The word bahasa is derived from Sanskrit bhāṣā and it has the same meaning as language, Sprache, taal, langue, la lengua etc.
In most Indian languages the word bhāṣā still has the same meaning. In Hindi, हिन्दी भाषा (Hindi bhāṣā) means ‘Hindi language’, but in English we typically simply call it ‘Hindi’, just as we call bahasa Indonesia ‘Indonesian’.
From the first milenium onwards, Southeast Asia underwent a strong Indian influence. Today, about 5% of all Indonesian words are of Sanskrit origin, and a few more are from Tamil and other Indian languages.
One of the words that were imported into Southeast Asian languages was the word bhāṣā. In some languages the word was pronounced and then also written as bhasa, basa, or phasa. In the Malay language (Indonesian and Malaysian), it became bahasa.
If you want to say ‘Dutch’, and you refer to the language, in Indonesian it must be preceded by bahasa: So Dutch is bahasa Belanda, Italian is bahasa Italia etc.
Many regional languages have there own word for ‘language’. The Batak language, for instance, is called hata Batak, the language of the Karo in North Sumatra is called cakap Karo. But there are also many languages that use the word bahasa or its variant basa:
Bahasa Melayu (Malay, widely spoken on Sumatra, Kalimantan, and the Malay peninsula)
Basa Jawa (Javanese, spoken in Central and East Java)
Basa Sunda (Sundanese, spoken in West Jawa)
Basa Bali (Balinese)
Bahasa Betawi (Jakarta Malay, also known as Omong Betawi)
Bahasa Papua (Papuan Malay, spoken along the coast of Indonesian-Papua)
Bahasa Manado (Manado Malay, spoken in North Sulawesi)
Bahasa Ciacia (Cia-Cia language, Sulawesi)
It is also used in other Southeast Asian countries:
Bahasa Sūg (Tausug, spoken in Sulu, Philippines)
Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysian)
Phiesa Khmae (Khmer or Cambodian)
Phasa Lao (Lao or Laotian)
Phasa Thai (Thai)
Myanma bhasa (Burmese)
Have you ever heard someone asking: “How do you say that in Bahasa?” A proper reply to this question would be “What bahasa?” And did you notice that they wrote bahasa with a capital B as if it was the name of the language. No, it’s not, and that’s why bahasa is never capitalised:
Many Uses of ‘bahasa’
Saya kira Anda tahu bahasa Jepang.
I thought you knew Japanese.
Mengapa bahasa Inggris sulit untuk dipelajari?
Why is English hard to learn?
Kamu tahu berapa bahasa?
How many languages do you speak?
Penutur bahasa Indonesia sudah mencapai 300 juta.
There are already 300 million speakers of Indonesian.
Di Indonesia ada dua bahasa isyarat.
There are two sign languages in Indonesian.
Anto pintar sekali. Dia tahu banyak bahasa komputer.
Anto is very smart. He knows many computer languages.
Dewi, bahasa ibunya bahasa Jawa.
Dewi’s mother tongue is Javanese.
Di Indonesia ada banyak ragam bahasa seperti bahasa pers dan bahasa percakapan.
In Indonesia, there are many varieties of language such as media language and conversational language.
Aku nggak suka kalau orang pakai bahasa gado-gado.
I don’t like it when people use mixed language.
Gado-gado is a salad made with a mix of various vegetables. In Malaysia, mixing languages such as English and
Malaysian is known as bahasa rojak. Rojak, in Indonesian called rujak, is a sweet and spicy salad made with unripe fruits.
Bahasa Tarzan
And then, there is, of course bahasa Tarzan:
Waktu di Mesir, terpaksa saya memakai bahasa Tarzan karena tidak tahu bahasa Arab.
When I was in Egypt, I had to resort to Tarzan language because I didn’t know Arabic.
“Bahasa Tarzan” is a colloquial term used to describe a simplified or broken form of language, often used when someone is unable to speak a particular language fluently. It refers to a basic or rudimentary form of communication, akin to how the fictional character Tarzan communicates in simplified terms in movies and books. It implies a lack of proficiency in the language being spoken.
Remember what George Quinn, the original author of The Indonesian Way said about using the word bahasa:
“In 1928 the Indonesian nationalist movement chose Malay as the future nation’s national language. Its name was changed to bahasa Indonesia, literally: the language (bahasa) of Indonesia. In English we call the language Indonesian: it is not correct to call it simply Bahasa.”