Sundanese appears to be most closely related to Madurese and Malay, and more distantly related to Javanese. It has several dialects, conventionally described according to the locations of the people:
Western dialect, spoken in the provinces of Banten and some parts of Lampung;
Northern dialect, spoken in Bogor, and northwestern coastal areas of West Java;
The Priangan dialect, which covers the largest area where Sundanese people lives, is the most widely spoken type of Sundanese language, taught in elementary till senior-high schools in West Java and Banten Province.
Writing
The language has been written in different writing systems throughout history. The earliest attested documents of the Sundanese language were written in the Old Sundanese script. After the arrival of Islam, the Pegon script is also used, usually for religious purposes. The Latin script then began to be used after the arrival of Europeans. In modern times, most of Sundanese literature is written in Latin. The regional government of West Java and Banten are currently promoting the use of Standard Sundanese scriptin public places and road signs. The Pegon script is still used mostly by pesantrens in West Java and Banten or in Sundanese Islamic literature.
Phonology
Sundanese orthography is highly phonemic.
Vowels
There are seven vowels: a, é, i, o, u, e, and eu.
Consonants
According to Müller-Gotama there are 18 consonants in the Sundanese phonology:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ; however, influences from foreign languages have introduced several additional consonants such as,, . The consonantal phonemes are transcribed with the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c, j, h, ng, ny, m, n, s, w, l, r, and y. Other consonants that originally appear in Indonesian loanwords are mostly transferred into native consonants: f → p, v → p, sy → s, sh → s, z → j, and kh → h. There are and as semi vowels, they function as glide sound between two different vowels, as in the words:
kuéh -
muih -
béar -
miang -
Phonemes and function as glide sounds between two different vowels as in the words:
wa - rung
wa - yang
ba - wang
ha - yang
ku - ya
Register
Sundanese has an elaborate system of register distinguishing two basic levels of formality: kasar and lemes. For many words, there are distinct kasar and lemes forms, e.g. arek vs. bade "want", maca vs. maos "read". In the lemes level, some words further distinguish humble and respectful forms, the former being used to refer to oneself, and the latter for the addressee and third persons, e.g. rorompok " house" vs. bumi " house". Similar systems of speech levels are found in Javanese, Madurese, Balinese and Sasak.
Grammar
Root word
Root verb
Plural form
Other Austronesian languages commonly use reduplication to create plural forms. However, Sundanese inserts the ar infix into the stem word. If the stem word starts with l, or contains r following the infix, the infix ar becomes al. Also, as with other Sundanese infixes, if the word starts with vowel, the infix becomes a prefix. Examples:
Mangga A, tarahuna haneut kénéh. "Please sir, the bean curds are still warm/hot." The plural form of tahu 'bean curd, tofu' is formed by infixing ar after the initial consonant.
Barudak leutik lalumpatan. "Small children running around." Barudak "children" is formed from budak with the ar infix; in lumpat the ar infix becomes al because lumpat starts with l.
Ieu kaén batik aralus sadayana. "All of these batik clothes are beautiful." Formed from alus with the infix ar that becomes a prefix because alus starts with a vowel. It denotes the adjective "beautiful" for the plural subject/noun.
Siswa sakola éta mah balageur. "The students of that school are well-behaved." Formed from bageur with the infix ar, which becomes al because of r in the root, to denote the adjective "well-behaved" for plural students.
However, it is reported that this use of al instead of ar does not to occur if the 'r' is in onset of a neighbouring syllable. For example, the plural form of the adjective curiga is caruriga and not *caluriga, because the 'r' in the root occurs at the start of the following syllable. The prefix can be reduplicated to denote very-, or the plural of groups. For example, "bararudak" denotes many, many children or many groups of children. Another example, "balalageur" denotes plural adjective of "very well-behaved".
Active form
Most active forms of Sundanese verbs are identical to the root, as with diuk "sit" or dahar "eat". Some others depend on the initial phoneme in the root:
Initial,,,,,,,,, can be put after prefix nga like in ngadahar.
Initial,,,, can be put after prefix ng like in nginum "drink".
Negation
Abdi henteuacan neda. "I have not eaten yet." Buku abdi mah sanés nu ieu. "My book is not this one."
Question
Dupi - example:saya Polite-
Dupi Bapa aya di bumi? "Is your father at home?"
Dupi bumi di palih mana? "Where do you live?"
Interrogatives
Passive form
Buku dibantun ku abdi. "The book is brought by me." Dibantun is the passive formngabantun "bring". Pulpen ditambut ku abdi. "The pen is borrowed by me." Soal ieu digawekeun ku abdi. "This problem is done by me."
