me/my/I a.k.a. first person singular pronoun in Indonesian

the pronouns in Indonesian generally do not change depending of whether they are an object or not. and in spite of that the pronouns in Indonesian still have some flexibility in terms of their position.

let’s start with the pronoun me/I/my, which in textbooks is usually called 1^st person singular.

I will cover only the way the pronouns are used in the Capital Jakarta.

whenever I tell my occidental friends that me, I, and my, have the same form in Indonesian, they get amazed at how easy it is. yet at the same time it is a bit more complicated in a different way. i.e., there are several pronouns depending on the situation. I’ll now present you three pronouns (of 1^st person singular) which are most common in Jakarta:

1.    saya

2.   aku

3.   guä

see notes on pronunciation below.

1.

saya is in a way the safest form to use in Indonesian. if your interlocutor happens to feel more comfortable using aku or even guä, you can still always switch.

saya is derived from an older version of the word, “sahaya”, which means “slave”. but nowadays practically nobody knows the original meaning of this word. it is a simple me/my/I.

itu kakak saya

that · elder sister/brother · me/my/I

that’s my elder sister/brother

das ist mein(e) ältere(r) Schwester/Bruder

dia dua tahun lebih tua dari saya

(s)he · two · year · more · old · than · me/my/I

sie/er ist zwei Jahr älter denn ich

dia memberikan saya sebuah durian

(s)he · gave/give · me/my/I · a · durian

sie/er gab/gibt mir einen Durian

saya suka durian

me/my/I · like · durian

ich mag Durian

2.

aku is more familiar. you usually use it with someone you already know, or within a family.

aku can be (and often is) shortened to ku as an affix.

thus, taking the examples above:

itu kakakku.

dia dua tahun lebih tua dariku.

dia memberikanku sebuah durian.

aku suka durian.

aku is also the pronoun used in lyrics. 
thus almost all songs use aku, and in the Bible and Koran, one encounters aku.

3.

guä is more vulgar than aku, and may even sound rude to some people. it can generally be used only with people who are of your age.

guä can be pronounced as gua or as guè. this word has a pretty interesting history. since it came from a Chinese dialect/language called Hokkien. the www will give you more information about that in case you’re interested.

gua is the more original form, yet because the Betawi dialect/language tends to pronounce the final –a as an –è, it becomes guè.

again, using the examples above:

itu kakak guä

diä dua tahun lebih tua dari guä

dia memberikan guä sebuah durian*

guä suka durian

*this sentence is hypothetical, since guä is very colloquial, whereas memberikan is bookish or formal.

it is more likely to hear: “diä ngasih guä durèn sebiji’”.

notes on pronunciation:

saya, aku, guä all are stressed on the last (thus 2nd) syllable.

also, the K in Indonesian is not aspirated, thus to english or german ears, aku or ku may end up sounding like agu or gu.

some other (1rst person singular) pronouns that you may hear used in Jakarta are:

ayè

Betawi. from “saya”.

anè

Betawi. from arabic “ana”.

ogut / ogud
roots unknown. probably a modified form of "guä".

kita

from Manado Malay. can be confusing since “kita” means us/our/we in Standard Indonesian.

ay

believe it or not, from english “I”. interestingly, it follows the native grammar. thus it stays “I” even when in english “me” or “my” would be required.

however, the use of these pronouns is rather marginal.