# Indonesian: accents



## Outsider

MarX said:


> In Indonesian:
> 
> *Bètlèhèm*


I'm curious: what does the grave accent represent in Indonesian?


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## MarX

Outsider said:


> I'm curious: what does the grave accent represent in Indonesian?


Hi Outs!

Actually we don't write them like that, I just use it here, or with foreigners in general, so that they know that the E is not pronounced like a schwa, but like Spanish E, or E in the English word _bet_.

Sometimes I also write é instead of è. In the case of Indonesian it doesn't really matter. More important is to distinguish it from the schwa sound.

Salam,


MarX


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## Outsider

Is the schwa also written with an "e" in Indonesian?


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## MarX

Outsider said:


> Is the schwa also written with an "e" in Indonesian?


Yes.

I may be wrong, but I have the impression that most E's in Indonesian, at least in the pronunciation pattern I grew up with, represent a schwa.

So the Indonesian I use -from Jakarta- basically has six vowels:
A
I
U
E: may represents schwa or è/é
O


Often, the A in the second syllable of the root word -which is bisyllabic- is also pronounced as a schwa. In this case I'd write *ä* (the Romanian *ă* would be perfect, but I don't want to copy & paste all the time).

Examples:
*bosän*, often pronounced -and informally written- as _bosen_
*cepät* => _cepet_
*pesän* => _pesen

_
HTH!


MarX


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## Outsider

That reminds me a bit of the spelling that Tolkien used to transcribe Quenya in _Lord of the Rings_.  
Thanks a lot for the explanation.


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## rasserie

in the malay language formally teached in schools, schwa is not recognised
we call this BAHASA BAKU.

however in everyday language, the schwa is almost always the very last syllable.

if the everyday malay language discards the usage of schwa at the last syllable, it will sound very much like bahasa indonesia.


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## rasserie

an example would be how an indonesian would pronounce the word BAHASA

and how someone who speak everyday malay would pronounce the word BAHASA

it means the same, spelled the same way but the last syllable is different.

if someone who speaks BAHASA BAKU to pronounce BAHASA, it sounds exactly the same as someone who pronounce BAHASA in BAHASA INDONESIA.


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