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. It is a Western Malayo-Polynesian language and it is therefore similar to the Old Malay language. Map showing East Java within Indonesia East Java (Indonesian: Jawa Timur) is one of Indonesias 32 provinces. ... Madura is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java, near the port of Surabaya. ... Bali is an Indonesian island located at , , one of the Lesser Sunda Islands. ... An extinct language (also called a dead language) is a language which no longer has any native speakers. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... 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 Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Javanese language is the spoken language of the people in the central and eastern part of the island of Java, in Indonesia. ... [[|right|frame|Map of Central Java province within Indonesia]] Central Java (Indonesian: Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia. ... Map showing East Java within Indonesia East Java (Indonesian: Jawa Timur) is one of Indonesias 32 provinces. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

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. Events August 25 - Marcian proclaimed Eastern Roman Emperor by Aspar and Pulcheria. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 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. ... Javanese script is the script that Javanese is originally written in (not to be confused with Javascript, which is a programming language). ...

Development

Old Javanese was not static, and its usage covered a period of approximately 500 years – from the Sukabumi inscription until the founding of the Majapahit empire in 1292. The Javanese language which was spoken and written in the Majapahit era already underwent some changes and is therefore already closer to the Modern Javanese language. The Majapahit Empire was an Indianized kingdom based in eastern Java from 1293 to around 1500. ... For broader historical context, see 1290s and 13th century. ... Javanese is a term used to describe a native of the Indonesian island of Java. ...

Austronesian origins

The most important shaping force on Old Javanese was its Austronesian heritage in vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar that it shared with its sister languages in Southeast-Asia.

Sanskrit influence

The Indian linguistic influence on Old Javanese was almost exclusively a Sanskrit influence. There is practically no influence of non-Sanskrit Indian elements in Old Javanese unlike for example the (Old) Malay language.

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. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Phonology

Despite the tremendous influence of Sanskrit on Old Javanese, the latter has remained an Austronesian language. However Sanskrit has influenced not only the vocabulary, but also the phonology of Old Javanese. Old Javanese also contains the so called retroflex consonants which might have been derived from Sanskrit. But this fact is disputed by several linguists as they hold the view that it is also possible that the occurrence of these retroflex consonants is an independent development within the Austronesian language family.

Vocabulary

A related question is the form in which Sanskrit words were loaned in Old Javanese. The borrowed Sanskrit words in Old Javanese are almost without exceptions nouns and adjectives in their undeclined form (Sanskrit lingga).

Old Javanese literature

Old Javanese literature can be divided in several genres such as the afore mentioned kakawin and prose.