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A. G. Maisey · 29th March 2016, 10:11 PM

Ian, to clarify the matter of language.

True, Amuk has not named the language used, but he did ask us to ignore the labelling, seemingly so, because he felt it might confuse us.

In other words, we are not expected to be able to understand the text he has provided, we just look at the pictures.

When what is now Indonesia was under Dutch control, the local languages were transliterated into Dutch spellings. Amuk usually writes Malay/Javanese/Sundanese and any other indigenous S.E.Asian languages that he may use, with this spelling.

I do not understand why he does this, but that is his style. This of course makes understanding his posts more than a little difficult sometimes, especially for anybody who does not have Indonesian as a second or first language (Indonesian is actually a form of Malay).

Different spellings have been used in Indonesia for over 40 years, and in fact younger Indonesians sometimes stumble on these old spellings too. The only reason I understand the words is because I began to learn Indonesian when the old spellings were still being used.

It would not surprise me if Amuk is using Sundanese, or possibly a dialect of this language. Sundanese is used in West Jawa, Javanese is used in most other parts of Jawa, both languages have regional variations, and both contain words that can be found in the other.

For instance, this word "sarimanoek", today this would be spelt "sarimanuk" in Indonesia. It is comprised of two words:- "sari", which has multiple meanings , but in this context it probably implies beauty, and "manuk", which means bird, so if I read that word as a Javanese word, I would understand it as "beautiful bird". But here it is not Javanese, however, the meaning is likely to be similar to "beautiful bird".

29th March 2016, 10:11 PM	#11
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,015	Ian, to clarify the matter of language. True, Amuk has not named the language used, but he did ask us to ignore the labelling, seemingly so, because he felt it might confuse us. In other words, we are not expected to be able to understand the text he has provided, we just look at the pictures. When what is now Indonesia was under Dutch control, the local languages were transliterated into Dutch spellings. Amuk usually writes Malay/Javanese/Sundanese and any other indigenous S.E.Asian languages that he may use, with this spelling. I do not understand why he does this, but that is his style. This of course makes understanding his posts more than a little difficult sometimes, especially for anybody who does not have Indonesian as a second or first language (Indonesian is actually a form of Malay). Different spellings have been used in Indonesia for over 40 years, and in fact younger Indonesians sometimes stumble on these old spellings too. The only reason I understand the words is because I began to learn Indonesian when the old spellings were still being used. It would not surprise me if Amuk is using Sundanese, or possibly a dialect of this language. Sundanese is used in West Jawa, Javanese is used in most other parts of Jawa, both languages have regional variations, and both contain words that can be found in the other. For instance, this word "sarimanoek", today this would be spelt "sarimanuk" in Indonesia. It is comprised of two words:- "sari", which has multiple meanings , but in this context it probably implies beauty, and "manuk", which means bird, so if I read that word as a Javanese word, I would understand it as "beautiful bird". But here it is not Javanese, however, the meaning is likely to be similar to "beautiful bird".