Maybe, but the same word "parang" has two entirely separate meanings in Javanese:-
a chopper, cleaver or knife
a cliff.
It is the name of a well known batik motif, where the motif supposedly represents a ruined cliff:- "parang rusak".
A lot of languages all across SE Asia have similarities, there is a good reference chart in Raffles that sets out in matrixical form words from various languages, you can read across the page and see the commonality. This same commonality can be found in Malay and in the Polynesian languages, as well as some words in common usage in the Aboriginal languages of Northern Australia.
In fact I have read that if you can understand Malay (ie, BI) you can more or less follow Maori.
The Northern Australian Aboriginals picked up the words from visiting fishermen from islands in the Archipelago, principally from Sulawesi, which in effect means Bugis, and there are acknowledged family links between people in Sulawesi and Aboriginal people in Northern Australia.
In Bahasa Indonesia we find a multitude of words that come from European languages, principally Portuguese, Dutch and English.
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30th August 2016, 12:23 AM
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