Symbols
73Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Alphabet
The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet in dictionary order, as Minangkabau writes them, with its own spelling conventions. No letter carries an accent; F, Q, V, X and Z appear mainly in loanwords and names, and ng, ny, sy and kh are written with two letters.
Punctuation
The apostrophe appears in Arabic loanwords such as Assalamu'alaikum; the hyphen joins doubled words (rumah-rumah). Quotation marks are written “like this” and ‘like this’, as in Indonesian.
Where it's spoken
Indonesia, above all West Sumatra; in Malaysia the Malay of Negeri Sembilan descends from the speech of Minangkabau settlers.
Minang life in emoji
The buffalo of the name, Padang food, the mosque and the volcanoes of the highlands, rice fields and pacu jawi cattle races, drum and saluang flute, and the suitcase of the man who goes merantau.
On the map
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The Minangkabau alphabet: A–Z with no accents
Minangkabau (Bahaso Minang or Baso Minang) is written today in the Latin alphabet, in the order A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, using Minangkabau spelling conventions. Unlike its neighbours Acehnese or Balinese, it needs no marked vowels: none of its letters carries an accent, so a standard keyboard and phone already have everything. F, Q, V, X and Z turn up mainly in loanwords and names.
As in Indonesian and Malay, some sounds are written with two letters: ng as in Minang and gadang (big), ny as in banyak (many), and sy and kh in words taken from Arabic, such as syarak (Islamic law). A final k is usually said as a glottal stop, the catch in the throat between the two halves of English 'uh-oh', so indak (no, not) ends in a catch rather than a k.
How Minangkabau spelling differs from Indonesian
Minangkabau and Indonesian are close relatives, and many words differ in regular ways that the spelling shows plainly. Many Minang words end in -o where Indonesian has -a: apo (what; Indonesian apa), namo (nama), tarimo kasih (thank you; terima kasih). Minang -eh matches Indonesian -as (ateh, above, for atas; paneh, hot, for panas).
Minang final -ia and -ua match Indonesian -ir and -ur (aia, water, for air; talua, egg, for telur), and many Minang final syllables carry a glide, as in baiak (good; Indonesian baik), putiah (white; putih) and salamaik (selamat). The name itself follows the pattern: Indonesian kerbau, buffalo, is Minang kabau. Other words are simply different: ambo for I, gadang for big, urang for person.
Punctuation and how to type it
Minang punctuation follows Indonesian: full stops and commas, quotation marks written “like this”, and a hyphen for doubled words such as rumah-rumah (houses). The apostrophe appears in Arabic loanwords and greetings such as Assalamu'alaikum; either the straight ' or the curly ’ that word processors produce is fine. Prices are written in Indonesian rupiah as Rp with a dot for thousands (Rp 25.000); the rupiah has no symbol of its own in Unicode.
Every letter is on the keyboard already. For the curly marks on Windows, hold Alt and type on the number pad: ‘ Alt0145, ’ Alt0146, “ Alt0147, ” Alt0148. On a Mac, Option[ gives “, ShiftOption[ gives ”, Option] gives ‘ and ShiftOption] gives ’. On phones, hold the ' or " key to pick the curly form. In HTML the entities are ‘, ’, “ and ”.
Where Minangkabau is spoken, and its Jawi past
Minangkabau is the language of the Minang people of West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) in Indonesia , around Padang, Bukittinggi and the highland valleys, and of neighbouring parts of Riau and Jambi. It has an estimated 8.4 million speakers, and many more Minang live far from home: the custom of merantau (Minang marantau), young men leaving to make their way in other cities, has carried the language and the Padang restaurant to Jakarta, Medan and across the region. Nearly all speakers also use Indonesian.
In Malaysia , Minangkabau migrants settled in the state of Negeri Sembilan; it has a distinct Malay dialect, and its matrilineal custom, Adat Perpatih, reflects Minangkabau heritage. Before the Latin alphabet, Minangkabau was written in Jawi, the Arabic-based script of Malay; the tambo chronicles and kaba stories survive in Jawi manuscripts. See the Malay (Arabic) collection for its letters, and the Indonesian, Malay, Acehnese and Javanese collections for the languages around it.
Minangkabau emoji: buffalo, rendang and rumah gadang
The water buffalo is the emblem of the Minang. A well-known legend says the name comes from menang kabau, 'the winning buffalo', after a buffalo fight that settled a war with a Javanese army; the upswept, horn-like roof peaks (gonjong) of the rumah gadang, the great family house, and the horned headdress of women at ceremonies are often said to echo its horns. There is no emoji for the rumah gadang itself, so people write the word beside or .
Food is the other big one. Rendang, beef simmered for hours in coconut milk and chilli until it is dark and dry, comes from Minangkabau cooking, and nasi Padang , rice with many dishes set out on the table, is served in Padang restaurants all over Indonesia. Islam is central to Minang life , summed up in the saying adat basandi syarak, syarak basandi Kitabullah (custom rests on Islamic law, and the law on the Book of God). The highlands are ringed by volcanoes such as Marapi and Singgalang, with rice fields between them, where the pacu jawi cattle races are run through muddy paddies. The saluang bamboo flute and drums accompany randai, the theatre that mixes song, story and silek martial arts.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyMinangkabau Alphabet & Language combos
12Worth knowing
- The Minangkabau are often described as the largest matrilineal society in the world: clan identity, land and the rumah gadang pass down through the maternal line, while a mother's brother, the mamak, guides her children.
- Rendang, the Minang dish of beef slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices, came first in a 2011 CNN readers' poll of the world's most delicious foods.
- Several founders of modern Indonesia were Minang, among them Mohammad Hatta, the country's first vice-president, born in Bukittinggi, and the writer and cleric Hamka.
- The Minangkabau Wikipedia is one of the larger Wikipedias by article count; a batch of about 200,000 articles was created by a bot, including entries on species.
Questions people ask
8What is the Minangkabau alphabet?
Minangkabau uses the Latin A–Z in the order A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, with its own spelling conventions. There are no accented letters; ng, ny, sy and kh each stand for one sound, and F, Q, V, X and Z are mostly in loanwords.
Does Minangkabau use any accents?
No. Standard Minang spelling needs no marks at all, so any keyboard can type it. The only characters beyond A–Z are ordinary punctuation: the apostrophe in Arabic loanwords such as Assalamu'alaikum, the hyphen in doubled words and quotation marks.
Is Minangkabau the same as Indonesian?
No, it is a separate language, though a close relative of Malay and Indonesian. Many words change in regular ways (apa apo, atas ateh, air aia), and others are different words altogether (ambo for I, gadang for big). Most speakers also speak Indonesian.
How do you say thank you in Minang?
Tarimo kasih. Good morning is Salamaik pagi, and How are you? is Baa kaba?, answered with Kaba baiak (I'm fine).
Where is the Minangkabau language spoken?
Mainly in West Sumatra, Indonesia, around Padang and Bukittinggi, and in parts of Riau and Jambi, by an estimated 8.4 million people, plus Minang communities in other Indonesian cities. The Negeri Sembilan Malay dialect is a distinct Malay variety spoken in a region with a Minangkabau settlement history.
What does Minangkabau mean?
Popular legend reads it as menang kabau, 'the winning buffalo', from a buffalo fight that ended a war with a Javanese army; that is why the water buffalo and its horns appear everywhere in Minang design. Historians also propose other origins for the name.
Is there a Minangkabau or rendang emoji?
No. People use the Indonesian flag and the water buffalo for the Minang, and or with for rendang and nasi Padang.
What is the language code for Minangkabau?
Its ISO 639 code is min, the code used by the Minangkabau Wikipedia (min.wikipedia.org) and by Unicode's CLDR.
