade).

Phonology

Currently, Sundanese is written in the Latin script and its orthography is highly phonetic. There are five pure vowel sounds: a (similar to the sound in bus), é (as in get), i (shorter than in eat), o (shorter than in dawn), u (as in put), and two neutral vowels like the second vowel of water which is spelled e, and eu (as 'eau' in plateau); and no diphthongs. The consonantal phonemes are rendered by the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c (pronounced like the ch in cheese), j, h, ng (which also occurs initially), ny (as in canyon), m, n, s (voiceless, as in sun or cats), w, l, r (trilled or flapped) and y. Other consonants that originally appear in Indonesian loanwords mostly transferred into main consonants: f -> p, v -> p, sy -> s, sh -> s, z -> j, and kh (as in loch) -> h.

Definition of Sundanese Phonology, according to Yayat Sudaryat (1985:26)says: "Fonologi nyaeta bagean tina elmu basa anu maluruh jeung medar sora-sora basa, prosesna, selang surupna, jeung parobahanana".

Phonologically, Sundanese have a similar number of consonants to English. There are 16 consonants in Sundanese phonology, according to Yayat Sudaryat (1991,35): "fonem konsonan (contoid) nya eta sora omongan (fonem) anu kawangun ku hawa anu kaluar tina bayah sarta waktu liwat tikoro aya nu ngahalangan. konsonan nu aya dina basa sunda, nyaeta: /b/, /ts/, /d/, /g/, /h/, /d3/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/, /n/, /t/, /n'/, kuayana pangaruh basa kosta sok kapanggih konsonan /f, v, z/ mangrupa fomem nu asalna pangaruh basa kosta, saperti dina kecap: fonem, qur'an, xerox, zakat".

Based on the statement above, it is clear that the Sundanese language has only 16 consonants, there are three consonants /f, v, z/ which exist in Sundanese as a result of borrowing words, but naturally they are not Sundanese consonants.

Furthermore, Sudaryat does not mention the phonemes /w, j/ as semi vowels, although as vowels, /w, j/ function as a glide sound between two different vowels, as in the words: Kueh - /ku w eh/ Muih - /mu w ih/ Bear - /be A ar/ Miang - Mi j an/

Phonemes /w/ ad /j/ function as glide sounds between two different vowels as i the words: wa - rung wa - yang ba - wang ha - yang ku - ya

Basic grammar

Root word

(to be written).

Active form

(to be written).

Negation

(to be written).

Question

(to be written).

Dupi -(question) example: Polite- Dupi Bapa aya di bumi? (is your father at home?) Dupi bumi di palih mana? (where do you live?)

Passive form

(to be written).

Adjectives

(to be written). example: teuas (hard), Tiis (cool), Hipu (soft), lada (hot, ussualy for foods), haneut (warm), etc.

Prepositions

Place

Time

Miscellaneous

Conjuctives

(to be written).

See also

• Kidung Sunda

External links

Sundanese language edition of Wikipedia

• ethnologue report on Sundanese