Bahasa Indonesia is cool as Hell from a consistency standpoint.

[elizafox@social.treehouse.systems]

Bahasa Indonesia is cool as Hell from a consistency standpoint. I don’t know why it doesn’t get pointed to as a language that’s easy for people to learn.

It’s very logically consistent. It’s like Toki Pona but with a real vocabulary.

No grammatical gender. Nouns are nouns.

No case system. Prepositions and word order do the job and it works the same way *every time.*

No verb conjugation by person or number. “I eat” / “you eat” / “they eat” = “makan.” Same verb. You just use context or a pronoun (most of the time you don’t even need it). Oh, and the pronouns are always the same. Saya makan = I eat. Saya minum = I drink. Kamu makan = you eat. kami = exclusive we (us but not you), kita = inclusive we (us and you).

Instead of using “you”, it will use titles or even your name. It is totally normal to say “Elly mau kopi?” to mean “do you (Elly) want coffee?” Yes even to friends.

If tense matters? You add a marker. sedang = right now (saya sedang makan = I’m eating right now), sudah = have done so (saya sudah makan = I have eaten, etc.) and it is always the same. Always.

There are affixes before words (me-, di-, ber-, ter-)… but they are consistent, the same always, and carry meaning. For example, me- marks a specific actor. “Saya memakan nasi” = “I eat rice.” It shows intentional action. It does assimilate into words a bit (minor sound mutation) but that’s more preventing your mouth from making awkward noises than complication and it’s easy to figure out and you get used to it fast.

I don’t know why this language isn’t taught more. It should be.