Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/598

 578 JAVA (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) in " The Malay Archipelago " (London and New York, 1869; and in W. II. Seward's "Travels around the World" (New York, 1873). JAVA, Langnage and Literature <>!'. Javanese, spoken in Java and several small adjacent isl- ands, belongs to the Malayan division of the Malayo-Polynesian group of languages, and is most closely related to Malay proper. It has the peculiarity of employing special forms and flexions for addressing superior or inferior persons. The manner of speaking to subordi- nates is called bdsd noko, or simply noko, com- manding speech; and that to superiors bdsd krdmd, or only krdmd, humble speech. A third mode of conversing, namely, between equals, or as a condescension toward a person of lower rank, is called bdsd madyd, middle speech. In the presence of the sovereign or his ambassadors still another form of speaking is observed, called bdsd kraton, the court lan- guage. The ancient Javanese literature, the beginnings of which can be traced to the first century of our era, is written in a language thor- oughly impregnated with Sanskrit elements, and bearing the name of Kavi, the poet's tongue. The Sunda language, spoken in the western portion of the island, is somewhat related to Javanese, but is clearly distinguished from it by many peculiarities. The Javanese alphabet consists of 20 consonants and 6 vowel sounds ; but the latter are not considered by the natives to form part of it, as they are only supplemen- tary characters, as in Arabic. The graphic system is derived from the Indian Devanagari. HID Jin ho Kl ^ no IN) fo tyo Tl Ifl ro KU1 Oft/" ko rui Ji po O (ft) do . (l^, G> dyo win aim yo OH Jj| nyo ((Ji (5- do (dho) jgl ^j mo <xw /la/ to (inn nnn go 901 .^ so O (II bo /Ul j vo P CO t'o (tho) irui w 10 in an ngo The Javanese employ at the end of words abridged forms of the regular characters, as given in the second column of the alphabet. These twenty letters represent the native sounds only. There are besides the haksdrd gede or haksdrd mvrda, large or capital letters, which are intended to be used in rendering Indie words, but rarely employed. Arabic sounds are indicated by a diacritic sign, con- sisting of three dots, above the letters. The foreign elements of the language are muti- lated, nevertheless, in as great a degree as Chinese is distorted by the Japanese. The sounds f and ch are wanting. Consonants have an inherent o, for which reason many Indian words possessing the vowel a are pro- nounced with o, without necessarily a change in the orthography. The gender and number of nouns are indicated by accompanying ad- jectives. The genitive case is formed by in- flection, but tho other relations of words are either expressed by prepositions or left to be inferred. Adjectives admit of no distinction of gender, number, or case, and of comparison only by extrinsic means. Pronouns are equal- ly invariable. There is none for the third per- son singular or plural, none for the second person plural, and only Jiaku in N6k6 for the first person singular, kitd and kami for the same in the plural, and kove for the second person singular. The suffix pronouns in N6k6 are -ku, I ; -mu, thou ; -he, he ; the last is ren- dered -na in Krama, and the second person singular -ta in Kavi. It is customary, however, to omit pronouns, and when possible to use in- stead the titles of the person addressed. There are other pronominal forms, but not properly such, which are used profusely in humble and ceremonial forms of speech. The simple form of the verb indicates present time, but for clearness or emphasis some word signifying now or still is introduced. Past time is ex- pressed by the particle tampun in Krama, hempun in middle, and win or wus in N6k6, meaning past or already. The particle bade in Krama, bakal in N6ko, or the word harsd in the former, Jiarep in the latter, meaning to will, or the will, indicates the future tense. The ac- tive and passive voices are distinguished, but the latter is not properly such, and rather a nom- inal form. Thus the verb tandak, to seize, is conjugated as follows : haku nandak, I seize ; haku vis nyandak, I have seized ; haku bakal nyandak, I shall seize ; and dak tandak, by me has been seized. Verbs obtain a passive mean- ing also by inserting in, as rayah, to rob, rina- yah, to be robbed. The infix um forms neuter verbs. For the numerals see the comparative table in the article on the Malayo-Polynesian languages. Most of the parts of speech can be changed one into another by the use of pre- fixes, suffixes, or infixes, either singly or com- bined. While the language is very copious in some respects, it is exceedingly meagre in oth- ers. There are two and even three names for some metals, but there is no equivalent for metal or mineral ; so there is no word for ani- mal, while there are five words for dog, six for hog, and seven for horse. There are expres- sions for 10 ways of standing, and 20 of sitting ; and there are 50 for the different modifications of sound. Thus in unimportant trifles the Jav- anese language has a store of endless distinc- tions, while useful words, or such as seem to us absolutely necessary, are utterly wanting. LITERATURE. There is a multitude of chron- icles and historical works written in Javanese. Other ancient books are religious, Buddhistic,