About

Indonesian Suffix -nya refers to discourse surrounding Indonesians who add the "nya" suffix to various words, such as semuanya (Eng. All of it), which makes people think they are mimicking the anime cat girl sound, typically written as "nyah."

Origin

On April 10th, 2022, YouTube^[1] user Osekkaiおせっかい uploaded a clip of Hololive virtual YouTuber Pavolia Reine teaching IRyS how to speak Indonesian^[2]. In the clip, Reine confirmed that Indonesians mostly use the suffix -nya in their sentences when they are talking to each other (clip shown below).

On July 22nd, 2024, Facebook^[3] user OTae uploaded a screenshot of a comment section from Aisyah Zahra's^[4] post in the "That Time I got Reincarnated as a LowRes member" Facebook group. In the screenshot, Facebook user Tỏi Khô asks why the Indonesians on the post are always adding "nya" in their comments, saying it makes them look like some random cat girls. The post received more than 5,300 reactions and 4,000 shares in two days (shown below).

Spread

Starting in late July 2024, the screenshot grew popular with memes referencing Indonesians as anime cat girls. For example, on July 22nd, 2024, Facebook^[5] user Putu Dharma Yoga uploaded an edit depicting Indonesians as cat girls when they're speaking to the "24 Jam belajar jadi kurator meme" group. The post received more than 2,800 reactions and 1,500 shares in two days (shown below, left). On the same day, Facebook^[6] user Resh uploaded an edit comparing Indonesians when they say "nya" and "ngga" using the Seiba Momoi Says the N-word template, referencing the Miscomprehension of Ngga as Nigga. The post received 754 reactions and 894 shares in two days (shown below, right).

On June 23rd, 2024, Twitter / X^[7] user @speedingjunkie uploaded an edit similar to Resh's but in video form (from Facebook^[8] user Lang Aqasha). The post received more than 2,600 reposts and 15,000 likes in one day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References