Consonants

Vowels

Other symbols

Notes

1. ↑^{1.01.11.21.31.41.5}/p/, /t/, /k/ are unaspirated, as in the Romance languages, or as in English spy, sty, sky. In final position, they are unreleased [p̚, t̪̚, ʔ̚], with final k being a glottal stop. /b, d/ are also unreleased, and therefore devoiced, [p̚, t̚]. There is generally no liaison: they remain unreleased even when followed by a vowel, as in kulit ubi "potato skins", though they are pronounced as a normal medial consonant when followed by a suffix. However, liaison could occur occasionally.
2. ↑^{2.02.12.22.32.4}The fricatives [f, z, ʃ, x, ɣ] are found in loanwords only. Orthographic ‹v› is virtually always pronounced as [f] by native speakers instead of [v].
3. ↑^3.03.13.2The glottal stop [ʔ] is an allophone of /k/ and /ɡ/ in the coda: baik, bapak. It is also used between identical vowels in hiatus. Only a few words have this sound in the middle, e.g. bakso (meatballs) and rakyat (alternative word of 'people' or 'society'). It may be represented by an apostrophe in Arabic derived words such as Al Qur'an.
4. ^It is either an alveolar tap [ɾ] or trill [r] in Indonesian.
5. ↑^5.05.15.25.3The diphthongs /ai, au/, which only occur in open syllables, are often merged into [e, o], respectively, especially in Java.
6. ↑^{6.06.16.26.36.46.5}/e, i, o, u/ in Indonesian language have lax allophones [ɛ, ɪ, ɔ, ʊ] in closed final syllables, except that tense [i, u] occur in stressed syllables with a coda nasal, and lax [ɛ, ɔ] also occur in open syllables if the following syllable contains the same lax vowel. Allophones [ɪ, ʊ] sometimes merge with /e, o/.
7. ^The Indonesian /e/ doesn't quite line up with any English vowel, though the nearest equivalents are the vowel of clay (for most English dialects) and the vowel of get. The Indonesian vowel is usually articulated at a point between the two.
8. ^/a/ occasionally becomes [o] after emphatic consonants from Arabic loanwords, example:qari [kori].
9. ^The Indonesian /o/ doesn't quite line up with any English vowel, though the nearest equivalents are the vowel of sole (for most English dialects) and the vowel of raw. The Indonesian vowel is usually articulated at a point between the two.
10. ^Indonesian orthography does not distinguish between /ə/ and /e/ (termed aspepet andtaling in the Javanese and Balinese scripts), both are written as ⟨e⟩. However, this caused confusion among Bataks and eastern Indonesians, often merging them into /e/ or some other vowels in casual speech. In few words, such asesa, however, have their original pronunciations with /ə/ displaced by /e/.
11. ^Diphthongs are broken into vowel sequences in closed syllables (baik) and monosyllables (bau,tahu).
12. ↑^{12.012.112.212.312.4}The pronunciation with the lax allophone [ɪ] or [ʊ] only occurs in Indonesian.
13. ^Stress generally falls on the penultimate syllable. If that syllable contains a schwa [ə], stress shifts to the antepenult if there is one, and to the final syllable if there is not. Some suffixes are ignored for stress placement.