I am not a big soccer fan. However, when I read the newspapers every morning, I inadvertently always read the sports section, especially during the World Cup and the European Cup. While not interested specifically in the soccer news, I notice from those articles that there is no consistent way of writing and spelling the name of a foreign country.  

Take, for example, eská Republika or Czech Republic as written in English. Following the dissolution of eskoslovensko (or Czechoslovakia in English) in 1993, the eská Republika peacefully split from the Slovenská Republika. Since its founding, the Czech government thought to assign a short form of the country’s name, mainly for marketing purposes.

Like the latter, which is shortened to Slovensko (Slovakia, as written in English), the short form of eská Republika is given as esko. In the English language, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs promoted the one-word name Czechia to be used in all cases, while urging the use of the longer and more “political” Czech Republic in official documents. (Yet some still mistakenly refer to the country simply by the adjective Czech without the word Republic after it).  

In Bahasa Indonesia, the writing of this country’s name has been a source of confusion and debate. Generally speaking, the two countries that split from Cekoslowakia are referred to as Republik Ceko and Republik Slowakia. Like in the Czech and English language, in Bahasa Indonesia, these two countries are given a short name, Ceko and Slowakia.  

What is saddening is that there is no consistency in referring to the spelling and writing of the Czech Republic in Bahasa Indonesia. An English-Indonesian dictionary, written by John Echols and Hassan Shadily, as well as several online dictionaries – such as dicts.info, sederet.com, and xamus.com – translate it as Ceko. Likewise, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry uses Republik Ceko and its short form Ceko.  

Yet, some insist on calling it Republik Ceska, which is then shortened to Ceska. For example various Indonesian newspapers, Bola, Sinar Harapan and Kompas to name a few, like to identify it as such. Note that the word eská Republika in the Czech language is in the feminine form so cannot stand alone. So calling it Ceska (as opposed to esko) without the word Republik following it is incorrect.

Furthermore, as others may have argued, the writing of Republik Ceska in Bahasa Indonesia is confusing because it consists of half Bahasa Indonesia and half Czech. The word Republik is Indonesian and Ceska is Czech (or  eština).  

To make matters worse, Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (Fourth Edition) refers to it as Republik Cheska or Republik Cek.  

It is true that several foreign countries are still debating what to call eská Republika in their own language. However, what they are arguing is whether to use the long or short form of that country’s name. For example, like English speakers, who are still more comfortable using the longer name Czech Republic rather than Czechia, Italians feel better with the name La Repubblica Ceca, and not Cechia. Furthermore, the Czech themselves initially refused the usage of esko and preferred the longer version. On the other hand, the Russians and Germans are happy with the short form  and Tschechien respectively. And the Spanish are comfortable enough to use both forms Chequia and República Checa.

In Bahasa Indonesia, the focus of the debate is a little different. We do not argue whether to use the long or short form of the country’s name. Rather, we seem not to know what to call eská Republika in Bahasa Indonesia – whether it is Republik Ceko, Republik Ceska, Republik Cheska, or Republik Cek.   

I would not blame anybody using any of those names since they can argue that they got it from a supposedly reliable source. However, the problem is there are several formal sources and institutions with different versions.

The many ways of spelling and writing a foreign country’s name, notably eská Republika among others, in Bahasa Indonesia is proof Bahasa Indonesia itself is still not developed. Our language still has double, or multiple, standards in labeling a foreign country. Without any agreement in assigning a definite name for a foreign country, Bahasa Indonesia will probably stay immature.

The author is a PhD candidate at the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech University

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