Keris (or not ?) with chinese handle

[A. G. Maisey]

You are absolutely correct Gustav:- language changes & understandings change over time.

Another thing that particularly applies to Javanese language usage is that the actual words used do not always indicate what a literal translation of those words might be. In other words, we cannot assume that just because words used might mean one thing in a literal translation, the speaker's meaning can be understood literally.

However, just using what Groneman wrote, the use of "trap-trapan" refers to the way the selut was made, "tatahan" refers to the method of decoration. Even now we will refer to a selut or a pendok or something else as a selut/pendok/or whatever as tatahan, but the actual shape of the selut would need to be specified. The normal assumption would be that we wanted a selut jeruk pecel if we only said "tatahan", but if we did not want to end up with something bigger than we actually wanted, we should specify that.

In Solo we have two forms of selut classified by shape, the first is jeruk pecel, the second is jeruk keprok. Now, those two basic shapes are further classified into various styles, for example, we have selut trap-trapan(ie, a fabricated selut), selut tatahan (ie, a selut that has been ornamented by carving with chisel work) then we have others like selut krawangan, selut unthuk-unthukan ( usually shortened to unthuk-unthuk), selut m'rutu sewu, selut wungkul (wungkul refers only to round things and it means something that has not yet been cut, so in BI, that means it is "polos", ie unornamented). Then we might want to specify motifs, such as lung-lungan, or maybe anggur, or kembang anggrek.

J&P is a respected source, iconic, but just the names of things are not really a whole lot of use unless we understand what the meaning is that the name is supposed to convey, for example we can have a fabricated selut that has been worked by using the krawangan method of working and that is then ornamented with precious or semi-precious stones. Such a selut would be a selut trap-trapan, krawangan tretes.

However, in speech we do not usually give a full description of a selut when we refer to it, we just abbreviate to a single word, or a couple of words that will convey the meaning. So we might just say that we are looking for a selut tatahan, this immediately conveys that we do not want a fabricated (trap-trapan) selut, nor do we want a krawangan or tretes selut.

But if we say that we want a krawangan selut, that might generate the question as to whether we want a selut tretes or just a plain selut that draws its ornamentation from the krawangan work alone.

It all comes down to the necessity of knowing exactly what it is that we are talking about, otherwise it is just words with no clear meaning.