Are Tagalog and Indonesian actually part of the same language family?

Answer 1

I think they are part of the same language family, but are only loosely related.

I was born and grew up in Malaysia. Bahasa Malaysia (Malay) is the official language of Malaysia. While I was not born in Indonesia and did not grow up there, I want to clarify that Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) and Malay are identical languages.

I usually cannot understand Filippinos when they speak Tagalog. Since I, who was born and grew up in Malaysia, have difficulty understanding Tagalog, I would assume that someone from Indonesia would also have a lot of trouble understanding it.

However, that being said, there are actually a few words in Tagalog that are exactly or almost the same in Bahasa Malaysia. For example, the words "anak" and "gunting" in Tagalog mean exactly the same things and are spelled exactly the same way in Bahasa Malaysia. "Anak" means "child" in both Tagalog and Malay. Likewise, "gunting" means "scissors" in both Indonesian and Malay. The word for "help" in Tagalog is "tulong"; the Malay word for "help" is "tolong"