Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Malaysia And Indonesia

read http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=450324,


Malaysia and Indonesia can synergise their energies to play a bigger role on matters like the economy, climate change, disaster management and regional security, and even tourism...

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Asean trade routes

The first trade linkage will connect Da Nang, Trat, Mae Sod and Malamang. The second route will link Kanchanaburi and Dawei, where there will be a seaport connecting Asean, China and India. The third route will cover Yunnan, Bangkok and Singapore. 




 read more at http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/158016/thailand-china-to-press-on-with-logistics

Friday, October 16, 2009

Vietnamese language


Vietnamese (tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ[1]), formerly known under French colonization as Annamese (see Annam), is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of the Vietnamese people (người Việt or người Kinh), who constitute 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese, most of whom live in the United States. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. It is part of the Austroasiatic language family, of which it has the most speakers by a significant margin (several times larger than the other Austroasiatic languages put together).
Much vocabulary has been borrowed from Chinese, especially words that denote abstract ideas in the same way European languages borrow from Latin and Greek, and it was formerly written using the Chinese writing system, albeit in a modified format and was given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese writing system in use today is an adapted version of the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters.


Geographic distribution

As the national language of the majority ethnic group, Vietnamese is spoken throughout Vietnam by the Vietnamese people, as well as by ethnic minorities. It is also spoken in overseas Vietnamese communities, most notably in the United States, where it has more than one million speakers and is the seventh most-spoken language (it is 3rd in Texas, 4th in Arkansas andLouisiana, and 5th in California[2]). In Australia, it is the sixth most-spoken language.
According to the Ethnologue, Vietnamese is also spoken by substantial numbers of people in CambodiaCanadaChinaCôte d'IvoireCzech RepublicFinlandFranceGermanyLaos,Martinique, the NetherlandsNew CaledoniaNorway, the PhilippinesSenegalThailand, the United Kingdom, and Vanuatu.[3]

[edit]Genealogical classification

Vietnamese was identified more than 150 years ago[4] to be part of the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family (a family that also includes Khmer, spoken in Cambodia, as well as various tribal and regional languages, such as the Munda and Khasi languages spoken in eastern India, and others in southern China). Later, Mường was found to be more closely related to Vietnamese than other Mon-Khmer languages, and a Việt-Mường sub-grouping was established. As data on more Mon-Khmer languages were acquired, other minority languages (such as Thavưng, Chứt languages, Hung, etc.) were found to share Việt-Mường characteristics, and the Việt-Mường term was renamed to Vietic. The older term Việt-Mường now refers to a lower sub-grouping (within an eastern Vietic branch) consisting of Vietnamese dialects, Mường dialects, and Nguồn (of Quảng Bình Province).[5]

[edit]Language policy

While spoken by the Vietnamese people for millennia, written Vietnamese did not become the official administrative language of Vietnam until the 20th century. For most of its history, the entity now known as Vietnam used written classical Chinese for governing purposes, whereas written Vietnamese in the form of Chữ nôm was used for poetry and literature. It was also used for administrative purposes during the brief Ho and Tay Son Dynasties. During French colonialism, French superseded Chinese in administration. It was not until independence from France that Vietnamese was used officially. It is the language of instruction in schools and universities and is the language for official business.


History

It seems likely that in the distant past, Vietnamese shared more characteristics common to other languages in the Austroasiatic family, such as an inflectional morphology and a richer set of consonant clusters, which have subsequently disappeared from the language. However, Vietnamese appears to have been heavily influenced by its location in the Southeast Asian sprachbund, with the result that it has acquired or converged toward characteristics such as isolating morphology and tonogenesis. These characteristics, which may or may not have been part of proto-Austroasiatic, nonetheless have become part of many of the phylogenetically unrelated languages of Southeast Asia; for example, Thai (one of the Kradai languages), Tsat (a member of the Malayo-Polynesian group within Austronesian), and Vietnamese each developed tones as a phonemic feature, although their respective ancestral languages were not originally tonal.[citation needed] Presently, Vietnamese has similarities with both Chinese and French due to the influence of the French invasion.
The ancestor of the Vietnamese language was originally based in the area of the Red River in what is now northern Vietnam, and during the subsequent expansion of the Vietnamese language and people into what is now central and southern Vietnam (through conquest of the ancient nation of Champa and the Khmer people of the Mekong Delta in the vicinity of present-day Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), characteristic tonal variations have emerged.
Vietnamese was linguistically influenced primarily by Chinese, which came to predominate politically in the 2nd century B.C. With the rise of Chinese political dominance came radical importation of Chinese vocabulary and grammatical influence. As Chinese was, for a prolonged period, the only medium of literature and government, as well as the primary written language of the ruling class in Vietnam, much of the Vietnamese lexicon in all realms consists of Hán Việt (Sino-Vietnamese) words. In fact, as the vernacular language of Vietnam gradually grew in prestige toward the beginning of the second millennium, the Vietnamese language was written using Chinese characters (using both the original Chinese characters, called Hán tự, as well as a system of newly created and modified characters called Chữ nôm) adapted to write Vietnamese, in a similar pattern as used in Japan (kanji), Korea (hanja), and other countries in theSinosphere. The Nôm writing reached its zenith in the 18th century when many Vietnamese writers and poets composed their works in Chữ Nôm, most notably Nguyễn Du and Hồ Xuân Hương (dubbed "the Queen of Nôm poetry").
As contact with the West grew, the Quốc Ngữ system of Romanized writing was developed in the 17th century by Portuguese and other Europeans involved in proselytizing and trade in Vietnam. When France invaded Vietnam in the late 19th century, French gradually replaced Chinese as the official language in education and government. Vietnamese adopted many French terms, such as đầm (dame, from madame), ga (train station, from gare), sơ mi (shirt, from chemise), and búp bê (doll, from poupée). In addition, many Sino-Vietnamese terms were devised for Western ideas imported through the French. However, the Romanized script did not come to predominate until the beginning of the 20th century, when education became widespread and a simpler writing system was found more expedient for teaching and communication with the general population.


Vocabulary

As a result of a thousand years of Chinese occupation, much of the Vietnamese lexicon relating to science and politics is derived from Chinese. As much as 60%-70% of the vocabulary has Chinese roots, although many compound words are Sino-Vietnamese, composed of native Vietnamese words combined with Chinese borrowings. One can usually distinguish between a native Vietnamese word and a Chinese borrowing if it can be reduplicated or its meaning doesn't change when the tone is shifted. As a result of French colonization, Vietnamese also has words borrowed from the French language, for example cà phê (from French café). Nowadays, many new words are being added to the language's lexicon; these are either borrowed fromEnglish, for example TV (though usually seen in the written form as tivi), or are themselves inventions of the communists (the communist translation for television is truyền hình). Sometimes these borrowings are calques literally translated into Vietnamese (for example, consider how the communists have rendered the word 'software' into phần mềm, which literally means "soft part").






Indonesian language


Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia.ogg Bahasa Indonesia ) is the official national language of Indonesia. It is based on a version of Classical Malayof the Riau-Johor Sultanate[1]. It was first declared the official language with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, following the 1928 unifying-language declaration in the Indonesian Youth Pledge.
Almost all of Indonesia's 240 million inhabitants speak the language and it is one of the most spoken languages in the world.[2]Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are fluent in another regional language or local dialect (examples include Minangkabauvarieties of ChineseSundaneseJavanese and Balinese) that are commonly used at home and within the local community. Most formal education, as well as nearly all national media and other forms of communication, are conducted in Indonesian. In East Timor, which was annexed as an Indonesian province from 1975 to 1999, the Indonesian language is recognised by the constitution as one of two working languages (the other is English, alongside the official languages of Tetum andPortuguese).
The Indonesian name for the language is Bahasa Indonesia (lit. "the language of Indonesia"). This term can sometimes also be found in written or spoken English. In addition, the language is sometimes referred to as "Bahasa" by English speakers, though this simply means "language" and thus is also not an official term for the Indonesian language.


History

Indonesian is a normative form of the Malay language, an Austronesian (or Malayo-Polynesian) language that has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries. It was elevated to the status of official language with the Indonesian declaration of independence in 1945, drawing inspiration from the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth's Oath) event in 1928.[3]
The earliest known inscription in the Malay language dates back to the 7th century. Known as the Kedukan Bukit Inscription, it was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang (a tributary of the River Musi). It is a small stone, 45 cm by 80 cm in size.
Because of its origins, Indonesian (in its most standard form) is mutually intelligible with the official Malaysian Malay. However, it does differ from Malaysian Malay in some aspects, with differences in pronunciation, diction, spelling, accent and vocabulary. The grammar of Indonesian language is slightly more complex than Malaysian Malay's. These differences are mainly due to the Dutch and Javanese influences on Indonesian, and the English influence on Malaysian Malay.
Whilst Indonesian is spoken as a mother tongue (first language) by only a small proportion of Indonesia's large population [4] (i.e. mainly those who reside within the vicinity of Jakarta), over 200 million people regularly make use of the national language—some with varying degrees of proficiency. In a nation that boasts more than 300 native languages and a vast array of ethnic groups, the use of standard Indonesian (as opposed to Indonesian slang or regional dialects) is an essential[citation needed] means of communication across the archipelago. Use of the national language is abundant in the media, government bodies, schools, universities, workplaces, amongst members of the Indonesian upper-class or nobility and also in many other formal situations.
The standard, correct version of the Indonesian language is rarely used in daily communication. Standard Indonesian may be found in books and newspapers, or on television/radio news broadcasts, but few native Indonesian speakers use completely formally standard language in their daily conversations. While this is a phenomenon common to most languages in the world (for example, spoken English does not always correspond to written or prescriptive standards), the degree of compliance of spoken Indonesian, in grammar and vocabulary, with the written form of standard Indonesian is noticeably low. This is mostly due to the fact that most Indonesians tend to combine certain aspects of their own local languages (e.g. Javanese,SundaneseBalinese, and even Chinese dialects, particularly Hokkien) with Indonesian. The result is the creation of various types of regional Indonesian dialects. This phenomenon is exacerbated by the use of Indonesian slang, particularly in the cities. A classic example of a speaker of accented Indonesian is former president Suharto, whose Javanese accent came through whenever he delivered a speech.
The Dutch colonization left an imprint on the Indonesian language that can be seen in words such as polisi (police), kualitas/kwaliteit (quality), wortel (carrot), kamar (room, chamber),rokok (cigarette), korupsi (corruption), persneling (gear), kantor (office), and resleting (zipper). Alongside MalayPortuguese was the lingua franca for trade throughout the archipelago from the sixteenth century through to the early nineteenth century. Indonesian words derived from Portuguese include sabun (sabão, soap), meja (mesa, table), boneka (boneca, doll), jendela(janela, window), gereja (igreja, church), bendera (bandeira, flag) and Minggu (from domingo = Sunday).[5] Some of the many words of Chinese origin (with Hokkien/Mandarin pronunciations) include pisau (匕首 bǐshǒu - knife), loteng, (樓/層 = lóu/céng - [upper] floor/ level), mie (麵/miàn - noodles), lumpia (潤餅 (Hokkien = lūn-piáⁿ) - springroll), cawan, (茶碗 cháwǎn - teacup),teko (茶壺, teh-ko [Hokkien] = teapot) and even the widely used slang terms gua and lu (from the Hokkien 'goa' 我 and 'lu' 汝 - meaning 'I/ me' and 'you'). From Sanskrit came words such as kaca (glass, mirror), raja (king), manusia (mankind) b(h)umi (earth) and agama (religion). Words of Arabic origin include k(h)abar (أَخْبار, news), selamat/ salam (a greeting), dunia (دنيا, world), and kamus (قاموس, dictionary). There are also words derived from Javanese, e.g. aku (meaning I/ me (informal) and its derivative form, mengaku (to admit or confess). Through earlier influence of South Indian Tamil Chola empire that ruled over the region, many Tamil and Sanskrit words may be found in Indonesian such as kapal (ship in Tamil), kolam (lake in Tamil) and kedai (shop in Tamil).

[edit]Classification

The Malaysia language is part of the Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages. According to the Ethnologue, Indonesian is modelled after Riau Malay, a form of Old Malay originally spoken in Northeast Sumatra.[6]

[edit

Geographic distribution

The language is spoken throughout Indonesia (and East Timor), although it is used most extensively as a first language in urban areas and usually as a second or third language in more rural parts of Indonesia. It is spoken by an additional 1.5+ million people worldwide, particularly in the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Finally, it is used daily in some parts ofAustralia (mostly on Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands ), BruneiSingapore, some parts of Thailand ( Southern Thailand ), East TimorSaudi ArabiaSurinameNew Caledonia, and the United States.[7]



Vocabulary

Indonesian as a modern dialect of Malay has borrowed heavily from many languages, including: SanskritArabicPersianPortugueseDutchChinese and many other languages, including other Austronesian languages. It is estimated that there are some 7500 Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indonesian, 1,000 Arabic loans, some of Persian and Hebrew origin, some 125 words of Portuguese (also Spanish and Italian) origin and a staggering number of some 1,000 loan words from Dutch.[10] The latter also comprises many words from other European languages, which came via Dutch, the so-called International Vocabulary. The vast majority of Indonesian words, however, come from the root lexical stock of its Austronesian (incl. Old Malay) heritage.
Although Hinduism and Buddhism are no longer the major religions of Indonesia, Sanskrit, which was the language vehicle for these religions, is still held in high esteem and is comparable with the status of Latin in English and other Western European languages. Residents of Bali and Java tend to be particularly proud of the Hindu-Buddhist heritage. Sanskrit is also the main source for neologisms. These are usually formed from Sanskrit roots. The loanwords from Sanskrit cover many aspects of religionart and everyday life. The Sanskrit influence came from contacts with India long ago before the Common Era. The words are either directly borrowed from India or with the intermediary of the Old Javanese language. In the classical language of Java, Old Javanese, the number of Sanskrit loanwords is far greater. The Old Javanese—English dictionary by prof. P.J. ZoetmulderS.J. (1982) contains no fewer than 25,500 entries. Almost half are Sanskrit loan words. The loan words from Arabic are mainly concerned with religion, in particular with Islam, as can be expected. Allah is the word for God even in ChristianBible translations. Many early Bible translators, when they came across some unusual Hebrew words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer translations, this practice is discontinued. They now turn to Greek names or use the original Hebrew Word. For example, the name Jesus was initially translated as 'Isa for God in Sanskrit, but is now spelt as Yesus.Psalms used to be translated as Zabur, the Arabic name, but now it is called Mazmur, which corresponds more with Hebrew.
Loan words from Portuguese are common words, which were mainly connected with articles the early European traders and explorers brought to Southeast Asia. The Portuguese were among the first westerners to sail east to the "Spice Islands".
The Chinese loanwords are usually concerned with cuisine, trade or often just exclusively things Chinese. There is a considerable Chinese presence in the whole of Southeast Asia. According to the 2000 census, the relative number of people of Chinese descent in Indonesia is almost 1%, although this may likely be underestimated.
The former colonial power, the Netherlands, left an impressive vocabulary. These Dutch loan words, and also from other non Italo-Iberian, European languages loanwords that came via Dutch, cover all aspects of life. Some Dutch loan words, having clusters of several consonants, pose difficulties to speakers of Indonesian. This problem is usually solved by insertion of theschwa. For example Dutch schroef [ˈsxruf] → sekrup [səˈkrup].
As modern Indonesian draws many of its words from foreign sources, there are many synonyms, much like modern English. For example, Indonesian has three words for "book", i.e.pustaka (from Sanskrit), kitab (from Arabic) and buku (from Dutch). These words have, unsurprisingly, slightly different meanings. A pustaka is often connected with ancient wisdom, divine knowledge or sometimes with esoteric knowledge. A derived form, perpustakaan means a library. A kitab is usually a religious scripture or a book containing moral guidances. The Indonesian words for the Bible are Alkitab and Injil, both directly derived from Arabic. The book containing the penal code is also called the kitabBuku, from Dutch, is also a common word for books.
In addition to those above (and the borrowed words listed under the sub-heading History towards the top of this article), there are also direct borrowings from various other languages of the world, such as "karaoke" from Japanese, and "modem" from English.


Spoken & informal Indonesian

In very informal spoken Indonesian, various words are replaced with those of a less formal nature (e.g. tidak (no) is often replaced with the Betawi language's nggak whilst seperti (like, similar to) is often replaced with kayak (pronounced kaya)). As for pronunciation, the diphthongs ai and au on the end of base words are typically pronounced /e/ and /o/. In informal writing the spelling of words is modified to reflect the actual pronunciation in a way that can be produced with less effort. E.g.: capai becomes cape or capekpakai become pakekalau becomeskalo.
In verbs, the prefix me- is often dropped, although an initial nasal consonant is usually retained. E.g.: mengangkat becomes ngangkat (the basic word is angkat). The suffixes -kan and -iare often replaced by -in. E.g.: mencarikan becomes nyariinmenuruti becomes nurutin. The latter grammatical aspect is one often closely related to Indonesian found in Jakarta and surrounding areas.






read more at:  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language