Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Not to be confused with the Japanese language. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities
Javanese
Basa Jawa, Basa Jawi
Spoken in: Java (Indonesia), Peninsular Malaysia, Suriname, New Caledonia
Total speakers: about 80 million total 
Ranking: 12
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian
  Nuclear MP
   Sunda-Sulawesi
    Javanese 
Writing system: Javanese script,
Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: jv
ISO 639-2: jav
ISO 639-3: variously:
jav – Javanese
jvn – Caribbean Javanese
jas – New Caledonian Javanese
osi – Osing
tes – Tenggerese
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Java (Jawa is an Island of Indonesia and the site of its Capital city Jakarta. The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. Peninsular Malaysia ( Semenanjung Malaysia) also known as Malaya or West Malaysia, is the part of Malaysia which lies on Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by For the former North American fur-trading district see New Caledonia (Canada, and for the Scottish colony in Panama see Darien scheme. This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers The Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages are a branch of the Austronesian family that are thought to have dispersed from a possible homeland in Sulawesi. The Sunda-Sulawesi languages (or Inner Hesperonesian or Inner Western Malayo-Polynesian languages) are a branch of the Austronesian family posited A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages The Osing are a community living in the eastern salient of Java island in Indonesia, in the easternmost part of East Java province The Tenggerese are the descendants of the Majapahit princes Their population of roughly 600000 is centered in thirty villages in the isolated Tengger mountains ( Mount In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Javanese is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. Java (Jawa is an Island of Indonesia and the site of its Capital city Jakarta. The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java. It is the native language of more than 75,500,000 people.

The Javanese language is part of the Austronesian family, and is therefore related to Indonesian. Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia, based on the Riau version of Malay language, was declared the official language with the declaration of Many speakers of Javanese also speak Indonesian for official and business purposes, and to communicate with non-Javanese Indonesians.

Besides in Indonesia, there are large communities of Javanese-speaking people in the neighbouring countries such as East Timor, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and also Hong Kong and Taiwan. East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste (officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste) is a country in Southeast Asia. For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and Singapore For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. In addition there are also Javanese-speaking people in Suriname, the Netherlands, and New Caledonia. Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands For the former North American fur-trading district see New Caledonia (Canada, and for the Scottish colony in Panama see Darien scheme. The Javanese speakers in Malaysia are especially found in the states of Selangor and Johore. Selangor ( Jawi script: سلاڠور population 72 million is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. Johor (alt English spelling Johore, Jawi scriptجوهر is a state of Malaysia between 1°20"N and 2°35"N (For example, the former Chief Minister of Selangor, Khir Toyo, is an ethnic Javanese. Dato' Seri Dr Mohamed Khir Bin Toyo was the former Dato' Menteri Besar (Chief Minister of the state of Selangor in Malaysia ) For distribution in other parts, as far as Suriname, see Demographic distribution of Javanese speakers below.

Contents

Introduction

This is a Map of where Javanese is spoken. Dark green is where it is spoken as a major language. Light green is where it is a minority language.
This is a Map of where Javanese is spoken. Dark green is where it is spoken as a major language. Light green is where it is a minority language.

Javanese belongs to the Sundic sub-branch of the Western Malayo-Polynesian (also called Hesperonesian) branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subfamily of the Austronesian super family. The Western Malayo-Polynesian languages, also known as the Hesperonesian languages, are those Malayo-Polynesian languages which are not in the Central-Eastern The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers It is a close linguistic relative of Malay, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, and to a lesser extent, of various Sumatran and Borneo languages, including Malagasy and Filipino. Sundanese ( Basa Sunda, literally "language of Sunda " is the Language of about 27 million people from the western third of Java Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3 Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470000 km² and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located at the centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. Filipino is the national and an Official language of the Philippines as designated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Javanese is spoken in Central and East Java, as well as on the north coast of West Java. In Madura, Bali, Lombok and the Sunda region of West Java, Javanese is also used as a literary language. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. It was the court language in Palembang, South Sumatra, until their palace was sacked by the Dutch in the late 18th century. Palembang is a city of 1286000 in the south of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. South Sumatra or Sumatera Selatan is a province of Indonesia.

Javanese can be regarded as one of the classical languages of the world, with a vast literature spanning more than 12 centuries. Scholars divide the development of Javanese language in four different stages:

Javanese is written with the Javanese script (a descendant of the Brahmi script of India), Arabo-Javanese script, Arabic script (modified for Javanese) and Latin script. The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. [1]

Although not currently an official language anywhere, Javanese is the Austronesian language with the largest number of native speakers. It is spoken or understood by approximately 80 million people. At least 45% of the total population of Indonesia are of Javanese descent or live in an area where Javanese is the dominant language. Four out of five Indonesian presidents since 1945 are of Javanese descent. It is therefore not surprising that Javanese has a deep impact on the development of Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia, which is a modern dialect of Malay. Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia, based on the Riau version of Malay language, was declared the official language with the declaration of The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the

There are three main dialects of Modern Javanese: Central Javanese, Eastern Javanese and Western Javanese. There is a dialect continuum from Banten in the extreme west of Java to Banyuwangi, in the foremost eastern corner of the island. Banten is a province of Indonesia located at the western end of Java Island. The Regency of Banyuwangi is located at the easternmost end of the Indonesian island of Java, and it is a very strategic area for one who wants to go to Bali All Javanese dialects are more or less mutually intelligible. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand

Phonology

The phonemes of Modern Standard Javanese.

Vowels:

Front Central Back
i     u
e ə o
(ɛ)   (ɔ)
  a  

The pronunciation of the vowels is rather complicated. The main characteristic of the standard dialect of Surakarta is that /a/ in open-word final syllables and penultimate syllables is pronounced as [ɔ] (as in English ought or in French os).

Consonants:

Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop p b t d
ʈ ɖ ʧ ʤ k g ʔ
Fricative     s (ʂ)     h
Semi-vowels w l r   j    
Nasal m n
(ɳ) ɲ ŋ  

Note: The phones in parentheses are allophones.

A Javanese syllable can be of the following type: nCsvVC. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds n=nasal, C=consonant, sv= semivowel (/j/, /r/, /l/ and /w/) and V=vowel. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Modern Javanese, however, a bi-syllabic root is of the following type: nCsvVnCsvVC. As in other Austronesian languages, native Javanese roots consist of two syllables; words consisting of more than three syllables are broken up into groups of bi-syllabic words for pronunciation.

Javanese, together with Madurese, are the only Austronesian languages to possess retroflex phonemes. Madurese is the spoken language of the Madurese people from Madura Island, Indonesia; it is also spoken on Kangean Islands, Sapudi In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants (Madurese also possesses aspirated phonemes including at least one aspirated retroflex phoneme. ) These letters are transcribed as "th" and "dh" in the modern Roman script, but previously by the use of a dot: ḍ and ṭ. Overdot See also Anusvara Language scripts or transcription schemes that use the dot above a letter as a diacritical mark In Arabic romanization Some scholars assume this might be an influence of the Sanskrit, but others believe this could be an independent development within the Austronesian super family. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical It is interesting to note that a sibilant before a retroflex stop in Sanskrit loanwords is pronounced as a retroflex sibilant whereas in modern Indian languages it is pronounced as a palatal sibilant. Though Acehnese and Balinese also possess a retroflex voiceless stop, this is merely an allophone of /t/. Acehnese (also Achinese, Achehnese) or Aceh (formerly Atjeh) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Aceh, Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3

Morphology

Javanese, like other Austronesian languages, is an agglutinative language, where base words are modified through extensive use of affixes. In Linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process ofadding Affixes to the base of a Word. An affix is a Morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word

Syntax

Modern Javanese usually employs SVO word order. In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object However, Old Javanese particularly had VSO or sometimes VOS word orders. Verb Subject Object ( VSO) is a term in Linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these In Linguistic typology, Verb Object Subject or Verb Object Agent - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS or VOA - represents the language-classification Even in Modern Javanese archaic sentences using VSO structure can still be made.

Examples:

Both sentences mean: "He (S) comes (V) in (pp. ) the (def. art. ) palace (O)". In the Old Javanese sentence, the verb is placed at the beginning and is separated by the particle ta from the rest of the sentence. In Modern Javanese the definite article is lost in prepositions (it is expressed in another way).

Verbs are not inflected for person or number. Tense is not indicated either, but is expressed by auxiliary words such as "yesterday", "already", etc. There is also a complex system of verb affixes to express the different status of the subject and object.

However, in general the structure of Javanese sentences both Old and Modern can be described using the so-called topic-comment model without having to refer to classical grammatical or syntactical categories such as the aforementioned subject, object, predicates, etc. A topic-prominent language is a language that organizes its Syntax so that sentences have a topic–comment (or theme–rheme structure in which the The topic is the head of the sentence; the comment is the modifier. In Linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about ( predicated) So our Javanese above-mentioned sentence could then be described as follows: Dhèwèké = topic; teka = comment; nèng kedhaton = setting.

Vocabulary

Javanese has a rich vocabulary, with many foreign loan words as well as the native Austronesian base. Sanskrit has had a deep and lasting impact on the vocabulary of the Javanese language. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical The "Old Javanese – English Dictionary", written by professor P.J. Zoetmulder in 1982, contains approximately 25,500 entries, over 12,600 of which are borrowings from Sanskrit. Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder SJ ( January 29, 1906 - July 8, 1995) was a Dutch expert in the Old Javanese language. [3] 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. In addition, many Javanese personal names have clearly recognisable Sanskrit roots.

Many Sanskrit words are still in current usage. Modern Javanese speakers refer to much of the Old Javanese and Sanskrit words as kawi words, which may be roughly translated as "literary". Kawi (from Sanskrit: kavi, "poet" is a literary and prose language from the islands of Java, Bali, and Lombok However the so-called kawi words also contain some Arabic words. Furthermore there has been significant word borrowing from Arabic, Dutch and Malay as well, but none as extensively as from Sanskrit. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the

There are far fewer Arabic loanwords in Javanese than in Malay. These Arabic loanwords are usually concerned with Islamic religion, but some words have entered the basic vocabulary, such as pikir ("to think" from the Arabic fikr), badan ("body"), mripat ("eye" thought to be derived from the Arabic ma'rifah, meaning "knowledge" or "vision"). However, these Arabic words typically have native Austronesian and/or Sanskrit equivalents. In the cases mentioned, pikir = galih, idhĕp (Austronesian), manah, cipta, or cita (Sanskrit), badan = awak (Austronesian), slira, sarira, or angga (Sanskrit), and mripat = mata (Austronesian), soca, or netra (Sanskrit).

Dutch loanwords usually have the same form and meaning as in Indonesian, but there are a few exceptions. Consider this table:

Javanese Indonesian Dutch English
pit sepeda fiets bicycle
pit montor sepeda motor motorfiets motorcycle
sepur kereta api spoor, i. e. (rail)track train

The latter is interesting, as the word sepur also exists in Indonesian. The Indonesian word has preserved the literal Dutch meaning of "railway tracks", while the Javanese word follows Dutch figurative use, where "spoor" (lit. "rail") is used as metonymy for "trein" (lit. In Rhetoric, metonymy (mɨˈtɒnɨmi is the use of a word for a concept or object associated with the concept/object originally denoted by the word "train"). (Compare the corresponding metonymic use in English: "to travel by rail" may be used metonymically for "to travel by train". )

Malay was the lingua franca of the Indonesian archipelago before the proclamation of Indonesian independence in 1945, and Indonesian, which was based on Malay, is now the official national language of Indonesia. The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar As a consequence, there has been an influx of Malay and Indonesian vocabulary into Javanese recently. Many of these words are concerned with the bureaucracy or politics.

Politeness

Javanese speech varies depending on social context, yielding three distinct styles, or registers. In Linguistics, a register is a subset of a Language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting [4] Each style employs its own vocabulary, grammatical rules and even prosody. In Linguistics, prosody (from Greek προσωδία) is the Rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech This is not unique to Javanese; neighbouring Austronesian languages as well as East Asian languages such as Korean and Japanese share similar constructions. This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities

In Javanese these styles are called:

  1. Ngoko is informal speech, used between friends and close relatives. It is also used by persons of higher status to persons of lower status, such as elders to younger people or bosses to subordinates.
  2. Madya is the intermediary form between ngoko and krama. An example of the context where one would use madya is an interaction between strangers on the street, where one wants to be neither too formal nor too informal.
  3. Krama is the polite and formal style. It is used between persons of the same status who do not wish to be informal. It is also the official style for public speeches, announcements, etc. It is also used by persons of lower status to persons of higher status, such as youngsters to elder people or subordinates to bosses.

In addition, there are also "meta-style" words — the honorifics and humilifics. An honorific is a word or expression that conveys esteem or respect when used in addressing or referring to a person When one talks about oneself, one has to be humble. But when one speaks of someone else with a higher status or to whom one wants to be respectful, honorific terms are used. Status is defined by age, social position and other factors. The humilific words are called krama andhap words while the honorific words are called krama inggil words. For example, children often use the ngoko style, but when talking to the parents they must use both krama inggil and krama andhap.

Below some examples are provided to explain these different styles.

The use of these different styles is complicated and requires thorough knowledge of the Javanese culture. This is one element that makes it difficult for foreigners to learn Javanese. On the other hand, these different styles of speech are actually not mastered by the majority of Javanese. Most people only master the first style and a rudimentary form of the second style. Persons who have correct mastery of the different styles are held in high esteem.

The dialects of Modern Javanese

There are three main groups of Javanese dialects based on the sub region where the speakers live. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of They are: Western Javanese, Central Javanese and Eastern Javanese. The differences between these dialectical groups are primarily pronunciation and, to a lesser extent, vocabulary. All Javanese dialects are more or less mutually intelligible.

The Central Javanese variant, based on the speech of Surakarta[5] (and also to a degree of Yogyakarta), is considered as the most "refined" Javanese dialect. Surakarta (colloquially Solo) is an Indonesian city of approximately 500000 people located in Central Java. The Special Region of Yogyakarta ( Indonesian: Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, or DIY) is the smallest province of Indonesia (excluding Accordingly standard Javanese is based on this dialect. These two cities are the seats of the four Javanese principalities, heirs to the Mataram Sultanate, which once reigned over almost the whole of Java and beyond. Speakers spread from north to south of the Central Java province and utilize many dialects, such as Muria and Semarangan, as well as Surakarta and Yogyakarta. Central Java ( Provinsi Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia.

Western Javanese, spoken in the western part of the Central Java province and throughout the West Java province (particularly in the north coast region), contains dialects distinct for their Sundanese influences and which still maintain many archaic words. West Java (Jawa Barat with population around 3572 million is the most populous province of Indonesia, located on Java Island. The dialects include North Banten, Banyumasan, Tegal, Jawa Serang, North coast, Indramayu (or Dermayon) and Cirebonan (or Basa Cerbon). The Banyumasan language, spoken on the island of Java, is usually considered a dialect of Javanese in modern language classification

Eastern Javanese speakers range from the eastern banks of Kali Brantas in Kertosono to Banyuwangi, comprising the majority of the East Java province, excluding Madura island. The Regency of Banyuwangi is located at the easternmost end of the Indonesian island of Java, and it is a very strategic area for one who wants to go to Bali East Java (Jawa Timur is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and also includes neighboring Madura Madura is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. However, the dialect has been influenced by Madurese, and is sometimes referred to as Surabayan speech. Surabaya (formerly spelled as Soerabaja) is Indonesia 's second-largest city, and the capital of the province of East Java.

The most aberrant dialect is spoken in Balambangan (or Banyuwangi) in the eastern-most part of Java. The Regency of Banyuwangi is located at the easternmost end of the Indonesian island of Java, and it is a very strategic area for one who wants to go to Bali It is generally known as Basa Osing. Osing is the word for negation and is a cognate of the Balinese tusing, Balinese being the neighbouring language directly to the east. Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3 In the past this area of Java was in possession of Balinese kings and warlords.

In addition to these three main Javanese dialects, there is Surinamese Javanese. Surinamese Javanese is mainly based on Central Javanese dialect, especially from the Kedu residency.

Pronunciation

Most Javanese people, except those who live in West Java, accept the pronunciation of the phoneme "a" as /ɔ/. Therefore, there is a different pronunciation of many words; for example apa (Eng. =what) is pronounced /apaʔ/ in Western Javanese and /ɔːpɔː/ in Central and Eastern Javanese.

When there is a condition of phoneme stem VCV (Vowel-Consonant-Vowel) with the same vowels, Central Javanese speakers drop the second vowel into another sound, with the following formula: "i" becomes /e/ and "u" becomes /o/, the Easterns drop both of the vowels, whereas Western Javanese maintains the sounds "i" and "u". So the word cilik (Eng. = small), is pronounced /ʧileʔ/ in Central, /ʧeːleʔ/ in Eastern, and /ʧilik/ in Western Javanese; the word tutup is pronounced /tutop/ in Central, /toːtop/ in Eastern, and /tutup/ in Western Javanese.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Javanese language is enriched by dialectal words. For example, to get the meaning of "you", Western Javanese speakers say rika /rikaʔ/, Eastern Javanese use kon /kɔn/, and Central Javanese speakers say kowe /kowe/. Another example is the expression of "how": the Tegal dialect of Western Javanese uses kepriben /kəpriben/, the Banyumasan dialect of Western Javanese employs kepriwe /kəpriwe/ or kepriwen /kəpriwen/, Eastern Javanese speakers say yok apa /jɔʔ ɔpɔ/ - originally means "like what" (Javanese: kaya apa), and Central Javanese speakers say piye /piye/. Banyumas is a regency (kabupaten in the southwestern part of Central Java province in Indonesia.

Brief history of the Javanese language

Old Javanese

Main article: Old Javanese language

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. 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 For the area code see Area code 450. Events By Place Eastern Roman Empire August 25 — Marcian is proclaimed Sukabumi is a city and regency in the highlands of West Java, Indonesia, about 80 km (50 miles south of the national capital Jakarta. Events 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. This article is about the year AD 804 For other uses of the term see 804 (disambiguation. 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. Epigraphy (ἐπιγραφολογία from Greek ἐπιγραφή — "inscription" is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved 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. Grantha ( Tamil: கிரந்த ௭ழுத்து Bengali: গ্রন্থলিপি Malayalam: ml ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി Sanskrit The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese.

The 8th and 9th centuries are marked with the emergence of the Javanese literary tradition with Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan, a Buddhist treatise and the Kakawin Ramayana, a Javanese rendering in Indian metres of the Vishnuistic Sanskrit epic, Rāmāyaṇa. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Kakawin Rāmâyaṇa is an Old Javanese rendering of the Sanskrit Ramayana in Indian meter The Rāmāyaṇa ( Devanāgarī: sa रामायण is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the Hindu sage ( Maharishi) Valmiki

Although Javanese as a written language appeared considerably later than Malay (extant in the 7th century), the Javanese literary tradition is continuous from its inception to present day. The oldest works, such as the above mentioned Rāmāyaṇa, and a Javanese rendering of the Indian Mahabharata epic are studied assiduously today.

The expansion of the Javanese culture, including Javanese script and language, began in 1293 with the eastward push of the Hindu-Buddhist East-Javanese Empire Majapahit, toward Madura and Bali. A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Majapahit was an Indianized kingdom based in eastern Java from 1293 to around 1500. Madura is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. Bali is an Indonesian Island located at, the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to The Javanese campaign in Bali in 1363 has had a deep and lasting impact. With the introduction of the Javanese administration, Javanese replaced Balinese as the language of administration and literature. Though the Balinese people preserved much of the older literature of Java and even created their own in Javanese idioms, Balinese ceased to be written until the 19th century.

See also: Kawi language

Middle Javanese

The Majapahit Empire also saw the rise of a new language, Middle Javanese, which is an intermediate form between Old Javanese and New Javanese. Kawi (from Sanskrit: kavi, "poet" is a literary and prose language from the islands of Java, Bali, and Lombok In fact, Middle Javanese is so similar to New Javanese that works written in Middle Javanese should be easily comprehended by Modern Javanese speakers who are well acquainted with literary Javanese.

The Majapahit Empire fell due to internal disturbances and attacks by Islamic forces of the Sultanate of Demak on the north coast of Java. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The Sultanate of Demak was Muslim state located on Java 's north coast in Indonesia, at the site of the present day city of Demak. There is a Javanese chronogram concerning the fall which reads, "sirna ilang krĕtaning bumi" ("vanished and gone was the prosperity of the world"), indicating the date AD 1478. Chronogram is also a magazine published in the Hudson Valley of New York featuring politics and art Thus there is a popular belief that Majapahit collapsed in 1478, though it may have lasted into the 1500s. This was the last Hindu Javanese empire.

New Javanese

In the 16th century a new era in Javanese history began with the rise of the Islamic Central Javanese Mataram Sultanate, originally a vassal state of Majapahit. Ironically, the Mataram Empire rose as an Islamic kingdom which sought revenge for the demise of the Hindu Majapahit Empire by first crushing Demak, the first Javanese Islamic kingdom.

Javanese culture spread westward as Mataram conquered many previously Sundanese areas in western parts of Java; and Javanese became the dominant language in more than a third of this area. As in Bali, the Sundanese language ceased to be written until the 19th century. In the meantime it was heavily influenced by Javanese, and some 40% of Sundanese vocabulary is believed to have been derived from Javanese.

Though Islamic in name, the Mataram II empire preserved many elements of the older culture, incorporating them into the new religion. This is the reason why Javanese script is still in use as opposed to the writing of Old-Malay for example. The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the After the Malays were converted, they dropped their form of indigenous writing and changed to a form of the "script of the Divine", the Arabic script.

In addition to the rise of Islam, the 16th century saw the emergence of the New Javanese language. The first Islamic documents in Javanese were already written in New Javanese, although still in antiquated idioms and with numerous Arabic loanwords. This is to be expected as these early New Javanese documents are Islamic treatises.

Later, intensive contacts with the Dutch and with other Indonesians gave rise to a simplified form of Javanese and influx of foreign loanwords.

Modern Javanese

Some scholars dub the spoken form of Javanese in the 20th century Modern Javanese, although it is essentially still the same language as New Javanese.

Javanese script

Main article: Javanese script

Javanese has been traditionally written with Javanese script. The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. However, it is also written in Arabic and Roman script.

Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A B C D E É È F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a b c d e é è f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

The letters f, q, v, x, and z are used in loanwords from Europe and Arabic. Capital letters or majuscules pronunciation /məˈdʒʌskyuls ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/ in the Roman alphabet A, B, C, D, The letter A is the first letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a (eɪ plural B is the second letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled bee or occasionally be (biː plural bees. C is the third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cee or occasionally ce (siː D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de (diː E is the fifth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled e (iː plural es or ees (also written E's E É, é ( E - acute) is a letter of Hungarian, Icelandic, Kashubian, Czech, Slovak, and Uyghur language È can be The letter E with a Grave accent. 鄂 or È is an abbreviation for the Hubei province of the F is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ef or eff (ɛf G is the seventh letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled gee or occasionally ge (dʒiː I is the ninth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its English name is i (aɪ J is the tenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet; it was the last of the 26 letters to be added K is the eleventh letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled kay (keɪ L is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is el or occasionally ell (ɛl M is the thirteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled em (ɛm N is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled en (ɛn O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin Alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o (oʊ plural usually o's or os; sometimes P is the sixteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled pee or occasionally pe (piː Q is the seventeenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cue (kjuː R is the eighteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ar (ɑr pronounced or) S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ess or occasionally es (ɛs generally es- T is the twentieth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled tee or occasionally te (tiː U is the twenty-first letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled u (juː V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled vee or occasionally ve (viː W is the twenty-third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled double-u (ˈdʌbljuː X is the twenty-fourth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ex or occasionally ecks (ɛks plural exes The letter Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the modern Latin alphabet. F is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ef or eff (ɛf Q is the seventeenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cue (kjuː V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled vee or occasionally ve (viː X is the twenty-fourth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ex or occasionally ecks (ɛks plural exes Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the modern Latin alphabet. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language

Demographic distribution of Javanese speakers

See also: Javanese

Javanese is spoken throughout Indonesia, neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, the Netherlands, Suriname, New Caledonia and other countries. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by For the former North American fur-trading district see New Caledonia (Canada, and for the Scottish colony in Panama see Darien scheme. However, the greatest concentration of speakers is found in the six provinces of Java itself, and in the neighbouring Sumatran province of Lampung. Lampung is a province of Indonesia, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra.

Below, a table with the number of native speakers in 1980 is provided. [6]

Indonesian province  % of the pop. Javanese speakers (1980)
1. Aceh province 6. See also Sultanate of Aceh Aceh (ʔaˈtɕɛh generally anglicized as ˈɑːtʃeɪ is a special territory ( daerah istimewa) of Indonesia 7% 175,000
2. North Sumatra 21. North Sumatra (Sumatera Utara is a province of Indonesia. Its capital is Medan. 0% 1,757,000
3. West Sumatra 1. West Sumatra ( Indonesian: Sumatera Barat, abbreviated to Sumbar) is a province of Indonesia. 0% 56,000
4. Jambi 17. Jambi is a province of Indonesia located on the east coast of central Sumatra. 0% 245,000
5. South Sumatra 12. South Sumatra or Sumatera Selatan is a province of Indonesia. 4% 573,000
6. Bengkulu 15. Bengkulu is a province of Indonesia. It is on the southwest coast of the island of Sumatra, and borders the provinces of West Sumatra, 4% 118,000
7. Lampung 62. Lampung is a province of Indonesia, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. 4% 2,886,000
8. Riau 8. Riau is a province of Indonesia, located in the center of Sumatra Island along the Strait of Malacca. 5% 184,000
9. Jakarta 3. Jakarta (also DKI Jakarta) is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. 6% 236,000
10. West Java[7] 13. West Java (Jawa Barat with population around 3572 million is the most populous province of Indonesia, located on Java Island. 3% 3,652,000
11. Central Java 96. Central Java ( Provinsi Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia. 9% 24,579,000
12. Yogyakarta 97. The Special Region of Yogyakarta ( Indonesian: Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, or DIY) is the smallest province of Indonesia (excluding 6% 2,683,000
13. East Java 74. East Java (Jawa Timur is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and also includes neighboring Madura 5% 21,720,000
14. Bali 1. Bali is an Indonesian Island located at, the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to 1% 28,000
15. West Kalimantan 1. West Kalimantan ( Indonesian: Kalimantan Barat often abbreviated to Kalbar) is a province of Indonesia. 7% 41,000
16. Central Kalimantan 4. Central Kalimantan ( Indonesian: Kalimantan Tengah often abbreviated to Kalteng) is a province of Indonesia, one of four in Kalimantan 0% 38,000
17. South Kalimantan 4. South Kalimantan ( Indonesian: Kalimantan Selatan often abbreviated to Kalsel) is a province of Indonesia. 7% 97,000
18. East Kalimantan 10. East Kalimantan ( Indonesian: Kalimantan Timur abbrv Kaltim) is the second largest Indonesian province, located on the Kalimantan 1% 123,000
19. North Celebes 1. North Sulawesi (Sulawesi Utara is a province of Indonesia. It is on the island of Sulawesi, and borders the province of Gorontalo to the 0% 20,000
20. Central Sulawesi 2. Central Sulawesi ( Sulawesi Tengah) is a province of Indonesia located in the heart of Sulawesi. 9% 37,000
21. Southeast Sulawesi 3. South East Sulawesi ( Indonesian: Sulawesi Tenggara) is a province of Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi. 6% 34,000
22. Maluku 1. The Maluku Islands (also known as the Moluccas, Moluccan Islands, the Spice Islands or simply Maluku) are an Archipelago 1% 16,000

Based on the 1980 census, persons in approximately 43% of Indonesia's households spoke Javanese at home on a daily basis. By this reckoning there were well over 60 million Javanese speakers. [8]. In 1980, the total number of the Indonesian population was 147,490,298. [9]

Above only 22 provinces of the then 27 provinces of Indonesia are taken. In each of these provinces, more than 1% of the population are Javanese speakers.

The distribution of persons living in Javanese-speaking households in East Java and Lampung requires clarification. For East Java, daily-language percentages are as follows: 74. 5 Javanese; 23. 0 Madurese; and 2. 2 Indonesian. For Lampung, the official percentages are 62. 4 Javanese; 16. 4 Lampungese and other languages; 10. 5 Sundanese and 9. 4 Indonesian.

These figures are somewhat outdated for some regions, especially Jakarta while they remain more or less stable for the rest of Java. In Jakarta the number of Javanese has increased tenfold in the last 25 years. On the other hand, because of the conflict the number of Javanese in Aceh might have decreased. The Free Aceh Movement ( Indonesian: Gerakan Aceh Merdeka or simply GAM) also known as the Aceh Sumatra National Liberation Front ( ASNLF See also Sultanate of Aceh Aceh (ʔaˈtɕɛh generally anglicized as ˈɑːtʃeɪ is a special territory ( daerah istimewa) of Indonesia Furthermore it has to be noted that Banten has separated form West Java province in 2000. Banten is a province of Indonesia located at the western end of Java Island. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar.

In Banten, Western Java, the descendants of the Central Javanese conquerors who founded the Islamic Sultanate there in the 16th century still speak an archaic form of Javanese. [10] The rest of the population mainly speaks Sundanese and Indonesian as this province borders directly on Jakarta. Many commuters live in the Jakartan suburbs in Banten, among them also Javanese speakers. Their exact number is however unknown.

At least one third of the population of Jakarta is of Javanese descent and as such speak Javanese or have knowledge of it. Jakarta (also DKI Jakarta) is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. In the province of West Java, many people speak Javanese, especially those living in the areas bordering Central Java, the cultural homeland of the Javanese. West Java (Jawa Barat with population around 3572 million is the most populous province of Indonesia, located on Java Island. Central Java ( Provinsi Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia.

Madurese in Javanese script
Madurese in Javanese script

The province of East Java is also home of the Madurese people, who number almost a quarter of the population (mostly on the Isle of Madura), but many Madurese actually have some knowledge of colloquial Javanese. East Java (Jawa Timur is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and also includes neighboring Madura Since the 19th century, Madurese was also written in the Javanese script. Unfortunately, the aspirated phonemes of Madurese are not reproduced in writing. The 19th century scribes apparently overlooked, or were ignorant of, the fact that Javanese script does possess these characters.

In Lampung the original inhabitants, the Lampungese, only make up some 15% of the population. Lampung is a province of Indonesia, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. The rest are the so-called "transmigrants", settlers from other parts of Indonesia, many as a result of past government transmigration programs. The transmigration program ( Indonesian: Transmigrasi) was an initiative of the Indonesian government to move landless people from densely populated areas Most of these transmigrants are Javanese who have settled there since the 19th century.

In the former Dutch colony of Suriname (formerly called Dutch Guiana), in South America, approximately 15% of the population of some 500,000 are of Javanese descent, thus accounting for 75,000 speakers of Javanese. Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a

Languages Spoken in Java
Languages Spoken in Java

The Javanese language today

Damar Jati, a new Javanese language biweekly magazine.
Damar Jati, a new Javanese language biweekly magazine.

Although Javanese is not a national language, it has a recognised status as a regional language in three Indonesian provinces where the biggest concentrations of Javanese people are found, i. A regional language is a Language spoken in an area of a Nation state, whether it be a small area a federal State or Province, or e. Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java. Javanese is taught at schools and is also used in some mass media, both electronically and in print. "Popular press" redirects here note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint "The Popular Press" There is, however, no longer a daily newspaper in Javanese. Some exemples of Javanese language magazines include: Panjebar Semangat, Jaka Lodhang, Jaya Baya, Damar Jati, and Mekar Sari.

Since 2003, an East Java local television station (JTV) has broadcast some of its programmes in Surabayan dialect. Three such programmes are Pojok kampung (News), Kuis RT/RW and Pojok Perkoro (a criminal programme). Later on JTV also broadcast programmes in Central Javanese dialect which they call 'the western language' (basa kulonan) and Madurese.

In 2005, a new Javanese language magazine Damar Jati, saw its conception. The interesting fact is that, it is not published in the Javanese heartlands, but in Jakarta, the national capital of Indonesia.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Van der Molen (1983:VII-VIII)
  2. ^ The Old Javanese spelling is modified to suit Modern Javanese spelling
  3. ^ Zoetmulder (1982:IX)
  4. ^ Uhlenbeck (1964:57)
  5. ^ For example Pigeaud's dictionary in 1939 is almost exclusively based on Surakarta speech (1939:viii-xiii)
  6. ^ The data is taken from the census of 1980 as provided by James J. Javanese literature is generally speaking literature from Java and more specifically from areas where Javanese is spoken The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. Java (Jawa is an Island of Indonesia and the site of its Capital city Jakarta. Johannes Jacobus (Hans Ras ( 1 April 1926 &ndash 22 October 2003) was emeritus professor of Javanese language and literature at The Banyumasan language, spoken on the island of Java, is usually considered a dialect of Javanese in modern language classification Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern ( April 6, 1833 &ndash July 4, 1917) was a Dutch linguist and Orientalist Fox and Peter Gardiner and published by S. A. Wurm and Shiro Hattori, eds. 1983. Language Atlas of the Pacific Area, Part II. (Insular South-east Asia). Canberra
  7. ^ In 1980 this included the now separate Banten province
  8. ^ According James J. Fox and Peter Gardiner (Wurms and Hattori 1983)
  9. ^ Collins Concise Dictionary Plus (1989)
  10. ^ Pigeaud (1967:10-11)

Sources

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic