Old Javanese

Old Javanese
Old Javanese
Bhāṣa Jawa
Spoken in Central-Java, East-Java, Madura, and Bali
Era developed into Middle Javanese by the 13th century
Language family
Standard forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3 kaw

Old Javanese is the oldest phase of the Javanese language that was spoken in areas in what is now the eastern part of Central Java and the whole of East Java.

While evidence of writing in Java dates to the Sanskrit "Tarumanegara inscription" of 450, the oldest example written entirely in Javanese, called the "Sukabumi inscription", is dated March 25, 804. This inscription, located in the district of Pare in the Kediri regency of East Java, is actually a copy of the original, dated some 120 years earlier; only this copy has been preserved. Its contents concern the construction of a dam for an irrigation canal near the river Śrī Hariñjing (nowadays Srinjing). This inscription is the last of its kind to be written using Pallava script; all consequent examples are written using Javanese script.

Contents

Development

Old Javanese was not static, and its usage covered a period of approximately 500 years – from the Sukabumi inscription until the founding of the Majapahit empire in 1292. The Javanese language which was spoken and written in the Majapahit era already underwent some changes and is therefore already closer to the Modern Javanese language.

Austronesian origins

The most important shaping force on Old Javanese was its Austronesian heritage in vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar that it shared with its sister languages in Southeast-Asia.

Sanskrit influence

The Indian linguistic influence in Old Javanese language was almost exclusively Sanskrit influence. There is no evidence of Indian linguistic elements in Old Javanese other than Sanskrit. This is different from, for example, the influence of Indian linguistic in the (Old) Malay language.

Sanskrit has had a deep and lasting impact on the vocabulary of the Javanese language. The Old Javanese – English Dictionary, written by professor P.J. Zoetmulder in 1982, contains approximately 25,500 entries, no fewer than 12,500 of which are borrowed from Sanskrit. Clearly this large number is not an indication of usage, but it is an indication that the Ancient Javanese knew and employed these Sanskrit words in their literary works. In any given Old Javanese literary work, approximately 25% of the vocabulary is derived from Sanskrit.

Phonology

Despite the tremendous influence of Sanskrit on Old Javanese, the latter has remained an Austronesian language. However, Sanskrit has also influenced both the phonology and the vocabulary of Old Javanese. Old Javanese also contains the retroflex consonants, which might have been derived from Sanskrit. That is disputed by several linguists, who they hold the view that it is also possible that the occurrence of these retroflex consonants was an independent development within the Austronesian language family.

Vocabulary

A related question is the form in which Sanskrit words were loaned in Old Javanese. The borrowed Sanskrit words in Old Javanese are almost without exceptions nouns and adjectives in their undeclined form (Sanskrit lingga). A wordlist of 200 basic vocabulary items is available at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database which shows some of these loans [1]

Old Javanese literature

Old Javanese literature can be divided in several genres such as the aforementioned kakawin and prose.

Further reading

  • (Dutch) Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, 1950, De Taal van het Adiparwa, Bandung: Nix
  • (English) Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, 1982, Old Javanese-English Dictionary, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 2 v. (xxxi, 2368 p.) In collaboration with S.O. Robson. ISBN 9024761786
  • (Indonesian) Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, 1995, Kamus Jawa Kuna-Indonesia In collaboration with S.O Robson. Translators, Darusuprapta, Sumarti Suprayitna. Jakarta: Hasil kerja sama Perwakilan Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal, Land-, en Volkenkunde dengan Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 1995. 2 v. ; 1. A-0 -- 2. P-Y.
  • (English) Teeuw, A. and S.O. Robson.2005 edited and translated Bhomāntaka : the death of Bhoma Leiden: KITLV Press, Series:Bibliotheca Indonesica; 32. ISBN 9067182532

See also


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Javanese literature — is, generally speaking, literature from Java and, more specifically, from areas where Javanese is spoken. However, similar with other literary traditions, Javanese language works were and not not necessarily produced only in Java, but also in… …   Wikipedia

  • Javanese — may refer to:*island of JavaIt may also refer to: *Javanese beliefs *Javanese calendar a calendar in use by the Javanese people of Indonesia *Javanese (cat), a breed of domestic cat *Javanese cuisine *Javanese language *Javanese people and their… …   Wikipedia

  • Javanese language — Not to be confused with Japanese language. Javanese ꦧꦱꦗꦮ (Basa Jawa) Spoken in Java (Indonesia) Peninsular Malaysia Suriname New Caledonia …   Wikipedia

  • Old Malay language — An Old Malay language called Kawi, inscriptions found at Pengkalan Kempas in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The Old Malay language, also called Classical Malay, is the ancestor of the modern Malay language, including Indonesian and Malaysian. It… …   Wikipedia

  • Javanese poetry — (poetry in the Javanese or especially the Kawi language; Low Javanese: tembang; High Javanese: sekar) is traditionally recited in song form. The standard forms are divided into three types, sekar ageng, sekar madya, and tembang macapat. All three …   Wikipedia

  • Javanese sacred places — are locations on the Island of Java, Indonesia that have significance from either village level through to national level as sacred, and in most cases deserve visitation usually within the context of ziarah regardless of the ethnicity or religion …   Wikipedia

  • Javanese Shrew — Conservation status Least Concern (IUCN 2.3) Scientific classification Kingdom …   Wikipedia

  • Old Permic alphabet — Old Permic, Abur, Anbur Type alphabet Languages Komi language Time period 1372 1600s ISO 15924 Perm, 227 Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols …   Wikipedia

  • Old World flying squirrel — Old World flying squirrels Temporal range: Late Pliocene Recent Japanese dwarf flying squirrel, Pteromys momonga Scientific classification …   Wikipedia

  • Javanese script — Infobox Writing system name=Java type=Abugida languages=Javanese fam1=Proto Canaanite alphabet fam2=Phoenician alphabet fam3=Aramaic alphabet fam4=Brāhmī fam5=Pallava fam6=Old Kawi sisters=Balinese Batak Baybayin Buhid Hanunó o Lontara Old… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”