Belonging to the Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language, Indonesian (or Bahasa Indonesian) is elevated to the status of being the national language of Indonesia since the declaration of its Independence in the year 1945. This language has been modeled after Riau Malay which is an old form of the Malay language, spoken originally in North-east Sumatra. It is also spoken by a majority of people in parts of Netherlands, Philippines, Australia, East Timor, Saudi Arabia, Suriname, New Caledonia as well as United States. Apart from Indonesian, certain other regional languages are also commonly used in the local community like Javanese, Minangkabau and Sudanese.