Two kerisses compared

[David]

Originally Posted by Jean

Hello Johan,
Yes, it is confusing. The name of the T-shape piece (crosspiece) of the sheath has a specific name in some islands (sampir in Sulawesi or Sumatra, angkup in Lombok, etc.) but is just called warangka in other areas.
And warangka is the generic name for the whole scabbard, with again some specific names in some islands (wanua in Sulawesi for instance).
Other opinions are welcome on this delicate subject.
Regards

To add to the confusion you will also find different spellings of certain words. For instance, i prefer the spelling "wrongko" because it is my understanding that it is closer to the way the word is actually pronounced in Javanese.
And again, keep in mind that while the national language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesian all these islands also have their own languages. Indonesia is not one unified culture. It is made up of many different groups of people.
Javanese terms are often used to describe keris parts in general even though each of these separate cultures may have different terms for the same parts. This is probably because we can pretty much trace the origins of the keris back to Jawa.