Ambon Creole ➞ English Dictionary

This dictionary contains only those words that differ from standard Indonesian, following the lists compiled by Takaria & Pieter (1998), Devin, and Pattiasina, with orthography standardised between the three. Stress tends to be noticeably on the penultimate syllable, which plays a significant part in producing the distinctive Ambon accent. Many words are derived from Indonesian by applying the following substitutions:

  • Initial -e, -er syllables in grammatical prefixes become -a

    • berdiri → badiri, terbakar → tabakar

  • Final -n, -m modifiers become -ng

    • teman → tamang, asam → asang

  • Final -k, -h modifiers are dropped

    • anak → ana, bersih → barsi

  • Final -u syllable becomes -o

    • arus → aros, mabuk → mabo

  • Initial -e, -er syllables more generally become -a

    • mesin → masing, lentera → lanterna

Plants

 Some species of plants.
2022-11-20
12 min read
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Animals

 Some species of animals, insects, birds, etc.
2022-11-19
5 min read
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Fish

 Common species of fish and other marine animals.
2022-11-18
8 min read
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Y

 Part of an ongoing series.
2022-10-10
1 min read
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W

 Part of an ongoing series.
2022-10-02
2 min read
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U

 Part of an ongoing series.
2022-09-29
3 min read
making