Language and Literature.— It is not certain whether the name of Java be connected with the Sanskrit Javana and Yavana, both of which, besides being related to 'Iwvia as names of Greece, also signify (especially the latter) Bac tria, Arabia and other foreign countries, and, moreover, swift, horse, etc.; or whether its etymon be of a different origin. As regards the affinities of the Javanese language, Roorda con siders it as a branch of the Malay. Crawfurd derives it from the vernacular of the aborigines, to whom he attributes the primitive culture of the Malayan Islands. Donieny de Rienzi sup poses it to have arisen from the language of the Bugis of Celebes, by an admixture of Malay and Sanskrit. Humboldt connects it, both as to words and grammar, with the Tagala, the most developed Malayan tongue of the Philippine Islands, as well as with other Malay idioms and with Sanskrit. Others see in it a type of the unmixed tribes of Oceania. It cer tainly shows all these affinities and contains also some Arabic elements. The Javanese is the most cultivated of all Polynesian languages, owing to the very early intercourse of the island with the continent of India, whose Aryan as well as Dravidan influence attested by the presence of Malabaric words along with those from the Sanskrit, not only in Javanese, but also in the idioms of Sumatra, Madagascar, etc. Both religious and political revolutions have served to modify the condition of the languages. There are four dialects, according to Raffles, on the three islands which form the linguistic group in question, namely: (1) The tongue of the mountaineers of Sunda, in the western part of Java, east of Tagal, probably vernacular through this whole region before the introduc tion of Mohammedanism, now spoken by about one-tenth of the population of the island; it contains many Malay and some Sanskrit words, stands in the same relation to the principal lan guage as the Welsh does to the English and is best spoken at Eiantam, sluggishly at Bogor and Chia' njore and verging to the Javanese at Cher ibon. (2) The Javanese proper, east of the last-named city, extending through the rest of the island, especially along its north shore; its words are long at Tagal, shorter at Samarang, full, short and strong at the courts of Sura lcarta in the centre and Jokjokarta in the south; it approaches the Madurese at Surabaya and the Dalian at Banyu-Vangi. (3) The dialect of Madura and Sumanap, which has many Sunda words, with more of Malay, and with peculiar endings. (4) That of Bali. little dif from the general Javanese This island preserves the ancient letters as well as Brah minim, both expelled from Java in the 15th century. A sort of jargon, analogous to the lingua franca, is spoken at Batavia, being a medley of Dutch, Portuguese, ,Javanese and Malay. Along with the preceding there are also peculiar styles or idioms of speech, varying in accordance with social position and age, as the madhio (intermediate), between equals; the &rue or (language popular), to inferiors; the (language superior), urbane, court idiom, about three-fourths of it Sanskrit, used by poets as the speech of gods, heroes and ghosts. As to locality, there are also two vernacular idioms, namely, the bdsa dalam of the interior and the spoken along the shores. The Kavi (learned, wise, poet) is the ancient sacred language of Java and consists of about six parts of Sanskrit, less altered than in the Pali, to four of Javano Malay. It owes its origin to Brahminic immi gration, about the beginning of our era. It is to the Javanese what Sanskrit is to the Hindo stanee, and Pali to the Indo-Chinese languages. Declining in the 14th century, it took refuge in Bali and was imperfectly known by the Pa nanibahan at Sumanap at the time when Raf fles was in Java. Passages in the Kavi are sometimes quoted on peculiar occasions, as for instance in fables and dramas; the term itself is employed as a title of works, etc., such as flowers of poetry, whence Sekarini, a Kavi metre; the Javanese Yana; Kavindhra, singer or poet (named narrator, in Tagala). A few specimens of words may show the relation of the Javanese to the common Malay, where the difference, if not specially noted, is sometimes more in the accent than otherwise: langit, heaven; tanah, earth (Mal: also benua, region) ; ayer (Jay. also banyu), water; lout (Jay. hut), sea; dhina (Mal. ;sari), day; bengi (Mal. ma'am), night; valan (Mal. balan), moon; terang (Mal. trang), light•, mati, to die; lulat (Mal. kasih), to love; dara, virgin; dheva (Mal. tuhan), god, lord; mangan (Mal. makan, santap), to eat; bapa, pak (Mal. pa, politely ayah), father; ma, bok (Mal. ma, ama, politely ibu, bonda), mother, etc. Compounds and de rivatives abound, but the latter are more fre quently formed by suffixes than by prefixes, in which the Tagala is very rich. There are many contractions into tr, ngl, ngr, with the dropping of short vowels, together with the alteration of the initial sound (similarly to the Celtic?, and other variations which obscure the etynnc ori gin, thus: Sans. nadir', master, lord, becomes tata, order, to reign; Jay. neda, to eat, teda, food; nulls, to write, tit/is, scripture; nitik, to prove, titik, proof. The prefix n denotes verbs, t substantives; other changes are: nyatur, tell, chatur, tale; nyerrat, to write, serrat, ing, etc. The doubling of the first syllable makes verbs, as tutuhtng, to help, from tulung, aid; gagriya, to dwell, from griya, house. The insertion of in is the sign of the passive voice. Substantives are also made by prefixing pem (pen, pe), denoting an agent; thus: carrier, from pekto. to carry; eater, etc.; by prefixing ka, a sign of the past parti ciple; Lat. allatum; by suffixing n (en, an): the carrying, dahar-an, Lat. cibus; and by both prefix and suffix: an eatable. Articles, gender and the dual number are wanting. In the plural, cases are denoted by particles, and also by reduplica tion, as in the Japanese. The genitive relation is shown by the precedence of the noun or by inserting nig. The other relations of case are indicated by means of verbs. The adjective is
unchanged after the substantive. Pronominal forms are fewer than in Malay: kits, we in Ma lay, means I in Javanese. The numerals are: (1) sidshi, (2) loro, (3) telu, (4) papal, (5) limo, (6) nem, (7) Pitu, (8) volu, (9) songngo, (10) sepulah, (11) savelas, (12) voles, etc. Ordinals are formed by prefixing ping or ka ping. The figures of numbers are modified letters. The person, number, tense, mood and voice of verbs are indicated by certain particles. Many verbs and nouns are expressed by the same word, others are distinguished as stated above. The suffixes of the imperative are o, ono, en, enno. The following are examples of a verb in various forms: ningngalli, to see; passive, dhipun, tingngalli, katingallan, etc.; kula, tingngalli, I have seen; bade kula ting ngalli, I shall see; tinningngallam, to see one another; sampeyan tingngalli, see; kula Sing ngallana, that I may see, etc. The construction is as follows: Rama kahrla /mug vonien Lag surge, ',ask amain dadi Father our who art in heaver, name thy be elapienao.
hallowed.
As regards the shape and employment of letters, the graphic system is derived from the Devana gari, but not as regards their order, which is as follows: 'ha, na, tcha, ra, ka, da, ta, sa, va, la, pa,•cla, dja, ye, nya, ma, ga, be, ta, ng'a. These 20 Akshara (letters) are consonants with an adherent a in the general language, or o at the courts of princes, which, when not suppressed, gives to the syllabarium the epithet of lagana. As many Pasangan (consonants) are vowelless, three of them are annexed, the others subscribed to other letters. This peculiar succession of letters must have originated prior to that of the organic scheme of the Devanagari, and it is explained by its signifying: ((There were two messengers, disputing, equally courageous, till both died? The Akshara-Buddha, being an dent, differ in form from the later Akshara gede. Some Kavi letters are almost like those of the Sanskrit, while the more recent resemble the square Pali. The vowels are called San dang'an (connection), namely, a, i, u, e, e (al most French muet), o, either used as initials or (except a) attached to the consonants instead of the inherent a. The diacritic signs are analo gous to those of the Devanagari. There are also characters for the quasi-vowels le and re. The writing runs from left to right, each letter being connected with the others in words, and these following one another without any space left between them. Tradition assigns the in troduction of writing as well as of Brahminism and political institutions to Aji Saya Baya. Pal zography finds a rich harvest in Java, its sub jects being distributed in four classes: (1) inscriptions in ancient Devanagari near the ruins of Brambanan and Sinagasari • (2) those in square Kavi letters, from which the cursive are derived, mostly on stone and metal ; (3) those in a dialect resembling the language of Sunda; (4) the Chaistira-Sangkala (light of loyal times or dates), which consist in selecting such words, symbolic of numbers, as may also express a fact that is to be recorded. Thus, for instance, the date of the destruction of Majapa bit, a fact most important in Javanese history. is thus inscribed (1400, reading from right to left) : Salsa (o) ilaag (o) keradming (4) band (1).
Lost and gone (is) (the) work. (pride of the) earth (land).
The date of certain long graves at Gresik, near the tomb of the princess of Chermai (1313), is thus written: Rba (3) Maw (1) ow (3) iku (1). Like (to the) moon princess (that) was.
The literature, which is in Kavi, dates from about the commencement of our era, and is rich, especially in legends concerning cosmog ony. The subjects of the works are mostly either of a mythical or ethical character. Promi nent among the former are the Kanda (Sans. Khandata, fragment, section) Pepakem (book), or Sejarah (history) ; Manek-Maya, a mythical genesis, in which Buddhism predominates; Vt vaha-Kavi (matrimonial poem), about a Ra saksa (evil spirit) who courts a Vidaduri (nymph) ; Rama-Kavi, the Javanese Ramayana; Parikespit, Mintaraga, a poem on Arjuna in the Indra mountain. This kind of composition comes down to the time of Aji Saya Baya. Of the ethical order are the Niti Sastra Kavi, in he purest style, of about the 13th century; and Sruti, which al •eady alludes to Islam. But the Brata Yudha ((glob: is an epos mostly on the deeds of Arjuna; being an episode of the Mahab harata, in 712 stanzas, with varying rhymes. The Sastra Menava is a Javanese imitation of the ordinances of the Indian Menu. Indeed, most of the Kavi works are such imitations. Whether mere versions of Sanskrit works have been made or still exist is not precisely known; but there are many Javanese versions from the Kavi. Javanese literature abounds in romantic compositions, mostly of elegiac form. Among these, the adventures of the popular hero Pandjt are most prominent. Dramas, and especially puppet shows, called vayang (shadows), and with figures of either leather or wood personat ing heroes, are popular.
Bibliography.— Bastian,