silewp2010 005.

Papuan Colloquial Indonesian
Phil Fields

SIL International
2010

SIL Electronic Working Papers 2010-005, September 2010
©Phil Fields and SIL International
All rights reserved

Abstract
This paper describes the informal or colloquial register used in the Papua province of Indonesia. This
is the middle of three registers, between Standard Indonesian (the government sanctioned formal or
“high” language) and Papuan Malay. Previous to this article, almost nothing has been written about
Papuan Colloquial Indonesian, while the lowest register (Papuan Malay) has been the subject of
many short articles and several important descriptions will soon appear. (Standard Indonesian is, of
course, very well described.) This has led some to the false impression that there are only two
registers in Papua, Standard Indonesian and Papuan Malay. In reality, the situation in Papua
is analogous to the three registers found in the western part of the country in Jakarta and Riau,
which have been well described. Papuan Colloquial Indonesian (PCI) fits several patterns found in
the other two dialects. The most significant difference between PCI and the other described

colloquial Indonesian dialects is that PCI has not developed alternative verb affixation to replace
Standard Indonesian meng-, but rather simply drops many prefixes. This paper also shows
differences between PCI and Papuan Malay.

ii

Contents
Abstract
1. The language situation in Papua
2. Vowel changes
3. Dropping of ‘h’
4. Differences in affixation
5. Factors influencing the use of prefixes in PCI
6. Use of helping verbs to replace prefixes
7. Papuan CI vocabulary as compared to SI
8. PCI contrasted with Papuan Malay
9. Sample text in Colloquial Papuan Indonesian
Appendix
References with annotations:
For further reading:

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