Are Indonesian language and Malay simular?

[Sandman77]

Traveling in Indonesia and across Malaysia the last to years , some words I read on traffic sign are similar

For example awas , mean be carfull, Iam not sure how many words are similar?

[metisdead]

Moved to the Southeast Asia forum as that is where is Indonesia and Malaysia are.

[jbaldwin]

Indonesian is based on the dialect of Malay spoken in Malacca, which was the first Dutch colony in the area.

Malaysian and Indonesian speakers can understand each other but there are major spelling difference. The English and Dutch transliteration for the original script is very different.

Javanese is the native language of more Indonesians than Indonesian.

[Sandman77]

Thx for info , I visit malakka also

Amazing buildings and many Chinese wholesale shops, and Christian Portuguese there houser have all a big Jesus cross on the front in Portuguese village!

[KED]

Yes, Malay and Indonesians share a large percentage of common language -

In addition, some Tagalog (Filipino) words and Indonesian are the same also - but not nearly to the extent of Malay/Indonesian

common words include:

Buka - open Lima - five Lelaki - male Kanan - right