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Old 20th May 2022, 06:31 AM   #20
A. G. Maisey
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Regarding spellings of Javanese words.

I am not Javanese, however, I do have a a 70 year association with Javanese culture & society, the last 50 or so years of that 70 years has been close up & personal, one might say very personal.

When it comes to the spelling of words in any language, this can depend upon the framework within which one is working. This is very evident in English and it is also evident in Javanese, the conventions that we use in spelling might be related to the particular geographic area in which we are located, or the particular level of society in which we need to function.

As for pronunciation, this varies widely across any body of people who use the (supposedly) same language. Many Americans find a great deal of difficulty in understanding my spoken word. Why? Because I have a particularly broad Australian rural accent.

The same is true of the use of the Javanese language, the accent that applies in various parts of Jawa differs & can cause confusion. For example, I know of an example of a woman, a highly educated woman, who moved from Malang in East Jawa to Solo in Central Jawa and initially she had more than a little difficulty in getting her household employees to understand her.

There is a particular difficulty with the Javanese language in that linguists regard it as a non-standard language. Native speakers of Javanese in colloquial speech will change the shape of a word to fit better with the words around it, they do this to make the sound of the spoken passage more pleasant to the ear, or for some other social reason, similarly both vowels & consonants can be changed, provided the intended message is grasped by the listener.

Of course, I am talking about the use of Ngoko here, the same thing does not --- as far as I am aware --- occur in the use Krama Madya, Krama, or Krama Inggil. These are formal languages, Ngoko is colloquial.

So, it is really quite difficult for us to determine what is correct and what is not correct when it comes to the use of the Javanese language in other than a formal setting.

My profession calls for a high degree of accuracy when using the written word. Professionally much of what I have written over the years has finished up in a court room setting, and in this type of situation there is not much wriggle room. In so far as is possible we need to be correct. Thus, I have developed the habit of routine checking of meanings and variants on pronunciations, in order not to err too badly in what I produce for a formal presentation.

Because i am not a native speaker of either Basa Jawa or of Bahasa Indonesia, I often do the same with these languages.

Now, if I look at the word "kudhup" in "Kamus Basa Jawa", Tim Penyusun Balai Bahasa Yogyakarta, I find that this authority does indeed use the inclusive "h" spelling.

As do Robson & Wibisono, and as does Purwadi.

The aspirated "h" does not seem to exist as a common form preceded by "d' in BI, so people who commonly use BI as a means of communication rather than Basa Jawa do seem to adopt a BI form of pronunciation when speaking Javanese. However, at least in Central Jawa, the "d" sound and the "dh" sound is quite distinct.

All this is actually getting a bit too pedantic, there can be wide variation in pronunciations amongst individuals even, however, the fact remains that at least three lexicons all agree on the spelling of "khudup".

How it might be pronounced, well that depends upon the individual and the circumstance.
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