Javindo Explained

Javindo
Region:Java, Indonesia
Speakers:10–99[1]
Date:2007
Ref:[2]
Familycolor:Creole
Fam1:Dutch Creole
Iso3:jvd
Linglist:jvd
Glotto:javi1237
Glottorefname:Javindo

Javindo, also known by the pejorative name Krontjong, is a Dutch-based creole language spoken on Java, Indonesia, such as Semarang. The name Javindo is a portmanteau of Java and Indo, the Dutch word for a person of mixed Indonesian and Dutch descent. This contact language developed from communication between Javanese-speaking mothers and Dutch-speaking fathers in Indo families. Its main speakers were Indo-Eurasian people. Its grammar was based on Javanese, and its vocabulary was based on the Dutch lexicon but pronounced in a Javanese manner.[3] It shows simplification of morphological verb system from Javanese grammar such as merging verb class, disappearance of verbal subcategories.[4]

It should not be confused with Petjo, a different Dutch- and Malay-based creole also spoken by Indo-Eurasians. With the loss of the generation that lived in the Dutch East Indies era, that language has almost died out, but it become identity for Indo descent.[5] In contrast, the colonial society saw the creole languages as a corrupted Dutch which should be corrected as quickly as possible.[6]

Comparison between Javindo and Petjo!!Javindo!Petjo
Actor vs non-actorstrong preference for non-actor-oriented sentences
Lexifier languageDutch
Origin of the SpeakersSemarangBatavia
Substrate languageJavaneseBatavian Malay
Speaker as actor indicatortaq, tak, ta`ku-
Hearer as actorkoqkau- / absent
Affixation by suffixlack of

Writing system

Javindo is written using Latin script, specifically Dutch orthography.

Grammar

Even though most of the lexicon is derived from Dutch, the grammar of the language is mostly of Javanese origin, including elements such as morphology; lack of verbs; no past tense; no finite verb.[7] The inherited feature of Javindo from Javanese is the non-actor-oriented verb morphology.

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Javindo. Endangered Languages Project. 2007.
  2. Web site: Javindo. Endangered Languages Project. 2007.
  3. Willems, Wim Sporen van een Indisch verleden (1600–1942)., Part III by de Gruiter, V.E. (COMT, Leiden, 1994) P.140-143
  4. Book: de Vries, Jan W. . Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics . Stokhof . Wim . 1997-01-01 . BRILL . 978-90-04-64325-3 . Odé . Cecilia . Verbal Morphology in Javindo and Pecok . 10.1163/9789004643253_019 . Stokhof . Wim.
  5. Book: Vries, J. W. de . Sporen van een lndisch verleden 1600-1942 . Centrum voor Onderzoek van Maatschappelijke Tegenstellingen, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden . 1992 . Willems . W. . . 125-139 . nl . Traces of an Indo past 1600-1942 . lndisch-Nederlands: verleden, hedenen toekomst . Indo: past, present and future.
  6. 1994 . Bakker . M. A. . Morrison . B. H. . The language of the Indo-Dutch . Studies in Netherlandic Culture and Literature . Lanham-New York-London . University Press of America . 7 . 213-226.
  7. Willems, Wim Sporen van een Indisch verleden (1600–1942)., Part III by de Gruiter, V.E. (COMT, Leiden, 1994) P.150