Javanese script

Morphology

Javanese is, like other Austronesian languages, an agglutinative language. Base words can be modified using extensive apply of affixes.

Syntax

Modern Javanese usually has SVO word order. But Old Javanese particularly had VSO or sometimes VOS word orders. Even in Modern Javanese archaic sentences using VSO structure can still be made.
Examples:
Modern Javanese: ‘Dheweke (S) těka (V) neng (pp.) kĕdhaton (O)’.
Old Javanese: ‘Těka (V) ta (part.) sira (S) ri (pp.) ng (def. art.) kadhatwan (O)’.
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. Also 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 this is expressed by auxiliary words as in Malay such as yesterday or by other tense indicators such as already. On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to express the different status of the subject and object. As other Austronesian languages, Javanese is an agglutinative language.
But 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. Topic is the head of the sentence, comment is the modifier. So our Javanese above-mentioned sentence could then be described as follows:
Dheweke = topic tĕka = comment neng kĕdhaton = setting.

Vocabulary

Javanese has a rich vocabulary, not only do native Austronesian words make up the vocabulary but also many foreign borrowings as well. Sanskrit has had a deep and lasting impact on the vocabulary of the Javanese language. In the Old Javanese – English Dictionary, written by professor P.J. Zoetmulder s.j. (1982), no less than 12.500 out of a total entry of 25.500 consist of borrowings from Sanskrit. It is obvious that this large number doesn’t say anything about their usage. It is merely 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.

Many Sanskrit words are still in use nowadays. Modern Javanese speakers refer to much of the Old Javanese and Sanskrit words as kawi words, which roughly can be translated as ‘literary’. Other borrowings include loanwords from Arabic, Dutch and Malay. But their numbers are considerably much lower than the Sanskrit borrowings. The number of the Arabic loanwords is much lower 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’ (Arabic, fikr), badan, ‘body’, mripat, ‘eye’ (thought to be from Arabic ma’rifah ‘knowledge’ or as a derived meaning ‘vision’, hence ‘eyes’). But usually these Arabic words also have their native Austronesian and or Sanskrit equivalents. In this case mripat = mata (Austronesian), soca, netra (Sanskrit), badan = awak (Austronesian), slira, sarira, angga (Sanskrit), pikir = galih, idhĕp (Austronesian), manah, cipta, cita (Sanskrit).

Dutch loanwords usually have the same form and meaning as in Indonesian but there are few exceptions. For examples: pit, ‘bicycle’ (Dutch fiets) for Indonesian ‘sepeda’, pit montor ‘motor bicycle’ (Dutch motorfiets) for Indonesian ‘sepeda motor’ and sepur ‘train’ (Dutch spoor, i.e. (rail)track) for Indonesian ‘kereta api’. The latter is interesting, as ‘sepur’ also exists in Indonesian. Its meaning has preserved the Dutch meaning more faithfully, i.e. railway tracks.

Due to the status of Malay as lingua franca of the Indonesian archipelago in former times and later as the official and national language of Indonesia, there has been an influx of Malay and Indonesian vocabulary recently. Many of these are concerned with the bureaucracy or politics.

Politeness

As in many languages of Eastern Asia, for example as in Korean, Japanese, Thai, as well the neighbouring Austronesian languages, there are several styles, sometimes calles levels, in Javanese speech, depending on the social context. These styles are characterised by their own vocabulary, grammatical rules and even has distinct prosody.

In Javanese these styles are called:
1. Ngoko, this is the informal speech, between friends and close relatives. It is also used by persons with a higher status to persons with a lower status, for example older people to younger people or bosses to subordinates.
2. Madya, this is the intermediary form between ngoko and krama . For example people on the street, where one does not want to be too informal or does not want to be too polite either, use it.
3. Krama, this is the polite or the formal style. Used between persons of the same status without wanting to be informal. This is also the official style used for a public speech, announcement etc.

However, there are also ‘meta-style’ words, these are the honorifics and humilifics. When one talks about oneself, one has to be humble. But when one speaks of someone else with a higher status or whom one wants to be respectful to, honorific terms are used. Status is defined by age, social position etc. The humilific words are called krama andhap words while the honorific words are called krama inggil words. For examples, children often use the ngoko style when talking to the parents. But they have to use krama inggil words both inggil and andhap. Below some examples are provided to explain these different styles.

Ngoko: Aku arěp mangan (I want to eat)
Madya: Kula ajěng nědha.
Krama: (Neutral) Kula badhe nědha. (Humble) Dalěm badhe nědha.
Mixed: (Honorific) Bapak kěrsa dhahar ? (Do you want to eat? Addressed to someone with a high(er) status. Literally meaning: Does father want to eat?) (reply towards persons with lower status) Iya, aku kěrsa dhahar. (Yes, I want to eat). (reply towards persons with lower status, but without having the need to express one’s superiority) Iya, aku arěp mangan. (reply towards persons with same status) Inggih, kula badhe nědha.

The employ of these different styles is very complicated and imposes good knowledge of the Javanese culture. These different styles are one of the things, which make it difficult for foreigners to learn Javanese. On the other hand, these different styles of speech are actually not mastered well by the majority of Javanese. Most people, especially the less educated ones only master the first style and a rudimentary form of the second style. Persons who have correct mastery of these different styles are held in high esteem.