Two uninvited keris for comments

HughChen · 1st November 2024, 06:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

kebo is low level Javanese --- ngoko --- for water buffalo, high level --- krama (kromo) --- is maesa/maisa/mahesa, and the high level is sometimes used for this form also; Bahasa Indonesia/ Malay for "kebo" is "kerbau".

dengen is a tricky one, because it is Old Javanese, the form of Javanese in general use before the later Mataram period, & it means friend/servant/slave/acquaintance, dengen is not a misspelling or variant spelling of "dengan" which is BI/Malay for "with".

sembilan is BI/Malay for the number 9.

So many names for water buffalo in Jawa. So the English name of this kind of Keris is: friend of buffalo?

A. G. Maisey · 1st November 2024, 07:43 AM

There is no English name, but I think perhaps 'buffalo friend' might be more suitable:- no kerbau = no rice

It is not really many names for the buff, but rather many languages, Old Javanese is no longer used except in a limited degree for some literary purposes, BI is a form of Malay, & Modern Javanese has a number of levels, in palace usage I have been told there are around 11 levels of Javanese.

1st November 2024, 07:43 AM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,085	There is no English name, but I think perhaps 'buffalo friend' might be more suitable:- no kerbau = no rice It is not really many names for the buff, but rather many languages, Old Javanese is no longer used except in a limited degree for some literary purposes, BI is a form of Malay, & Modern Javanese has a number of levels, in palace usage I have been told there are around 11 levels of Javanese.