These Survive: Language Resources: Indonesia

Fri Mar 12 11:24:26 UTC 1999

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From: josephb at tezcat.com (Joe Bernstein)
Newsgroups: soc.history.ancient,sci.lang,soc.culture.indonesia
Subject: These Survive:  Language Resources:  Indonesia
Date: 11 Mar 1999 23:53:48 -0600
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Readers of soc.culture.indonesia, my apologies for intruding on your
group.  This is a post about resources for literatures in the languages
of Indonesia as of AD 1000 and before, and I thought it possible that
you could be interested or could help.  "These Survive" is a project in
which I'm attempting to list surviving long writings in all languages
from AD 1000 or earlier.  For now, I'm trying to find out which
languages I need to research, and to find tools to do the research with.

The degree of success I've had so far varies widely.  In particular,
I think I've got what I need for Javanese, but not for Malay.  And
most of the smaller literatures remain problematic.  The current state
of my concerns on Indonesian literatures is as follows:

Definitely to be included:  Javanese
Probably to be included, but more research needed:  Malay
More research needed:  Balinese, Batak, Madurese, Minangkabau
Probably not to be included, but more research needed:  Achinese
Definitely not to be included:  Sundanese

You will note that many languages are not listed.  I am looking into
languages according to a peculiar set of criteria, which basically
amount to "has anyone told me when the literature begins?" and "has
anyone told me this is an old literature?"  In general, a language
is not listed if someone told me early on that its surviving remains
date later than AD 1500, or if no-one said anything that implies
that anything older exists.  If there are languages I need to look
at and haven't, I will appreciate any help.

Details on the languages:

ACHINESE

My initial sources say this literature began in the 13th or 14th century
AD.  I don't know that this is reliable.

The standard work is apparently:

<The Achehnese>.  C. Snouck Hurgronje.  Trans. A. W. S. O'Sullivan
from a source whose title and details I lack.  Leiden, 1906.

More recent work is apparently listed in

<Critical survey of studies on the languages of sumatra> (capitalisation
as in the reference I saw).  P. Voorhoeve.  The Hague:  KITLV, 1955.

The following asserts that the oldest manuscripts date only to the 18th
century AD, but says nothing about inscriptions:

<A Grammar of Acehnese on the Basis of a Dialect of North Aceh>.  Mark
Durie.  Dordrecht, Holland/Cinnaminson, NJ, USA:  Foris Publications, 1985.

BALINESE

Apparently the following may be some help:

"Books Made in Bali".  C. Hooykas.  In the K. M. Munshi festschrift,
Bombay 1962, and in <Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 119>,
the Hague, 1963.

I have no information on when this literature began.

BATAK

I have no information on when this literature began.

JAVANESE

This literature definitely begins (at least in inscriptions) no later
than AD 809, perhaps in the 8th century AD.  The following *Primary
and Secondary Bibliography*, with associated bibliographic essay,
looks promising:

"Old Javanese and Javanese Literature", pp. 108-144, and "Bibliography
of Old Javanese and Javanese Literature", pp. 145-173, of <A Critical
Survey of Studies on the Languages of Java and Madura>.  E. M.
Uhlenbeck.  'S Gravenhage:  Martinus Nijhoff, 1964.

The following may be helpful:

<Indonesian Palaeography:  A History of Writing in Indonesia from the
Beginnings to c. AD 1500>.  J. G. de Casparis.  <Handbuch der Orientalistik,
ed. B. Spuler.  3 Abteilung:  Indonesien, Malaysia und die Philippinen,
ed. H. Kaehler.  4 Band:  Linguistik.  1 Lieferung>.  Leiden/Koeln:
E. J. Brill, 1975.

The following *Discursive Literary History* comes from the same volume
as that by Mohd. Taib bin Osman listed under Malay, and looks only a
little more helpful:

"Old Javanese Literature".  J. Gonda.  pp. 187-245 of the volume.

MADURESE

Uhlenbeck's book listed under Javanese is a *Primary and Secondary
Bibliography*, but does not provide any chronological information,
and notes the difficulty of distinguishing Madurese from Javanese
in older texts.  His chapter "Madurese" is on his pages 174-180,
and "Madurese Bibliography" on pages 181-197.

Apparently the following is the standard work:

"Literatuur en Kunst in Madoera".  R. Sosrodanoekoesoemo.  <Djawa>
vol. 7, pp. 163-71, 1927.

Uhlenbeck lists several more recent works in languages I don't read
(Dutch is very difficult for me, Indonesian languages beyond me
entirely).

MALAY

I've seen the following *Discursive Literary History*, which is very
weak on bibliography, offers no chronology, and is not much help:

"Classical and Modern Malay Literature".  Mohd. Taib bin Osman.  Pp.
117-186 (of which 117-140 are relevant) of <Handbuch der Orientalistik.
3 Abteilung:  Indonesien, Malaysia und die Philippinen, ed. H. Kaehler.
3 Band:  Literaturen.  1 Abschnitt.>  Leiden/Koeln:  E. J. Brill, 1976.

The standard work (dare I hope for a *Systematic Literary History*?) is
apparently the following, which I have not been able to find (and if
someone would be willing to mail a photocopy to PO Box 2021, Chicago, IL
60690, USA, I could spare US$15 or so for costs):

<A History of Classical Malay Literature>.  Sir Richard Winstedt.
Apparently most or all of volume 17, issue 3 of the <Journal> of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Malayan Branch, 1939.  Revised edition apparently
most or all of the same <Journal>, volume 31, issue 3, 1958.

Nothing I've seen says "The oldest datable Malay inscription is from ..."
or anything like that.  I'm reasonably sure some Malay writing survives
from before AD 1000, but have not seen anything resembling a bibliography
or list which would enable me to find such.  I can only hope Winstedt
is helpful.

MINANGKABAU

The following may be a standard work:

<De Talen en Letterkunde van Midden-Sumatra>.  A. L. van Hasselt.
Leiden, 1881.

I have no information on how old this literature is.

SUNDANESE

Uhlenbeck's book, cited under Javanese, explicitly says the oldest
inscriptions date to the 14th century AD, so unless I hear otherwise
I'm going to go with that.

Milwaukee could certainly be a better place to research Indonesian
literatures than it is.  I will be grateful for any help I can get,
but specific references are especially desirable.

Joe Bernstein

--
Joe Bernstein, writer                    http://www.tezcat.com/~josephb/
Speaking for myself alone, but proponent for soc.history.early-modern -
ask for it now on your news server!  joe at sfbooks.com  josephb at tezcat.com