The weak and the strong e in Indonesian

The weak e

Indonesian has two distinct e sounds, even though the spelling system does not indicate the difference between them. The more frequent sound is the e-pepet, also known as the schwa or weak e, which is transcribed in the IPA as /ǝ/. It is pronounced like the a in “about,” the o in “lemon,” the e in “different,” or the y in “rhythm.” In German and Dutch, it sounds like the e in Berufe and Beroepen (‘jobs’).

Remember that in Indonesian, word stress normally falls on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable. However, if the penultimate syllable contains a schwa (transcribed here as ĕ), the stress shifts to the final syllable: kĕcil, bĕsar, kĕbun, bĕlum, tĕmpat, lĕbih. Other examples are sĕlamat, sĕkali, tĕrima, mĕmbaca, bĕrnama, bĕrasal, bĕlakang, pĕrĕmpuan, bĕrapa.

In many cases, the schwa is barely audible, especially when people speak quickly—as most Indonesians do. Instead of selamat, berapa, terima, and sekali, you will often hear /slamat/, /brapa/, /trima/, and /skali/.

The strong e

The second e sound is called e-taling (é) in Indonesian. In English, it is often referred to as the strong e. It is pronounced like the e in “bet” or “they,” or the a in “say.” In French, it resembles the second e in “entrée” or “été.” In Italian, it is pronounced like the e in “perché.” In German, it sounds like the e in Besen or like ee in See. In Dutch it sounds like ee in Zee, and in Japanese, it is similar to the e in neko (ねこ).

The e-taling is less common than the e-pepet (the schwa) and occurs in fewer than 30% of all cases.

Some examples of the “strong” e-taling are: énak, lébar, séng, gĕréja, témpé, soré, mérah.

It is very important to clearly distinguish between the pronunciation of weak e-pepet and strong e-taling. This is especially important for native speakers of languages that do not have a schwa at all, such as Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, and Mandarin.