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

T

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2022-09-26
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S

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2022-09-23
14 min read
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R

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2022-09-20
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P

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2022-09-17
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O

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2022-09-14
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N

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2022-09-12
4 min read
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