The Brief History of Javanese Language

Javanese is the first language of Javanese people who lives in Central Java Province, Special Region of Yogyakarta, East Java, Banten, Lampung, around Medan. Even it is also spoken in transmigration areas in Indonesia, such as Riau, Jambi, Central Kalimantan, and some places overseas, they are Suriname, the Netherlands, New Caledonia, and the West Coast of Johor. The number of Javanese speaker is now 75.5 million. In the world there are 6,703 languages. The Javanese language is positioned on the 11^th in the terms of the largest number of speakers. It could be such a pride for Javanese people whose language spoken in so many parts of the world. However, do you know the history of Javanese language? Read all these paragraphs to know it.

• The Origin of Javanese Language

The Java language belongs to the Austronesian language. Austronesian language is the language used by the native people who live in the southeast Asian continent. The development of the Austronesian language in the Philippines becomes the tagalok language which is the national language of the Philippines. While the Austronesian language in Indonesia developed into several regional languages ​​or local languages ​​namely the Java language, Sundanese language as well as language Madura.

Javanese at that time did not yet have letters or script, and the Java language that existed at the time was an ancient Javanese language or also called Kawi language. It proven with the discovery of Pallawa inscriptions using Sanskrit, & nbsp; just as it is written on the Yupa inscription in East Kalimantan.

In addition to the above there is also another explanation which states that the ancient Javanese language at that time mixed with Hindu people then born a mixed language that is Java and sansekerta by using Hinduism. The evidence of the inscription proves that Hindus associate with Javanese, as evidenced by the numerous inscriptions found as found in Dieng in 731 years or 909 BC.

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• The Old Javanese Language

Javanese language was evolved from Old Javanese. While the Old Javanese language developed from Ancient Javanese Ancient. Java language or called New Javanese / Modern language used by the people of Java since around the 16th century until now. The New Javanese language was developed along with the shift of Hindu-Buddhist-Javanese culture to Javanese-Islamic culture.

The New Javanese language, which is widely influenced by Arabic vocabulary, is used as a vehicle both spoken and written in an Islamic-Javanese culture. In that atmosphere the written variety of Javanese is not only written in Javanese and Latin characters, but also written in Arabic. Arabic letters are used and adapted to the Java language system and converted into Pegon letters.

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• The first usage of Javanese Language

The history of the use of ancient Javanese language began on 25 March 804. This date was contained on the Sukabumi inscription (Kediri) (726 Ś). Knowledge of Old Javanese language before 804 was derived from sources written in languages other than Old Javanese. The source comes from Indonesia and from outside Indonesia. It was written in Sanskrit and Old Malay in the form of inscriptions. Outside sources are from China (note I Cing). From Chinese sources it is known that there were indigenous languages (k’un lun) used by the Javanese population, and a plausible possibility was the Old Javanese language.

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• The split of Javanese language

In the past there was a noble named Aji Saka. He was a poet, which was now called the alphabet of the Javanese letter named Aksara Jawa. This poem is used as calendar. Java tribe which is a native of central and eastern part of Java Island. And the language used in communicating everyday Java tribe is the Java language. The origin of the Javanese tribe relating to the language used is the Java language. Officially distinguish between two types of Java language used by the Java community:

1. Javanese ngoko language that serves to communicate with people who are familiar, people who are almost the same age or other people we talk to but the person is a low social status.
2. Javanese language kromo, which serves as a medium of communication to people who are not yet familiar, to communicate with parents or people with high social status. And in kromo language is still divided into two parts, namely: kromo madya and kromo smooth or kromo inggil.
3. Medium Kromo is usually used as a colloquial language or social language that is more polite than ngoko language, while kromo inggil language is usually used to speak to an elderly person or a person who has a position with a higher social status or a respected person and respected in the community.

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• The history of Ngoko and Krama Inggil Javanese

Ngoko is the informal language of Javanese, while Kromo inggil is the formal one. Javanese Ngoko is the root of all the vocabulary of Java. The number of vocabulary Ngoko reaches hundreds of thousands, Kromo has 850 words, and Kromo inggil only has 250 words. This was due to the political-cultural crisis since the 16th century and increasingly stronger when the Dutch colonization that simultaneously fossilized the power of Java and to make the feudalism among relationships of members of the kingdom with its people. This causes the gap so far between upper and lower society. The real form of power of the Java ruler (de facto) has been lost. Javanese kings are a Dutch-controlled live puppet.

Here comes a hierarchy of Java language rooted in feudalism. And it was considered to be in favor of the invaders at that time, as it could smooth its power secretly behind the king. This is the reason why Kromo language has very little vocabulary, caused in order to control what will be said. It is also because of the support to the nobility system.

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• The usage of Ngoko and Krama Inggil

Procedures for the use of Javanese kromo-ngoko mother language began to be used during the reign of Sultan Agung. In ngoko language, used for peers or equal, there is no glorious term in the other person, while in chromo language imaged as a courtesy in speaking, showing elegance in speaking. This level is used by the downstairs, as well as in official circumstances, as well as unknown persons. The history of Javanese Kromo is used by nobles to enlarge the gap between the upper and lower classes, but for us now it should be used to speak to parents, on the basis of our manners.

Those are the history of Javanese language. Hopefully, the Javanese language will be preserved well as the asset of culture in Indonesia. The more people this kind of language in over the world, the culture of Java as the part of Indonesia will be more popular.

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