which represents a sort of compromise between Ngoko and Krama. Together, Krama and Madya are often termed simply "Basa" by native speakers. The norms for the use of Basa vary between urban and rural settings, and in practice there is no watertight division between the levels, but instead a continuum, or range of choices, the mixture varying according to the speaker's perception of the needs of the moment. Some Javanese scholars have developed technical terms for the different mixes, but we are not concerned with these here, except to point out that Krama Inggil ("High Krama") and Krama Andhap ("Low Krama") are in fact not language levels at all, but restricted honorific and humble vocabularies respectively, which as such can be fitted into whatever level is being used, be it Ngoko or Krama. Krama Inggil expresses respect for the person being addressed or spoken about, and hence can never be used of oneself, and Krama Andhap on the other hand can be used only of oneself, as it expresses humbleness.
Alongside its use for everyday communication, Javanese has another dimension, which can be called "literary", covering not only written literature but also forms of theatrical performance. A description of Javanese without reference to this would be incomplete. Literary forms are to be found in the vast poetical literature of the 19th century, for example, and these in their turn have their roots even further back in time, dating from the Hindu-Buddhist period of Java's history when the earliest literature arose. For the sake of clarity, one should mention that the term Old Javanese is used only for this ancient literature, written from the 9th up to the 15th century in Java, and continued and preserved in its purest form in (Hindu) Bali. The literature produced after the coming of Islam in Java in the 16th century is all termed Modern Javanese by Javanists. The term Kawi, as used in Java (as opposed to Bali), refers to classical Modern Javanese, as found in premodern poetical works. Such archaic forms are found in spoken Javanese only in rare, stereotyped expressions. The language of the wayang performance is not just one style or idiom, but ranges from the everyday often coarse, language appropriate to the popular dialogues of the clown-servant figures to its passages of description, audience scenes, and poetical interludes. Suffice it to say that the language used by the performer (dhalang) is not Old Javanese, with the exception of the suluk (stanzas used to create mood), although there do exist turns of phrase specific to the wayang, and the dhalang must also master the use of the special language of the court (Basa Kedhaton).
Further, Javanese possesses a modern literature, which arose in the 20th century, expressed in the forms of the novel (roman), free verse (geguritan) and short story (cerita cekak). This literature runs parallel to modern Indonesian literature, and is similar to that in its personal expression and realism. The earliest examples were written in Krama, but all recent Javanese literature is in Ngoko. At present little is being printed in Javanese, the main vehicles being periodicals.
Finally, one should not omit to mention that Javanese has its own writing-system, which derives ultimately from the Pallava script of early South India. This was adapted for writing Javanese. Palm leaves (lontar) were used as material, the letters being engraved with a sharp knife; this method is still used in Bali for creating manuscripts. (Balinese script is closely related to Javanese.) Later, European paper came to be used, and this is the main material found in the thousands of Javanese manuscripts kept in libraries in Indonesia and overseas. The Javanese script is still known in Java, being taught in schools, but is little used in practice. There is a printed form of the letters which was used in the colonial period for Javanese-language publications, but gradually its place was usurped by the Roman script. Javanese script embodies part of the Javanese cultural heritage, and it carries overtones of the power of the written word that Roman script does not. The written word, and all traditional forms of literature, were regarded as serious subjects, and hence appropriate for conveying messages of a didactic or edifying nature, alongside quite mundane uses. A knowledge of the script is recommended for those who need to read original historical or literary sources dating from the pre-modern period, not to mention the two-volume dictionary of Gericke and Roorda of 1901.
The study of Javanese by Europeans did not begin until the 19 th century Prior to this, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) conducted its contacts with native rulers through Malay. Credit for the first scholarly interest in Java must go to Thomas Stamford Raffles, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Java during the British Interregnum (1811-16). The results of his investigations are to be found in his two-volume History of Java (1817, second edn 1830), and these include the first exploration of Javanese language and literature, to which more than 100 pages are devoted.
Following the end of the Java War and the beginning of the colonial period proper in 1830, there was a growing awareness on the part of the authorities of the usefulness of a knowledge of Javanese language and customs, leading to the inclusion in 1842 of Javanese alongside Malay in the training of aspirant civil servants at Delft in The Netherlands. This tradition has been continued by a line of professors of Javanese at the University of Leiden down to the present day. In this sense it can be seen that the study of Javanese was a product of the colonial relationship, and it is understandable that it was a Dutch monopoly at that time. Considerable advances were made, due to the efforts of Dutch scholars who devoted themselves to the study of Javanese, often deeply impressed by the sophistication of the traditions which they found preserved among the literate classes in the Principalities, i.e. the court-cities of Central Java. It would not be until after the departure of the Dutch in 1949 that Javanese would receive much attention from the international community, fortunately coupled with a gradually growing awareness of the inestimable value of the collections assiduously assembled by earlier generations in Leiden.
2. Existing Dictionaries of Javanese
It may not be unfair to say that the lexicography of Javanese has had a somewhat chequered career. It represents a long series of attempts to explore the Javanese language and make it accessible, primarily to non-Javanese students, with varying degrees of success. A short account of earlier publications may serve to illustrate this point.
The first dictionary of Javanese, the Algemeen Nederduitsch en Javaansch Woordenboek (General Dutch and Javanese Dictionary), was published by P.P. Roorda van Eysinga (using Roman characters) in 1835. Although this work was clear and practical, it is normally ignored, and was apparently not used by others.
The second in line was the Javaansch-Nederduitsch Woordenboek (Javanese-Dutch Dictionary) compiled by J.EC. Gericke and published by T. Roorda in Amsterdam in 1847.
Next came the Dictionnaire Javanais-Francais (Javanese-French Dictionary) of EAbbe P. Favre, published in Paris in 1870—also completely forgotten by later scholars.
As the next step, the Javaansch-Nederduitsch Handwoordenboek (Concise Javanese-Dutch Dictionary) of 1875 was a new version of Gericke and Roorda's dictionary, prepared by A.C. Vreede. This incorporated an unpublished dictionary compiled by C.E Winter and J.A. Wilkens, not to mention additional materials published by P. Jansz in Semarang in 1869 and 1871.
An "expanded and improved" version of this was published by A.C. Vreede in Amsterdam in 1886, and finally in 1901 the Javaansch-Nederlandsch Handwoordenboek (Concise Javanese-Dutch Dictionary), now in two volumes and of course still in Javanese script.
So it can be seen how many tributaries have swollen this stream, and how much effort was devoted by scholars, in both The Netherlands and Java, to collecting data and processing it, in order to produce what has been regarded as the great dictionary of Javanese, generally known as Gericke-Roorda or GR (1901).
Meanwhile, P. Jansz had produced a dictionary, the Practisch Javaansch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek (Practical Javanese-Dutch Dictionary) in romanisation in 1876, with a second edition in 1913 and a third in 1932. For some reason, this dictionary was viewed with disdain by Leiden scholars, despite its very real merits of clarity and practicality.
Before long a need was again felt to expand and to produce a new edition of Gericke-Roorda, and the task was given to the Leiden philologist Th. Pigeaud, who began work in 1926 in Surakarta and later in Yogyakarta. After years of work, an end was apparently not in sight,
