History of Javanese Language and Classification

 

History of Javanese Language and Classification

Javanese is an Austronesian language which is mainly spoken by the Javanese in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java. Javanese is also spoken by the Javanese diaspora in other parts of Indonesia, such as in Sumatra and Kalimantan, as well as outside Indonesia, such as in Suriname, the Netherlands and Malaysia.

The total number of Javanese speakers is estimated at around 75.5 million in 2006. As an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup, Javanese is also closely related to Malay, Sundanese, Balinese and many other languages ​​in Indonesia, although scholars still debate its position. certainly in the Malayo-Polynesian family. Javanese has the status of an official language in the Special Region of Yogyakarta in addition to Indonesian.

The history of Javanese writing begins in the 9th century in the form of the Old Javanese language, which later evolved to became the New Javanese language around the 15th century. The Javanese language was originally written with a script system from India which was later adapted into Javanese script, although today's Javanese language is more often written with the Latin alphabet. Javanese has the oldest literary tradition among the Austronesian languages.

Nouns in Java are generally placed before the attributes that modify them. Verbs can be divided into transitive and intransitive forms, active and passive forms, or differentiated based on their mode (indicative, ireal/subjunctive, imperative, and positive). Javanese recognizes the distinction between several speech levels whose use is determined by the degree of closeness of relationship or differences in social status between the speaker and the interlocutor or the person being spoken of.

Classification of the Javanese language

The position of the "Javanese" language in the Austronesian language family according to several classification schemes of linguists from time to time.

Javanese is part of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. However, the degree of kinship of Javanese with other Malayo-Polynesian languages ​​is difficult to determine. Using the lexicostatistic method, in 1965 the linguist Isidore Dyen classified Javanese into a group he called "Javo-Sumatra Hesion", which also includes Sundanese and the "Malayic" languages. This group is also called "Malay-Javanic" by linguist Berndt Nothofer who first attempted to reconstruct the ancestry of the languages ​​in this hypothetical group with data that at that time was limited to only four languages ​​(Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, and Malay).

History of the Javanese Language

Broadly speaking, the development of the Javanese language can be divided into two different language phases, namely Old Javanese and New Javanese.

Old Javanese Language

The earliest form of Old Javanese language preserved in writing, the Sukabumi Inscription, dates from 804 AD. From the 9th century to the 15th century, this variety of languages ​​was commonly used on the island of Java. Old Javanese language is usually written in the form of stanza poems. This variety is sometimes referred to as kawi 'literary language', although this term also refers to archaic elements in the New Javanese writing variety. The writing system used to write Old Javanese is an adaptation of the Pallawa script originating from India. Nearly 50% of the total vocabulary in Old Javanese writings is rooted in Sanskrit, although Old Javanese also has borrowed words from other languages. others in the archipelago.

The variety of Old Javanese used in several manuscripts from the 14th century onwards is sometimes referred to as "Middle Javanese". Although the Old Javanese and Middle Javanese varieties were no longer widely used in Java after the 15th century, they are still commonly used in Bali for religious ritual purposes.

New Javanese Language

The New Javanese language grew into the main literary variety of the language along with the arrival of Islamic influences. At first, the standard variety of the New Javanese language was based on the variety of languages ​​in the northern coast of Java, where the people at that time had converted to Islam. Many of the written works in this variety of languages ​​have Islamic nuances, and some of them are translations from Malay. The New Javanese language also adopted Arabic letters and adapted them into Pegon letters.

The rise of Mataram caused the variety of standard Javanese writings to shift from the coastal areas to the interior. This variety of writing was later preserved by the writers of Surakarta and Yogyakarta, and became the basis for the standard variety of Javanese language today. Another language development associated with the rise of Mataram in the 17th century is the distinction between the speech levels of ngoko and krama. This speech level distinction is not known in the Old Javanese language.

Printed books in Javanese began to appear in the 1830s, initially in Javanese script, although later the Latin alphabet was also used.