not use in polite society Javanese has its fair share of these, and a number have been included here, as they represent an essential, intimate, part of the lexicon, although speakers may disagree about the degree of acceptability of such words.
4. This Dictionary
Having lived in Yogyakarta in 1972-3 (as assistant to Professor P.J. Zoetmulder, working on his Old Javanese dictionary), and again for shortish periods in 1983 and 1985 in Muntilan and Sleman (under the Indonesian Studies Program of Leiden University), I had felt a certain measure of frustration trying to work with the existing dictionaries, because of their various shortcomings, alluded to above. At the same time, experience in the field showed what a difficult subject of study the Javanese language is. Again and again words were not to be found: sometimes apparently very common, simple ones, and sometimes terms pertaining to the realities of everyday life in the countryside. There is no doubt that there is a long way to go before our coverage is even moderately complete. Well aware, then, of the dangers, I had toyed with the idea of a concise dictionary of Modern Javanese that might replace Pigeaud and Home, for the benefit of foreign students of the language.
After departure from the University of Leiden early in 1991 and a hurried application for funding to the Australian Research Council, the die was cast when, unbelievably, the project was funded. This made it possible to recruit a native-speaker, Drs Singgih Wibisono, as full-time Research Associate, freed from his position at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta for a three-year period to work at Monash University on compiling a Javanese-English dictionary.
The aim of the project was very modest—it had to be, given that the team consisted of only two, and the funding would last only three years. The aim was to compare the existing dictionaries, and on this basis to combine data and compile a new one. At the same time, bearing in mind the limited scope, certain rare or very specialised items would be dropped, and replaced with a small number of new items, drawn from the authors' own experience of the language. The intention was consciously to do justice to the cultural content of words, in particular drawing on Singgih Wibisono's insider knowledge of wayang and dance. There was, however, no attempt to analyse fresh materials in a systematic way, and the computer was used only for word-processing. To be specific, the sources were the dictionaries of Pigeaud, Poerwadarminta and Home, supplemented with Gericke-Roorda and Jansz. We acknowledge our debt to these predecessors, without whom it would have been impossible to come as far as this.
Scope
This dictionary does not intend or pretend to be complete. In order to be reasonably complete, much more research, both in written sources and in the field, would be needed, but then the result would be huge. So we beg the reader's indulgence if a particular word or shade of meaning is not listed.
On the other hand, some words are likely to be found that are unfamiliar to some native speakers, perhaps because they are taken from a certain dialect or are now obsolete. We may even have erred on the generous side, out of an interest in the historical, bearing in mind the developments that have occurred over time. For comparison with earlier phases of the Javanese language, readers are invited to consult P.J. Zoetmulder's OldJavanese-English Dictionary of 1982, which covers both Old and Middle Javanese and is based on a wide range of sources, with examples from them arranged chronologically for convenience.
This dictionary aims firstly to be moderately complete for contemporary Javanese in order to include vocabulary needed for communication and for using published materials. The choice of items for inclusion does contain a subjective element, but has been guided by a native speaker's feeling for what is useful. The dictionary lists a large number of items marked as reg; these are words which are felt to be non-standard, in the sense of being either restricted to a particular area (dialectal) or to a certain social group (sociolectal) The dictionary aims secondly to take account of a time dimension, in that it contains items which are possibly no longer current in spoken Javanese. No mark has been given to these, in view of the difficulty of identifying them, as mentioned above. However, words which are unlikely to be found in the spoken language but are important for literary sources are marked with the sign lit.
It goes without saying that each language level is represented. The marks kr (Krama) and h.i. (Krama Inggil) are only provided when these forms differ from Ngoko. In other words, if there is no indication the word is common to all levels. Where both Ngoko and Krama forms exist, the full description is given under the Ngoko, and only a concise one under the Krama, so that the reader should also refer to the Ngoko.
There has been no attempt to provide etymologies for loanwords, despite the special interest of this subject, due to a lack of research, and it has not been possible to include example sentences, due to a lack of space. One hopes that the definitions will be clear enough to speak for themselves.
The present dictionary will be found to rely heavily on both Pigeaud and Home, but will contain a little more than either of these, although there are also words from both that have been deliberately omitted as being unnecessary for the non-specialist user.
The greatest challenge has been to provide meanings in clear English that come as close as possible to covering the areas of meaning of the Javanese words. In this respect it is hoped that this dictionary constitutes an advance on both Pigeaud and Home. It was felt particularly important to be accurate with items that have a special cultural content, e.g. beliefs, the arts, or religion. With other items it was not possible, for reasons of space, to go into much detail, for example with the names of plants; for the Latin names, the reader should consult E S.A. de Clerq's Nieuw Planthundig Woordenboek voor Nederlandsch Indie (New Botanical Dictionary for the Netherlands Indies) of 1909. For fields such as animals, including insects, no source was available to us, while John MacKinnon's Field Guide to the Birds of Java and Bali (1988) was useless, as it gives the Latin, English and Indonesian names for the birds, but not the Javanese and Balinese—surely the most relevant ones for the people concerned!
5. Arrangement
Homonyms are indicated with roman numerals: e.g. I, II, III.
Items are listed under their base-word, not their derived forms. Javanese has an interesting morphology, whereby a range of derived forms can exist based on one base-word. It is useful to be able to compare these under one heading.
This means that in such cases the user has to be able to "deconstruct" a derived form, in order to find it. This applies mainly to the verbal system, but also to a lesser extent to some nouns and adjectives. The commonest difficulty occurs with nasalised forms, and sometimes it has not been possible to decide which form is the real base-word; in such instances a cross-reference will assist.
It will not be necessary to give a full account of Javanese grammar here, as students of Javanese will already be familiar with it. The following descriptions can be used for reference in conjunction with the dictionary:
Horne, E.C.: Javanese-English Dictionary. 1974, pp. xix-xxvii.
Robson, Stuart: Javanese Grammar for Students. Monash Papers on Southeast Asia No. 26, 1992.
Sudaryanto (ed.): Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa jawa. Duta Wacana U.P. 1991.
Suharno, Ignatius: A Descriptive Study of Javanese. Pacific Linguistics Series D No. 45. 1982.
Below are some notes which will help to clarify the arrangement of forms, and the meanings associated with them.
Verbs
Some verbs have a simple form, but many feature nasalisation, i.e. a nasal sound in initial position, often in combination with a suffix. The rules for formation are:
| Initial letter | Form of nasal | Example |
| any vowel | ng- | aku - ngaku |
| p | replaced by m | pinggir - minggir |
| b | m- prefixed | bali - mbalèni |
| t | replaced by n- |