A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Javanese | |
|---|---|
| båså Jåwå ꦧꦱꦗꦮ بَاسَا جَاوَا | |
 Basa Jawa (Javanese language) written in the Javanese script | |
| Pronunciation | [bɔsɔ d͡ʒɔwɔ] |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Ethnicity |
|
Native speakers | 68 million (2015)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
Early forms | Old Javanese
|
Standard forms |
|
| Dialects | Javanese dialects |
| Latin script Javanese script Pegon script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Indonesia
|
| Regulated by | Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | jv |
| ISO 639-2 | jav |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:jav – Javanesejvn – Caribbean Javanesejas – New Caledonian Javaneseosi – Osingtes – Tenggerese |
| Glottolog | java1253 Javanesicjava1254 |
| Linguasphere | 31-MFM-a |
 Dark green: areas where Javanese is the majority language. Light green: where it is a minority language. | |
Javanese (/ˌdʒɑːvəˈniːz/ JAH-və-NEEZ,[3] /dʒævə-/ JAV-ə-, /-ˈniːs/ -NEESS;[4] basa Jawa, Javanese script: ꦧꦱꦗꦮ, Pegon: بَاسَا جَاوَا, IPA: [bɔsɔ d͡ʒɔwɔ]) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, Indonesia. There are also pockets of Javanese speakers on the northern coast of western Java. It is the native language of more than 68 million people.[5]
Javanese is the largest of the Austronesian languages in number of native speakers. It has several regional dialects and a number of clearly distinct status styles.[6] Its closest relatives are the neighboring languages such as Sundanese, Madurese, and Balinese. Most speakers of Javanese also speak Indonesian for official and commercial purposes as well as a means to communicate with non-Javanese-speaking Indonesians.
There are speakers of Javanese in Malaysia (concentrated in the West Coast part of the states of Selangor and Johor) and Singapore. Javanese is also spoken by traditional immigrant communities of Javanese descent in Suriname, Sri Lanka and New Caledonia.[7]
Along with Indonesian, Javanese is an official language in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.[2]
Classification
Javanese is part of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family, although its precise relationship to other Malayo-Polynesian languages is hard to determine. Using the lexicostatistical method, Isidore Dyen classified Javanese as part of the "Javo-Sumatra Hesion", which also includes the Sundanese and "Malayic" languages.[a][8][9] This grouping is also called "Malayo-Javanic" by linguist Berndt Nothofer, who was the first to attempt a reconstruction of it based on only four languages with the best attestation at the time (Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, and Malay).[10]
Malayo-Javanic has been criticized and rejected by various linguists.[11][12] Alexander Adelaar does not include Javanese in his proposed Malayo-Sumbawan grouping (which also covers Malayic, Sundanese, and Madurese languages).[12][13] Robert Blust also does not include Javanese in the Greater North Borneo subgroup, which he proposes as an alternative to Malayo-Sumbawan grouping. However, Blust also expresses the possibility that Greater North Borneo languages are closely related to many other western Indonesian languages, including Javanese.[14] Blust's suggestion has been further elaborated by Alexander Smith, who includes Javanese in the Western Indonesian grouping (which also includes GNB and several other subgroups), which Smith considers as one of Malayo-Polynesian's primary branches.[15]
History
In general, the history of the Javanese language can be divided into two distinct phases: 1) Old Javanese and 2) New Javanese.[13][16]
Old Javanese
The earliest attested form of Old Javanese can be found on the Sukabumi inscription, which dates from 804 CE.[17] Between the 8th and the 15th century, this form of Javanese flourished in the island of Java. Old Javanese is commonly written in the form of verses. This language variety is also called kawi or 'of poets, poetical's, although this term could also be used to refer to the archaic elements of New Javanese literature.[13] The writing system used to write Old Javanese is a descendant of the Pallava script from India.[17] Almost half of the entire vocabularies found in Old Javanese literature are Sanskrit loanwords, although Old Javanese also borrowed terms from other languages in the Maritime Southeast Asia.[13][17]
The form of Old Javanese found in several texts from 14th century onward (mostly written in Bali) is sometimes referred to as "Middle Javanese". Both Old and Middle Javanese written forms have not been widely used in Java since early 16th century. However, Old Javanese works and poetic tradition continue to be preserved in the Javanese-influenced Bali, and the variety is also used for religious purposes.[13][18]
Modern Javanese
Modern Javanese emerged as the main literary form of the language in the 16th century. The change in the literary system happened as Islam started to gain influence in Java.[16] In its early form, Modern Javanese literary form was based on the variety spoken in the north coast of Java, where Islam had already gained foothold among the local people. Many of the written works in this variety were Islamic in nature, and several of them were translation from works in Malay.[19] The Arabic abjad was also adopted (as Pegon) to write Javanese.[16][19]
The rise of Mataram in the 17th century shifted the main literary form of Javanese to be based on the inland variety. This written tradition was preserved by writers of Surakarta and Yogyakarta, and later became the basis of the modern written standard of the language.[19] Another linguistic development associated with the rise of Mataram is the stratification of Javanese into speech levels such as ngoko and krama,[20] which were unknown in Old Javanese.[19][20]
Books in Javanese have been printed since 1830s, at first using the Javanese script, although the Latin alphabet started to be used later. Since mid-19th century, Javanese has been used in newspapers and travelogues, and later, also novels, short stories, as well as free verses. Today, it is used in media, ranging from books to TV programs, and the language is also taught at schools in primarily Javanese areas.
Although Javanese is not a national language, it has recognized status as a regional language in the three Indonesian provinces with the biggest concentrations of Javanese people: Central Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java.[citation needed] Javanese is designated as the official language of the Special Region of Yogyakarta under Yogyakarta Special Region Regulation Number 2 of 2021.[2] Previously, Central Java promulgated a similar regulation—Regional Regulation 9/2012[21]—but this did not imply an official status for the language.
Javanese is taught at schools and is used in some mass media, both electronically and in print. There is, however, no longer a daily newspaper in Javanese. Javanese-language magazines include Panjebar Semangat, Jaka Lodhang, Jaya Baya, Damar Jati, and Mekar Sari. Damar Jati, a new Javanese language magazine, appeared in 2005 is not published in the Javanese heartlands, but in Jakarta.
Since 2003, an East Java local television station (JTV) has broadcast some of its programmes in the Surabayan (Suroboyoan) dialect, including Pojok Kampung ("Village Corner", main newscast), Kuis RT/RW ("RT/RW Quiz"), and Pojok Perkoro ("Case Corner", a crime newscast). In later broadcasts, JTV offers programmes in the Central Javanese dialect (called by them basa kulonan, "the western language") and Madurese. The speakers of Suroboyoan dialect are well known for being proud of their distinctive dialect and consistently maintain it wherever they go.[22]
Geographical distribution
Javanese is spoken throughout Indonesia, neighboring Southeast Asian countries, the Netherlands, Suriname, New Caledonia, and other countries. The largest populations of speakers are found in the six provinces of Java itself, and in the neighboring Sumatran province of Lampung.
The language is spoken in Yogyakarta, Central and East Java, as well as on the north coast of West Java and Banten. It is also spoken elsewhere by the Javanese people in other provinces of Indonesia, who are numerous due to the government-sanctioned transmigration program in the late 20th century, including Lampung, Jambi, and North Sumatra provinces. In Suriname, Javanese is spoken among descendants of plantation migrants brought by the Dutch during the 19th century.[23] In Madura, Bali, Lombok, and the Sunda region of West Java, it is also used as a literary language. It was the court language in Palembang, South Sumatra, until the palace was sacked by the Dutch in the late 18th century.
Javanese is written with the Latin script, Javanese script, and Arabic script.[24] In the present day, the Latin script dominates writings, although the Javanese script is still taught as part of the compulsory Javanese language subject in elementary up to high school levels in Yogyakarta, Central and East Java.
Javanese is the twenty-second largest language by native speakers and the seventh largest language without official status at the national level. It is spoken or understood by approximately 100 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. All seven Indonesian presidents since 1945 have been of Javanese descent.[b] It is therefore not surprising that Javanese has had a deep influence on the development of Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia.
There are three main dialects of the modern language: Central Javanese, Eastern Javanese, and Western Javanese. These three dialects form a dialect continuum from northern Banten in the extreme west of Java to Banyuwangi Regency in the eastern corner of the island. All Javanese dialects are more or less mutually intelligible.
A table showing the number of native speakers in 1980, for the 22 Indonesian provinces (from the total of 27) in which more than 1% of the population spoke Javanese:[c]
| Indonesian province | % of provincial population | Javanese speakers (1980) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Aceh | 6.7% | 175,000 |
| 2. | North Sumatra | 21.0% | 1,757,000 |
| 3. | West Sumatra | 1.0% | 56,000 |
| 4. | Jambi | 17.0% | 245,000 |
| 5. | South Sumatra | 12.4% | 573,000 |
| 6. | Bengkulu | 15.4% | 118,000 |
| 7. | Lampung | 62.4% | 2,886,000 |
| 8. | Riau | 8.5% | 184,000 |
| 9. | Jakarta | 3.6% | 236,000 |
| 10. | West Java[d] | 13.3% | 3,652,000 |
| 11. | Central Java | 96.9% | 24,579,000 |
| 12. | Yogyakarta | 97.6% | 2,683,000 |
| 13. | East Java | 74.5% | 21,720,000 |
| 14. | Bali | 1.1% | 28,000 |
| 15. | West Kalimantan | 1.7% | 41,000 |
| 16. | Central Kalimantan | 4.0% | 38,000 |
| 17. | South Kalimantan | 4.7% | 97,000 |
| 18. | East Kalimantan | 10.1% | 123,000 |
| 19. | North Sulawesi | 1.0% | 20,000 |
| 20. | Central Sulawesi | 2.9% | 37,000 |
| 21. | Southeast Sulawesi | 3.6% | 34,000 |
| 22. | Maluku | 1.1% | 16,000 |
According to the 1980 census, Javanese was used daily in approximately 43% of Indonesian households. By this reckoning there were well over 60 million Javanese speakers,[25] from a national population of 147,490,298.[26][e]
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In Banten, the descendants of the Central Javanese conquerors who founded the Islamic Sultanate there in the 16th century still speak an archaic form of Javanese.[27] The rest of the population mainly speaks Sundanese and Indonesian, since this province borders directly on Jakarta.[f]
At least one third of the population of Jakarta are of Javanese descent, so they 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.
Almost a quarter of the population of East Java province are Madurese (mostly on the Isle of Madura); many Madurese have some knowledge of colloquial Javanese. Since the 19th century, Madurese was also written in the Javanese script.[g]
The original inhabitants of Lampung, the Lampungese, make up only 15% of the provincial 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.
In Suriname (the former Dutch colony of Surinam), South America, approximately 15% of the population of some 500,000 are of Javanese descent, among whom 75,000 speak Javanese. A local variant evolved: the Tyoro Jowo-Suriname or Suriname Javanese.[28]
Phonology
The phonemes of Modern Standard Javanese as shown below.[29][30]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | (ɛ) | (ɔ) | |
| Open | a |
In closed syllables the vowels /i u e o/ are pronounced respectively.[29][31] In open syllables, /e o/ are also when the following vowel is /i u/ in an open syllable; otherwise they are /ə/, or identical (/e...e/, /o...o/). In the standard dialect of Surakarta, /a/ is pronounced in word-final open syllables, and in any open penultimate syllable before such an .