Indonesian language
Writing system

Indonesian is written with the Latin script. It was originally based on the Dutch spelling and still bears some similarities to it. Consonants are represented in a way similar to Italian, although ⟨ c ⟩ is always /tʃ/ (like English ⟨ ch ⟩), ⟨ g ⟩ is always /ɡ/ ("hard") and ⟨ j ⟩ represents /dʒ/ as it does in English. In addition, ⟨ ny ⟩ represents the palatal nasal /ɲ/, ⟨ ng ⟩ is used for the velar nasal /ŋ/ (which can occur word-initially), ⟨ sy ⟩ for /ʃ/ (English ⟨ sh ⟩) and ⟨ kh ⟩ for the voiceless velar fricative /x/. Both /e/ and /ə/ are represented with ⟨ e ⟩.

Spelling changes in the language that have occurred since Indonesian independence include:

Introduced in 1901, the van Ophuijsen system (named from the advisor of the system, Charles Adriaan van Ophuijsen) was the first standardization of romanized spelling. It was most influenced by the then current Dutch spelling system and based on the dialect of Malay spoken in Johor. In 1947, the spelling was changed into Republican Spelling or Soewandi Spelling (named by at the time Minister of Education, Soewandi). This spelling changed formerly spelled oe into u (however, the spelling influenced other aspects in orthography, for example writing reduplicated words). All of the other changes were a part of the Perfected Spelling System, an officially mandated spelling reform in 1972. Some of the old spellings (which were derived from Dutch orthography) do survive in proper names; for example, the name of a former president of Indonesia is still sometimes written Soeharto, and the central Java city of Yogyakarta is sometimes written Jogjakarta. In time, the spelling system is further updated and the latest update of Indonesian spelling system issued on 16 August 2022 by Head of Language Development and Fostering Agency decree No 0424/I/BS.00.01/2022.
detectable_format:number_highlighted_sections[6]