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Re: Attention Roger! Sanskrit loans in Javanese etc.

From:ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...>
Date:Monday, November 24, 2008, 18:14
BP Jonsson wrote:
> >I guess this is one for Roger primarily. > >I need info on how Sanskrit/Prakrit loans are >treated in Javanese and other Indonesian lgs. >What little info I have is suggestive of a >NE IndoAryan substrate (/@/ > /Q/). >What happens to the different sibilants >and the aspirates? I guess the name >_Bahasa Indonesia_ gives part of the answers! :-)
Ml/Ind "Bahasa" is "basa" ['bQsQ] in modern Jav. and in those regional langs. that have borrowed it.
>
There's a very complete _listing_ of the loans at http://crcl.th.net/indic/inbyskt.htm Figuring out the phonological treatment is up to you, he doesn't get into that. But it's rather straightforward, except for confusion between Skt. /b/ and /v~w/, which tend to end up as either Jav. /b/ or /w/. Jav. /w/ from an original /b/ probably indicates an older, acculturated loan. The Old Jav. writing system copied Skt. almost completely, but the retro. /s./ at least isn't used anymore (as in "basa" IIRC). There's also Gonda's "Sanskrit in Indonesia" (1950s)-- a litttle more analysis, but not IIRC as complete a listing as that website. If you can locate an Old Javanese (~ Kawi) dictionary (two that I know of), they probably give the source of most/many words. The one by S. Wojowasito (ed. by R.Mills, toot toot) definitely does so, though I suspect some errors in the Skt.; I forget who compiled the other one. There are several old articles on the Old Malay inscriptions of Çrivijaya (by Coedès and/or de Casparis) that suggest independent borrowing (or maybe just a less strict adherence to the Skt. spelling) in that area (South Sumatra). Old Javanese (the court/literary language) was heavily Sanskritized, a lot of the more recherché items have not survived into Mod. Jav.

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Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>Indic loans in Euir Twas (was:Re: [CONLANG] Attention Roger! Sanskrit loans in Javanese etc.)