DOEHOENG KASOENDAN (A Soenda Perspective)

A. G. Maisey · 14th August 2019, 07:30 AM

It is a characteristic of Javanese & Balinese language patterns to use euphemisms to refer to anything at all that might be a little, let us say, "touchy". There are euphemisms spread right through keris terminology.

In Javanese there are a number of names for the keris, and they refer to the keris in various situations, probably so in Old Javanese as well, but we cannot be certain of this.

Language changes all the time, when we use the concept of "archaic" usage, it can be a matter of something being archaic in common usage, but utterly correct in a specific situation.

14th August 2019, 07:30 AM	#11
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	It is a characteristic of Javanese & Balinese language patterns to use euphemisms to refer to anything at all that might be a little, let us say, "touchy". There are euphemisms spread right through keris terminology. In Javanese there are a number of names for the keris, and they refer to the keris in various situations, probably so in Old Javanese as well, but we cannot be certain of this. Language changes all the time, when we use the concept of "archaic" usage, it can be a matter of something being archaic in common usage, but utterly correct in a specific situation.