REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA -- Expert language from State University of Surabaya, Suhartono said, that Bahasa Indonesia is potential to become ASEAN language in the era of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

"There are two languages that could potentially become ASEAN languages, namely Bahasa Indonesia and Malay," said lecturer at Faculty of Indonesian Language and Literature, in Surabaya, Friday (8/1).

However, he believed Bahasa Indonesia is more potential than the Malay, because it requires at least four scientific arguments, although the government still needs to do diplomacy.

"The four arguments are Bahasa Indonesia has been studied in many countries and part vocabulary in Bahasa Indonesia has also widely known in the language of the ASEAN countries," he explained.

He continued, the use of Bahasa Indonesia in ASEAN level has reached 60 percent. Moreover, vocabularies in language of ASEAN countries are mostly similar, for example "candra" in Cambodian means "moon" in Bahasa Indonesia and "suwarna" in Thailand language means "gold" in Bahasa Indonesia (Java language).

"Bahasa Indonesia has also been studied in Japan, Australia, and other countries in the world," Suhartono added.

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