About Javanese

by Pisith Phlong

Number of speakers
Javanese is one of the most widely spoken languages in Indonesia, after Bahasa Indonesia. An estimated 75 million people speak Javanese on Java island. This makes Javanese the most spoken regional language by native speakers in Indonesia. (Brown, p. 113)

Language group
Like the Indonesian and Malay languages, Javanese belongs to the Western Malayo Polynesian group of the Austronesian family. It is closely related to Madurese and Baliese, and the Tagalog language of the Philippines, which is under the subgroup of Sundic. (Brown, p. 114; Frawly, p. 336 )

History of written language and script
Javanese is one of the oldest languages in Indonesia, dating back to about the 8th century. Early historical connections to India are evidenced by the use of Indian-derived-scripts.  The language was later influenced by Arabic and European languages from the 14th to the 17th centuries. (Strazny, p. 559)

Language
As one of the most popular languages spoken on Java, Javanese is known to be a speech level language in which choice of words and the tone of voice (either soft, gentle, monotonous, loud, rough or rapid) can reflect the level of respect and the status of the persons in the conversation. The social stratification of the language is based upon genealogy, kinship, wealth, occupation, education, age and sex which makes Javanese a very polite language. There are three basic types of speech levels: Krama (high level), Madya (middle level) and Ngoko (low level) with one more called the Basongan is used in the Sultan’s palaces of Jogyakarta and Solo. (Frawly, p. 336) Ngoko is the basic and most common language form used for speaking to people of lower class. Ngoko contains thousands of words for expression.  Krama is used by high class people for speaking to the lower class. (Strazny, p. 559) The tradition of speech levels finds its roots in the Indian feudal systems of the old Hindi court.  There are a number of Sanskrit words borrowed into the Javanese language. Nowadays, besides functioning as the daily language, Javanese is also a cultural language used in the shadow theatre-Wayang. (Herbert, p. 126) Its root words are usually made up of two syllables formed by consonants and vowels. Words are usually formed by attaching an affix to root words, reduplication or combination. (Strazny, p. 559)

Scripts
The Javanese script dates back to the 8th century and was based on the Pallava script of India. The earliest example of the Javanese script, called Kawi, was written in the Malang inscription of East Java, dated 760 A.D using the Sanskrit language, while the earliest record in Old Javanese was first written in 804 A.D in the Sukabumi inscription. During the Kediri period (925-1250), the old Kawi script developed into the ‘later Kawi’ through combination with the scripts from East Java and later evolved to be used in the Majapahit period (1250-1450 A.D). (Herbert, p.127) In the 14th century, Islam arrived in the Malay Archipelago; as a result, the Arabic script was introduced into Java, but on a limited scale. Some examples of this earlier Arabic writing can be found on tombstones of the 14th century in North Sumatra and East Java where it was mainly used for religious purposes. The arrival of the Europeans in the 17th century, the Portuguese and the Dutch, did not have much influence on Javanese writing. Javanese still continued using the Kawi scripts until the beginning of 20th century when Roman scripts finally began to replace all the old scripts used by the Javanese. However, the Kawi scripts are still used nowadays among scholars and Wayang specialists. (Frawly, p. 367; Herbert, p. 128; Brown, p. 115)

Other Dialects
Javanese language is mainly spoken on Java Island of Indonesia. Javanese is divided into three main dialects based on the geographical setting of the island: 1) Central Javanese dialect, spoken in Surakarta and Yogyakarta. It is considered to be the standard Javanese language. 2) West Javanese dialects, spoken in some parts of Central Java and throughout the West Java provinces, consisting of Banten, Cirebon and Tegal. 3) East Javanese dialects, spoken from the eastern banks of Kali Brantas in Kertosono to Banyuwangi abaya of Eastern Java, consisting of Surabaya and Malang-Pasuran. (Frawly, p. 341)

Comparison to other Western languages
Javanese is similar to western languages in that its sentence structure is arranged in Subject-Verb-Object order. However, it is different in that there is no inflection of noun, adjective or verbs in terms of number or gender. (Strazny, Vo. 1, p. 562)

References

• Brown, K. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Volume 6. (2nd ed.). Elsevier: Oxford, 2006.
• Frawley, W. J. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Vol. 2. (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Strazny, P. Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Vol. 1. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005.
• Herbert, P. and Milner, A. Southeast Asia, Languages and Literatures. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu, 1989.
• LLamzon, T. A. Papers on Southeast Asian Languages: an Introduction to the Languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.  Singapore University Press, 1979.
• Kratz, E. U. Southeast Asian Languages and Literatures: A Bibliographical Guide to Burmese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Javanese, Malay, Minangkabau, Thai and Vietnamese. Tauris Academic Studies: London, New York, 1996.