"representative" or onomatopoeic element, and Javanese is especially rich in them.
Adjectives
Alongside the usual form of an adjective, there also exists a derived form using the prefix ke- and suffix -en in combination to convey an "excessive" meaning, e.g. from dawa (long), kedawan (too long). As these are predictable they are generally not listed separately. For rules of formation, please refer to a grammar.
Words belonging to more than one grammatical category
It sometimes happens that the one form belongs to more than one category (part of speech), and hence can function quite differently in a sentence. These separate meanings are carefully distinguished in the dictionary. A simple example is:
kembang 1. flower; 2. to flower.
In order to clarify this distinction, all verbs are listed in their infinitive form in English, viz. "to...".
The prefixes a- and ma-, which occur with words in some literary sources and are archaic, have been deliberately omitted from this dictionary.
Spelling
The spelling used for Javanese is the one officially accepted in Indonesia, with the exception that we use two simple diacritical marks, namely e and e, as these are considered essential to distinguish these two sounds from the mute e or schwa (without mark; in Javanese called pepet).
The current spelling is thus different from the one used in Home's dictionary, which was published before the new system was introduced. Users should note in particular the spellings th and dh (instead of the earlier t and d with a dot below), representing the retroflex stops, unvoiced and voiced respectively, which must be clearly distinguished from t and d, the unvoiced and voiced dental stops.
The letter k represents both the guttural and glottal stops. The letter q is not used for the latter. In some positions, the glottal stop is not customarily written at all, e.g. saiki [sa'iki], 'now'.
In the antepenultimate syllable of Javanese words, the vowel tends to be weakened, so that for example an a is pronounced as e; for the purposes of the dictionary, however, in such cases the spelling with a is kept.
Similarly, with the prefixes ka-/ke-, pa-/pe-, and sa-/se- (where these spellings are equivalent), the forms ka-, pa- and sa- have been preferred, but readers should also check under the alternative.
In the case of the final consonants -t and -d, and -p and -b, it was observed that there is some confusion, even in Javanese script and amongst native speakers, probably because a voiced consonant becomes unvoiced in final position. Even so, we believe that it is an important distinction and have tried to follow the most original spelling.
Stuart Robson
List of Abbreviations
| adr | term of address |
| chld | children's word |
| coll | colloquial |
| cr | crude |
| esp | especially |
| excl | exclamation |
| fig | figurative |
| gram | grammatical term |
| idiom | idiomatic expression |
| inf | informal |
| intsfr | intensifier |
| k.a. | Krama Andhap (see Introduction) |
| k.i. | Krama Inggil (see Introduction) |
| kr | Krama (high language level) |
| lit | literary |
| md | Madya (middle language level) |
| ng | Ngoko (low language level) |
| opt | optional |
| o.s. | oneself |
| pass | passive |
| pl | associated with a plural subject |
| pron | pronounced as, pronunciation |
| prov | proverb |
| reg | regional, i.e. dialectal or non-standard |
| repr | imitative verb adjunct with |
| mak, | see Introduction |
| shtc | shortened compound |
| shtf | shortened form |
| s.o. | someone |
| s.t. | something |
| subst | substitute |
| s.w. | somewhere |
| usu | usually |
| var | variant |
| way | term associated with the wayang (shadow theatre) |
A
aba 1 sign, sound; 2 order, command; to order, command; 3 spoken word; to say, speak;
ngabani 1 to give a signal, give a command; 2 to quote (a price). See also aban.
abab 1 breath; 2 fig hot air;
ngababi to breathe on s.t.;
kababan to get blown on; to feel a rush of air, e.g. from a passing vehicle or a gunshot.
abad 1 century; - kepungkur the last century; 2 age, era; - modhèren the modern age (era);
maabad-abad for centuries.
abadi eternal, eternity.
abadiyah eternal.
abah I ngabah-abahi lit to scold.
II abahan 1 timber; 2 wooden block for cutting off the head;
kumurep ing abahan to lie face down on a wooden block, fig to put fate in s.o.'s hands.
abah-abah I tool, instrument; - tenunan loom.
II saddle. See also lapak.
ngabah-abahi
