The Javanese language is the spoken language of the people in the central and eastern part of the island of Java, in Indonesia. It is the native language of more than 75,500,000 people. Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... Map of Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia (or Semenanjung Malaysia in the Malay language) is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula, and shares a land border with Thailand in the north. ... This is a list of languages placed in order by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages used by some 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 which include the languages of Sulawesi and the Greater Sunda Islands, as well as a few outliers such as Charmorro and Palauan, as outlined in Wouk and Ross (2002). ... Writing systems of the world today. ... Javanese script is the script that Javanese is originally written in (not to be confused with Javascript, which is a programming language). ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... 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 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Indonesian Osing people are the descendants of the Majapahit princes who refused to convert to Islam in the 16th century. ... The Tenggerese are the descendants of the Majapahit princes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the worlds writing systems. ... Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ...

The Javanese language is part of the Austronesian family, and is therefore related to Indonesian and Malay. Many speakers of Javanese also speak Indonesian for official and business purposes, and to communicate with non-Javanese Indonesians. The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Malay language (Malay: Bahasa Melayu; Jawi script: بهاس ملايو), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official... Javanese is a term used to describe a native of the Indonesian island of Java. ...

There are large communities of Javanese-speaking people in Malaysia, especially in the states of Selangor and Johore. (The Chief Minister of Selangor, Khir Toyo, is an ethnic Javanese.) However, the Javanese language is not mutually intelligible with Malay. State motto: Dipelihara Allah State anthem: Duli Yang Maha Mulia Capital Shah Alam Royal capital Klang Ruling party Barisan Nasional  - Sultan Sultan Sharafuddin  - Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo History    - Federated into FMS 1895   - Japanese occupation 1942   - Accession into Federation of Malaya 1948  Area  - Total 7,956 km² Population  - 2005... State Motto: the state moto as appeared on the coat of arms reads kepada Allah berserah which literally means all hopes is to God (Allah) Capital Johor Bahru Bandar DiRaja Bandar Maharani Sultan Iskandar Al-haj Chief minister Abdul Ghani Othman Area 19,984 km² Population 2. ... YAB Dato’ Seri Dr. Mohamed Khir Bin Toyo is the current Dato Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of the state of Selangor in Malaysia. ... The Malay language (Malay: Bahasa Melayu; Jawi script: بهاس ملايو), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official...

For distribution in other parts, as far as South America, see Demographic distribution of Javanese speakers below.

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.

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. 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. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 352 pixelsFull resolution (1427 × 628 pixel, file size: 18 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 352 pixelsFull resolution (1427 × 628 pixel, file size: 18 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages. ... The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... Sundanese (Basa Sunda, literally language of Sunda) is the language of about 27 million people from the western third of Java or about 15% of the Indonesian population. ... The Madurese are an ethnic group originally from the island of Madura but now found in many parts of Indonesia, where they are the third-largest ethnic group by population. ... Balinese is the language spoken by people in the island of Bali, Indonesia. ... Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo and New Guinea, are partially in Indonesia). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Kalimantan. ...

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. It was the court language in Palembang, South Sumatra, until their palace was sacked by the Dutch in the late 18th century. A literary language is a register of a language that is used in writing, and which often differs in lexicon and syntax from the language used in speech. ... Location of Palembang Palembang is a city in the south of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. ... Map of South Sumatra province in Indonesia South Sumatra or Sumatera Selatan is one of the provinces 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:

• Old Javanese, from the 9th century
• Middle Javanese, from the 13th century
• New Javanese, from the 16th century
• Modern Javanese, from 20th century (this classification is not used universally)

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. Writing systems of the world today. ... Brāhmī refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ...

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. The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Malay language (Malay: Bahasa Melayu; Jawi script: بهاس ملايو), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official...

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. All Javanese dialects are more or less mutually intelligible. Map showing Banten within Indonesia Banten is one of the provinces of Indonesia and located at the western end of the island of Java. ... The Regency of Banyuwangi is located at the easternmost end of the island of Java, and it is a very strategic area for one who wants to go to Bali. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Phonology

The phonemes of Modern Standard Javanese.

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).

Note: The phones in parentheses are allophones.

A Javanese syllable can be of the following type: nCsvVC. n=nasal, C=consonant, sv= semivowel (/j/, /r/, /l/ and /w/) and V=vowel. 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. A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... Semivowels (also glides, more rarely: semiconsonants) are non-syllabic vowels that form diphthongs with syllabic vowels. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Javanese, together with Madurese, are the only Austronesian languages to possess retroflex phonemes. (Madurese even 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. 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. 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/. Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the middle dot (·), or to the glyphs combining dot above ( ) and combining dot below ( ) which may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in use in Eastern European languages and Vietnamese. ... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Acehnese (also Achinese, Achehnese) or Aceh (formerly Atjeh) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. ... Balinese is the language spoken by people in the island of Bali, Indonesia. ...

Morphology

Javanese, like other Austronesian languages, is an agglutinative language, where base words are modified through extensive use of affixes. An agglutinative language is a language in which the words are formed by joining morphemes together. ... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Syntax

Modern Javanese usually employs SVO word order. However, Old Javanese particularly had VSO or sometimes VOS word orders. Even in Modern Javanese archaic sentences using VSO structure can still be made. In linguistic typology, subject-verb-object (SVO) is the sequence subject verb object in neutral expressions: Sam ate oranges. ... Verb Subject Object—commonly used in its abbreviated form VSO—is a term in linguistic typology. ... Verb Object Subject - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS - is a term in Linguistic typology. ...

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. 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. The topic is the head of the sentence; the comment is the modifier. So our Javanese above-mentioned sentence could then be described as follows: Dheweke = topic; tĕka = comment; neng kĕdhaton = setting. A topic-prominent language is one that organizes its syntax so that sentences have a topic-comment (or theme-rheme) structure, where the topic is the thing being talked about (predicated) and the comment is what is said about the topic. ... In linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about (predicated). ...

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. The "Old Javanese – English Dictionary", written by professor P.J. Zoetmulder in 1982, contains approximately 25,500 entries, no fewer than 12,500 of which are borrowings from Sanskrit. 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. The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

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". There has been significant word borrowing from Arabic, Dutch and Malay as well, but none as extensively as from Sanskrit. Kawi (from Sanskrit: kāvya, poet) is a language from the islands of Java, Bali and Lombok. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... The Malay language (Malay: Bahasa Melayu; Jawi script: بهاس ملايو), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official...

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:

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. "train"). (Compare the corresponding metonymic use in English: "to travel by rail" may be used metonymically for "to travel by train".) In rhetoric, metonymy is the substitution of one word for another word with which it is associated. ...

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. 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. The Malay language (Malay: Bahasa Melayu; Jawi script: بهاس ملايو), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Politeness

Javanese speech varies depending on social context, yielding three distinct styles, or registers. Each style employs its own vocabulary, grammatical rules and even prosody. This is not unique to Javanese; neighbouring Austronesian languages as well as East Asian languages such as Korean and Japanese share similar constructions. In linguistics, a register is a subset of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. ... In linguistics, prosody refers to intonation, rhythm, and vocal stress in speech. ... East Asia is a subregion of Asia. ...

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. 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 when talking to the parents, but they must use both krama inggil and krama andhap. An honorific is a word or expression that conveys esteem or respect and is used in addressing or referring to a person. ...

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 - Addressed to someone with a high(er) status.) Bapak kěrsa dhahar? (Do you want to eat? 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 the same status) Inggih, kula badhe nědha.

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.

Dialects

There are three main groups of Javanese dialects based on the subregion where the speakers live. 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. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ...

The dialects

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. 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. Surakarta (its formal name; locally it is referred to as Solo) is an Indonesian city of approximately 500,000 people located in Central Java. ... The Special Region of Yogyakarta (Indonesian: Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, or DIY), is a province of Indonesia on the island of Java. ... Central Java (Indonesian: 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. The dialects include North Banten, Banyumasan, Tegal, Jawa Serang, North coast, Indramayu (or Dermayon) and Cirebonan (or Basa Cerbon). Map showing West Java in Indonesia West Java (Jawa Barat) is a province of Indonesia, located on the island of Java. ... The Sundanese are an ethnic group in the western part of the island of Java in Indonesia. ... In modern language classification, the Banyumasan language is usually considered a dialect of Javanese. ...

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. However, the dialect has been influenced by Madurese, and is sometimes referred to as Surabayan speech. 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). The Regency of Banyuwangi is located at the easternmost end of the island of Java, and it is a very strategic area for one who wants to go to Bali. ... East Java (Indonesian: Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia. ... Madura is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java, near the port of Surabaya. ... The Madurese are an ethnic group originally from the island of Madura but now found in many parts of Indonesia, where they are the third-largest ethnic group by population. ... Surabaya (formerly Soerabaja) is Indonesias 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. 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 of Java was in possession of Balinese kings and warlords. The Regency of Banyuwangi is located at the easternmost end of the island of Java, and it is a very strategic area for one who wants to go to Bali. ... Balinese is the language spoken by people in the island of Bali, Indonesia. ...

Pronunciation

Most Javanese people, except those who live in West Java, accept the pronunciation of the phoneme "a" as (ø). Therefore, there is a different pronunciation of many words; for example apa (Eng.=what) is pronounced (apa?) in Western Javanese and (ø:Pø:) 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 (čile?) in Central, (če:le?) in Eastern, and (čilik) in Western Javanese; the word tutup is pronounced (tutop) in Central, (to:top) 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 (rika?), Eastern Javanese use kon (køn), and Central Javanese speakers say kowe (kowe). Another example is the expression of "how": the Tegal dialect of Western Javanese uses kepriben (kěpribèn), the Banyumasan dialect of Western Javanese employs kepriwe (kěpriwe) or kepriwen (kěpriwen), Eastern Javanese speakers say yok apa (yø?øpø) - originally means "like what" (Javanese: kaya apa), and Central Javanese speakers say piye (piye). For the place, it is better to say Banyumas. ...

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. 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. 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. 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 Java. ... Events August 25 - Marcian proclaimed Eastern Roman Emperor by Aspar and Pulcheria. ... is the 84th day of the year (85th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 25 - The Inscription of Sukabumi from Eastern Java marks the beginning of the Javanese language. ... Inscriptions are words or letters written, engraved, painted, or otherwise traced on a surface and can appear in contexts both small and monumental. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Tamil script. ... Javanese script is the script that Javanese is originally written in (not to be confused with Javascript, which is a programming language). ...

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, Rāmâyaṇa. A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... Indonesian version of the Ramayana. ... For the television series by Ramanand Sagar, see Ramayan (TV series). ...

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 Rāmâyaņa, and a Javanese rendering of the Indian Mahabharata epic are studied assiduously today. For the film by Peter Brook, see The Mahabharata (1989 film). ...

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. 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. Events May 20 - King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcala The Minoresses (Franciscan nuns) are first introduced into England Births Deaths Categories: 1293 ... A Hindu ( , Devanagari: हिन्दु), as per modern definition, is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, and the religious, philosophical and cultural system that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... The Majapahit Empire was based in eastern Java and ruled much of the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali from about 1293 to around 1500. ... Madura is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java, near the port of Surabaya. ... Bali is an Indonesian island located at , the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. ... Centuries: 13th century - 14th century - 15th century Decades: 1310s 1320s 1330s 1340s 1350s - 1360s - 1370s 1380s 1390s 1400s 1410s Years: 1358 1359 1360 1361 1362 - 1363 - 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 See also: 1363 state leaders Events Magnus II, King of Sweden, is deposed by Albert of Mecklenburg. ...

See also: Kawi language

Kawi is a language from the islands of Java, Bali and Lombok. ...

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. 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. 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. 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. Islam (Arabic: ; ( â–¶ (help· info)), the submission to God) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions and the worlds second-largest religion. ... The Sultanate of Demak was founded in the 16th century by Raden Patah (1475-1518), once a vassal of the declining Majapahit Empire. ... A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which the capital letters, interpreted in Roman numerals, stand for a particular date if rearranged. ... Events February 18 - George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is privately executed in the Tower of London. ...

New Javanese

In the 16th century a new era in Javanese history began with the rise of the Islamic Central Javanese empire Mataram II, 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. Mataram was the last major independent Javanese empire on Java before the island was colonized by the Dutch. ... Demak is a main town in Central Java, Indonesia. ...

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. 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. The Malay language (Malay: Bahasa Melayu; Jawi script: بهاس ملايو), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo and even in the Netherlands[1]. It is an official...

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.

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. However, the greatest concentration of speakers is found in the six provinces of Java itself, and in the neighbouring Sumatran province of Lampung. Below, a table with an estimated number of native speakers is provided. Javanese is a term used to describe a native of the Indonesian island of Java. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Lampung is a province of Indonesia, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. ...

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. The rest of the population mainly speak Sundanese and Indonesian as this province borders directly on Jakarta. Many commuters live in the Jakartan suburbs in Banten, comprising 33% of the total population there. The descendants of the Central Javanese conquerors with their distinct dialect number at least 500,000. Map showing Banten within Indonesia Banten is one of the provinces of Indonesia and located at the western end of the island of Java. ...

At least one third of the population of Jakarta is of Javanese descent and as such speak Javanese or have knowledge of it. 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. Jakarta (also Djakarta or DKI Jakarta), formerly known as Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta and Batavia is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. ... Map showing West Java in Indonesia West Java (Jawa Barat) is a province of Indonesia, located on the island of Java. ... Central Java (Indonesian: Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia. ...

Yogyakarta, also in central Java, is a Special District based on the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. The many universities and schools in this area attract people from throughout Indonesia and the world, and thus the proportion of speakers of Javanese is somewhat lower than would be expected given its location and traditional status as a Javanese cultural centre. The Special Region of Yogyakarta (Indonesian: Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, or DIY), is a province of Indonesia on the island of Java. ...

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. 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. East Java (Indonesian: Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia. ...

In Lampung the original inhabitants, the Lampungese, only make up some 10% of the population. The rest are the so-called "transmigrants", settlers from other parts of Indonesia, many as a result of past government transmigration programs. Most of these transmigrants are Javanese who have settled there since the 19th century. Lampung is a province of Indonesia, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. ... The transmigration program (transmigrasi in Indonesia) was an initiative by the government of Indonesia to move landless people from densely populated areas of Indonesia to less populous areas of the Indonesian archipelago. ...

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. The Republic of Suriname, more commonly known as Suriname or Surinam, (formerly known as Netherlands Guiana and Dutch Guiana) is a country in northern South America, in between French Guiana to the east and Guyana to the west. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...

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.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. There is, however, no longer a daily newspaper in Javanese. A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country, be it may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

See also

Indonesia Portal

• Javanese script
• Java (island)
• Hans Ras
• Banyumasan language
• Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern

Image File history File links Portal. ... Javanese script is the script that Javanese is originally written in (not to be confused with Javascript, which is a programming language). ... Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... Ras around 1976 Johannes Jacobus (Hans) Ras (1 April 1926 – 22 October 2003) was emeritus professor of Javanese language and literature at Leiden University, the Netherlands. ... In modern language classification, the Banyumasan language is usually considered a dialect of Javanese. ... Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern (April 6, 1833–July 7, 1917) was a Dutch linguist. ...

External links

Javanese language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Javanese Writing System
• Ethnologue report on Javanese
• Javanese in Suriname strive to preserve origins Jakarta Post article