Javanese language

Introduction

Javanese is an Austronesian language belonging to the Sundic sub-branch of Hesperonesian (also called Western Malayo-Polynesians) sub-branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subfamily of the Austronesian super family. Malay is a fairly close relative; it can be considered as a cousin of Javanese. Other close relatives include Sundanese, Madurese and Balinese. It is still closely related but to a lesser extent to various Sumatran languages and various Borneo languages, including Malagasy. Javanese is mainly spoken in the Indonesian island of Java. In Java, Javanese is spoken on the north coast of West Java, Central and East Java. In Sunda (West Java), Madura, Bali and Lombok, Javanese is also used as a literary language.

Javanese is one of the Austronesian languages, which has been attested quite early. Javanese in various stages of its development is one of the classical languages of Southeast Asia and can also be regarded as one of the classical languages of the world as well, with a vast literature spanning more than 12 centuries. Scholars divide the development of Javanese language in four different stages:

Although many manuscripts containing the older literature have been found throughout the island of Java, it is however particularly to the Balinese people, that much of the older literature has been preserved. Javanese is the Austronesian language with the richest written literature covering all fields.

Javanese has been written with the Javanese script, a descendant of the Brahmi script of India, Arabo-Javanese script, Arabic script that is modified for Javanese and Latin script.

Although not an official language anywhere, Javanese is by far the Austronesian language with the largest number of native speakers. It is estimated that it is spoken or understood by at least 80 millions people. At least 45 % of the whole population of Indonesia is of Javanese descent or live in an area where Javanese is the dominant language. Four out of five presidents of Indonesia since 1945 are of Javanese descent. It is therefore not surprising that Javanese has a deep impact on the development of Bahasa Indonesia or Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia, which is a modern dialect of Malay.

Totally there are three main dialects of Modern Javanese: Western Javanese, Central Javanese and Eastern Javanese. There is a dialect continuum from Banten in the extreme west of Java to Banyuwangi, in the foremost eastern corner of the island. The Central Javanese variant, based on the speech of Surakarta (and also to a degree of Yogyakarta), is considered as the most ‘refined’ Javanese dialect. Accordingly standard Javanese is based on this dialect. These two cities are the seats of the four Javanese principalities, heirs to the dynasty of Mataram II, which once reigned over almost the whole of Java and beyond. Eastern Javanese dialect is ranged from eastern banks of Kali Brantas in Kertosono until Banyuwangi. However, the dialect is always referred to Surabayan speech. Recently, since 2003 an East Java local television (JTV) has broadcast some of its programmes in East Javanese dialect (based-on Surabayan and Malangan speeches). The programmes are Pojok kampung (News in East Javanese dialect), Kuis RT/RW, Pojok Perkoro(criminal programme in the dialect) and many more.

While in West Java particularly in the north coast , the dialects are distincts for Sundanese influences and still maintain many archaic words. The dialects are Jawa Serang, North coast, Indramayu or Dermayon and Cirebonan or Basa Cerbon.

While in West Java particularly in the north coast , the dialects are distincts for Sundanese influences and still maintain many archaic words. The dialects are Jawa Serang, North coast, Indramayu or Dermayon and Cirebonan or Basa Cerbon.

The dialects are more or less mutually intelligible. However the most aberrant dialect is the dialect of Balambangan or Banyuwangi in the most-eastern part of Java. 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. In the past this area and beyond used to be in possession of Balinese kings and warlords.

As in many languages of Eastern Asia, for example as in Korean, Japanese, Thai, as well the neighbouring Austronesian languages, there are several styles in Javanese speech, which indicate politeness.

Phonology

These are the phonemes of Modern Standard Javanese.
Vowels:

The pronunciation of the vowels is rather complicated. But the main characteristic of the standard dialect of Surakarta is that, /a/ in open-word final syllables and penultimate syllables is pronounced as [(ò)] as in English ‘hot’ or in French ‘os’. For the structure of Javanese syllable please refer below. Words consisting of more than three syllables are broken up in groups of words containing two syllables for the pronunciation.

Consonants:

• The phonemes between parentheses are allophones; the retroflex phonemes are represented as C+h; the palatal nasal is written with a tilde, other symbols are SAMPA.
  

Javanese, together with Madurese, are both the only Austronesian languages, which possess retroflex phonemes. Madurese even possesses aspirated phonemes including at least one aspirated retroflex phoneme. Some scholars assume this might be an influence of the Sanskrit, but other scholars believe this can also be an independent development within the Austronesian super family. Interesting to note is the fact 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. By the way, Achinese and Balinese also possess a retroflex voiceless stop, but this is merely an allophone of /t/. As in other Austronesian languages, native Javanese roots consist of two syllables. A Javanese syllable can be of the following type: nCsvVC. n=nasal, C=consonant, sv= semivowel (/y/, /r/, /l/ and /w/), V=vowel and C=consonant. But a bi-syllabic root is in Modern Javanese of the following type: nCsvVnCsvVC.