Indonesian pronunciation is relatively straightforward, with just six vowels (compared to English’s 12) and 18 consonants. However, depending on your native language, certain aspects of Indonesian may be challenging. For example, Japanese speakers may find the /l/ sound difficult, Germans may struggle with the /j/, and native English speakers often have trouble rolling the /r/. English speakers also frequently mispronounce the /a/ sound, saying orang as if it rhymes with “slang” or pronouncing the “a” in Bali as in “ball.” However, the only correct pronunciation of “a” in Indonesian is like the “a” in “father.”
I can often identify someone’s origin based on their pronunciation or “accent.” This is completely normal, since achieving native-like pronunciation in a language learned as an adult is nearly impossible. So, if your pronunciation isn’t perfect, that’s okay. However, it’s important to aim for accurate pronunciation. To help you improve, we’ve developed a short, free course called “Mastering Indonesian Pronunciation”, which hopefully will assist you in achieving that goal.
Other Sources to improve your Pronunciation
We had a good search for valuable sites teaching Indonesian pronunciation, and were delighted when we found on youtube a video produced by the Australia Indonesia Institute. However, we were quite shocked. As this is Australian government funded, one would expect at least some quality control. They completely fail to recognise such a crucial phoneme as the Schwa [ǝ] and treat it as if it were the same as if it was [e]. Also, the letter <x>, is usually pronounced [ks] and not [s] as alleged in the video. They correctly state that the letter <g> is pronounced [g] as in ‘good’, and not like the <g> in ‘giant’. But then she pronounces the <g> in the example teknologi as it was pronounced as the <g> in ‘giant’.
Unfortunately, almost all videos that we found on youtube are similarly flawed. The only introduction to Indonesian pronunciation that is reliable is the one in Bahasakita. However, they come without audio support.