Dangdut singer Via Vallen performing Reach For The Stars at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. — viva.co.id
MORE people speak Javanese than Malay, Burmese or even Thai. Indeed, 95 million people, or fully 40% of Indonesia’s 265 million strong population, are Javanese speakers.
However, Javanese is not the national language of the Republic. That is Bahasa Indonesia, which is a variation of the Malay language. The two are very different and should never, ever be confused for each other.
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Javanese and its place in Indonesia
Dangdut singer Via Vallen performing Reach For The Stars at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. — viva.co.id
Didi Kempot’s Javanese love songs are so moving they earned him the title of ‘Godfather of Broken Hearts’. — asumsi.co
The different levels of formality used in Javanese.
Daily language used in Indonesian households based on 2010 population census.
The Panjebar Semangat office in Surabaya, East Java.
Although it’s now commonly written using the Latin alphabet, Javanese also has its own script called Aksara Javanese. The title above, ‘Sinau Nulis Jawa’ means ‘Learn to write Javanese’.
Panjebar Semangat, published in Surabaya, is the oldest Javanese-language magazine in Indonesia. — Photos: Team Ceritalah
The Youth Pledge, the declaration made at the end of the Second Youth Congress, which proclaimed three ideals: one motherland, one nation, one language.
Attendants of Indonesia’s Second Youth Congress, October 1928. — Public domain
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