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Java (island)

Java (island)

:"Java" redirects here. For other uses, see Java (disambiguation). Java (disambiguation) Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. It is the most populous island in the world; indeed, it has a larger population than either the continents of Australia or Antarctica (see the list of islands by population). With an area of 132,000 square km, and 127 million inhabitants at 864 people per km² it would, if it were a country, be the second most densely-populated country of the world after Bangladesh, except for some very small city-states.

Geography

Natural

Bangladeshs]] Java () is in a chain of islands with Kalimantan (Borneo) to the north, Sumatra to the northwest, Bali to the east, Sulawesi to the northeast and Christmas Island to the south. It is the world's 13th largest island. Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin; and contains no fewer than thirty-eight mountains of that conical form, which indicates their having at one time or another been active volcanoes. See Volcanoes of Java. The island's longest river is the Bengawan Solo River, at some 540 km in length. The Bengawan Solo rises from its source in central Java at the Tawu volcano, flows north then eastwards to its mouth in the Java Sea, near the city of Surabaya.

Human

Java contains the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. Popular tourist destinations include the city of Yogyakarta, a massive pyramid-like monument to Buddha known as Borobudur; and Prambanan, the largest Hindu temple in Java. Java is the most densely-populated island in Indonesia, with nearly 60% of the overall population of the country residing there [http://www.bps.go.id/sector/population/table1.shtml]. Since the 1970s, the Indonesian government has run transmigration programs aimed at resettling the population of Java on other less-populated islands of Indonesia. This program has met with mixed results, and has been behind many instances of ethnic tension, and even violence between the native people and the settlers. The island is divided into 4 provinces, 1 special region
- (daerah istimewa), and 1 special capital city district
- (daerah khusus ibukota):
- Banten
- Jakarta
-
- Jawa Barat (West Java)
- Jawa Tengah (Central Java)
- Jawa Timur (East Java)
- Yogyakarta
-

History

Paleontology

The island of Java is famous for several paleoanthropological finds of early hominid specimens. In particular, the 1891 discovery of cranial fossil remains commonly known as "Java man" (now designated as Trinil 2, after the Trinil site on the Bengawan Solo River), is famous for being the first such discovery of an early hominid specimen outside of Europe. This find, and several subsequent ones which have been made at various locations along the river's valleys, are now generally classified as belonging to the species Homo erectus. Two million years ago, the rainfall in the Sunda and Digul plateaus was very heavy, which allowed heavy tropical vegetation to thrive. This, in turn allowed many prehistoric cultures to emerge, as evidenced in many fossil findings in this region.

Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms

Much evidence of Java's past kingdoms remains; such as the famous Buddhist Borobudur and Hindu Prambanan temples. Indeed, the Javanese culture, and language itself, was heavily influenced by the cultures and languages of the Indian subcontinent. In the sixth and seventh centuries, many maritime kingdoms arose in Sumatra and Java, which controlled the waters in the Straits of Malacca, and flourished with the increasing sea-trade between China and India and beyond. During this time, scholars from India and China visited these kingdoms to translate literary and religious texts. The most prominent of the Hindu kingdoms was the Majapahit kingdom based in East Java, from where it ruled a large part of what is now western Indonesia. The name of the Majapahit empire is still invoked by contemporary Indonesian leaders to promote "unity", and the legitimacy of the state. The remnants of the Majapahit kingdom shifted to Bali during the sixteenth century, as Muslim kingdoms in the western part of the island gained influence.

Muslim kingdoms and the Dutch colonization

The earliest Muslim "evangelists" were called the Wali Songo, the "nine ambassadors". Several of them were of Chinese origin, leading to speculation about Zheng He's influence on the trade in the Straits of Malacca. Many of their tombs are still well-preserved, and often visited "Ziarah" for superstitious and religious reasons. Most of the brand of Islam that is adopted in Java is mixed with long-standing indigenous beliefs, and has a decidedly "local flavor". For example, the legend of Nyi Roro Kidul was invented as a mix of the superstition common on the southern coast of Java, and Islamic influences. The Dutch East India Company, (VOC) established its trading and administrative headquarters in Batavia (now the capital city of Jakarta). This capital, along with other coastal cities such as Semarang and Surabaya, was the focus of Dutch attention during most of the colonial period. The VOC maintained control over the mountainous interior of the island through indigenous client states, such as Mataram in central Java. The nineteenth century saw the Dutch government take over administration of the East Indies from the Dutch East India Company, and in the mid-nineteenth century, they implemented the cultuurstelsel and cultuurprocenten policies, which caused widespread famine and poverty. A Dutch author Douwes Dekker wrote a novel Max Havelaar to protest these conditions, and in turn the political and social movement spurned by this protest resulted in the Ethical Policy, by which many Javanese elites were given a chance to earn Dutch education, both in Java and in the Netherlands itself. It was from this elite that the most prominent nationalist leaders came. They formed the core of the new government, when Indonesia became independent after World War II.

Post independence

With the establishment of Jakarta as the capital, and the Javanese roots of the majority of Indonesian political figures, the island remains politically and economically dominant over the rest of the country. While much of rural Java is very poor, the urban areas of Java are among the wealthiest, most highly- developed regions in the country. Both presidents Sukarno and Suharto, who together ruled for the first forty-nine years of independence, were from Java. This political dominance has resulted in resentment on the part of some residents of other islands. The respected Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer once recommended that the Indonesian capital be moved outside the island of Java, in order to free the Indonesian nationalist movement from its Java-centric character.

Culture

Generally speaking, the three major cultures of Java are the Sundanese culture of West Java, the Central Java culture, and the East Java culture. In the western part of Central Java, usually named the Banyumasan region, a cultural mingling occurred; bringing together Javanese culture and Sundanese culture to create the Banyumasan culture. In the central Javan court cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, contemporary kings trace their lineages back to the pre-colonial Islamic kingdoms that ruled the region, making those places especially strong repositories of classical Javanese culture. Classic arts of Java include gamelan music and wayang puppet shows. Java was the site of many influential kingdoms in the Southeast Asian region, and as a result, many literary works have been written by Javanese authors. These include Ken Arok and Ken Dedes, the story of the orphan who usurped his king, and married the queen of the ancient Javanese kingdom; and translations of Ramayana and Mahabarata. Pramoedya Ananta Toer is a famous contemporary Indonesian author, who has written many stories based on his own experiences of having grown up in Java, and takes many elements from Javanese folklore and historical legends. See also: Culture of Indonesia

Language

Culture of Indonesia The three major languages spoken on the island are Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese. Other languages spoken by smaller groups include Betawi, Banyumasan, Badui, Osing and Tenggerese. The vast majority of the population also speaks Indonesian, generally as a second language.

Religion

Most Javanese (93%) are Muslims, either of the Abangan (40%) (nominal) type or orthodox (60%). Small Hindu (1-2%) enclaves are scattered through-out Java, but a large Hindu population prevails along the eastern coast nearest Bali, especially around the town of Banyuwangi. There are also Christian (2-3%) (communities; mostly in the major cities, although they are in the minority. Certain rural areas of south-central Java are strongly Catholic. Buddhist communities (1%) also exist in the major cities, primarily among the Indonesian Chinese. Then there are also groups of followers of Kejawen, or Javanese "mystical" groups (see "mysticism") who do not fit easily into governmental administrative categories - such as Sumarah, Subud and other groups. During the Suharto era, it was mandatory to belong to a government-approved religion in order to have an identity card, which itself was also mandatory. Followers of Kejawen had various difficulties because of this issue.

Ethnic groups

- Javanese (See: Javanese language)
- Sundanese (See: Sundanese language)
- Madurese
- Indonesian Chinese
- Cirebonese

External links

- Category:Islands of Indonesia Category:History of Java Category:History of Indonesia Category:History of South East Asia ko:자와 섬 ms:Jawa ja:ジャワ島

Java (disambiguation)

The term Java can refer to: In geography:
- Java (island), the most populous island in Indonesia
- Javanese language, a language widely spoken on the island of Java
- Java coffee, a variety of coffee plant which originated on the island of Java, or a slang word for coffee
- Java Trench, a subduction zone trench off of the island of Java
- Java, Georgia (Republic of Georgia)
- Java, New York (United States)
- Java, South Dakota (United States) In computer science:
- Java, a technology developed by Sun Microsystems for machine-independent software, which encompasses:
- Java programming language, an object-oriented high-level programming language
- Java virtual machine, the virtual machine that runs Java byte code
- Java platform, the Java virtual machine plus API specifications
- Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, targets desktop environment
- Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, targets server environment
- Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition, targets embedded consumer products
- JavaScript, a scripting language syntacticly similar to, but semanticly different from, the Java programming language Java may also mean:
- Java (board game), a board game set on the island of Java
- Java (cachaça), a brand of cachaça
- Java Man, the Pithecanthropus erectus ko:자바 ja:Java

Indonesian language

Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a standardized dialect of the Malay language that was officially defined with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, and the two languages remain quite similar. The language is spoken fluently as a second language by most Indonesians, who use a regional language (examples are Minangkabau and Javanese) at home and in their local community. Most formal education, as well as nearly all national media and other communication, are in Indonesian. The Indonesian name for the language is Bahasa Indonesia (literally language of Indonesia); this name is sometimes used in English as well.

History

Bahasa Indonesia is a normative form of the Malay language, an Austronesian (or Malayo-Polynesian) language which had been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries, and was elevated to the status of official language with the Indonesian declaration of independence in 1945, drawing inspiration from the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth's Oath) event in 1928. It is very similar to the official Malaysian form of the language. However it does differ from the Malaysian form in some ways, with differences in pronunciation and also in vocabulary, due in large part to the many Dutch words in the Indonesian vocabulary. It is spoken as a mother tongue by only 7% of the population of Indonesia, but altogether almost 200 million people speak it, with varying degrees of proficiency. It is an essential means of communication in a region with more than 300 native languages, used for business and administrative purposes, at all levels of education and in all mass media. However, most native Indonesian speakers would admit that the standard correct version of the language is hardly ever used in a normal daily conversation. One can read standard correct Indonesian in books and newspaper, or listen to it when watching the news on television, but few native Indonesian speakers use formally correct language in their daily conversations. While this is a phenomenon common to most languages in the world (for example, spoken English does not always correspond to written standards), the degree of "correctness" of spoken Indonesian (in terms of grammar and vocabulary) by comparison to its written form is noticeably low. This is due to the fact that most Indonesians prefer to mix their own local dialects (Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, and even Chinese) with Indonesian when speaking, which results in the creation of various types of accented Indonesian, the very types that a foreigner is most likely to hear upon arriving in any Indonesian city or town. This phenomenon is exacerbated by the trendy use of slang, particularly in the cities. A classic example of a speaker of accented Indonesian is former president Soeharto, whose Javanese dialect came through whenever he delivered a speech. The Dutch colonization left an imprint on the language that can be seen in words such as polisi (police), kualitas (quality), telepon (telephone), bis (bus), kopi (coffee), rokok (cigarette), universitas (university), kantor (office), wortel (carrot), wastafel (washbasin), and resleting (zipper). There are also some words derived from Portuguese (sabun, soap; meja, table; jendela, window; mentega, butter; tenda, tent, and gereja, church), Chinese (pisau, knife or dagger; loteng, [upper] floor), Hindi (kaca, mirror) and from Arabic (khusus, special; maaf, sorry; selamat ..., a greeting; kursi, chair). There are also words derived from Javanese (aku, I (informal), and its derivative form mengaku, confess). See also List of borrowed words in Indonesian

Classification

Indonesian is part of the Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages. According to the Ethnologue, Indonesian is modeled after the Riau Malay spoken in northeast Sumatra.

Geographic distribution

Indonesian is spoken throughout Indonesia, although it is used most extensively in urban areas, and less so in the rural parts of Indonesia.

Official status

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia.

Sounds

There are six pure vowel sounds: a , e , i , o , u , the schwa which is also spelled e; and three diphthongs (ai, au, oi). The consonantic phonemes are rendered by the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c ([tS/tʃ], like the ch in cheese), j ([dZ/dʒ] as in English), h, ng (which also occurs initially), ny (as in canyon), m, n, s (unvoiced, as in sun or cats), w, l, r (trilled or flapped) and y. There are five more consonants that only appear in loanwords: f, v, sy (pronounced sh), z and kh (as in loch). Here are a few useful tips for the learner:
- Indonesian pronunciation is similar in many ways to Italian. If you are completely new to Indonesian and are at all familiar with Italian pronunciation, it may help to think of how Italians pronounce certain words such as pasta or Napoli.
- However, in Indonesian, the g is always hard as in got, never soft as in giraffe.
- Indonesian is pronounced with the tongue further forward in the mouth than in English.
- k, p, and t are unaspirated, ie they are not followed by a noticeable puff of air as they often are in English words.
- The t is pronounced with the tongue forward, against the back of the top teeth, (halfway between the English "t" and "th" sounds). For the letter d, the tongue position is the same as in the English d. This is not essential for the learner of Indonesian, but it will help to distinguish t from d, which are otherwise almost identical.
- The glottal stop: When k is at the end of a word, the sound is cut off sharply (a "glottal stop"), e.g. "baik", "bapak". This is similar to some British (esp. London) accents where the final t is dropped ("got", "what"). A few Indonesian words have this sound in the middle, e.g. "bakso" (meatballs), or represented by an apostrophe in Arabic derived words such as "Al Qur'an".
- The accent is placed on the second-last syllable of each word. For more, and to listen to examples, see [http://www.seasite.niu.edu/flin/pronunciation/guide_to_pronunciation_of_indone.htm SEASite Guide to Pronunciation of Indonesian]

Grammar

Compared to European languages, Indonesian has a strikingly small use of grammatically gendered words; the same word is used for he and she or for his and her. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes; for example, adik can both refer to a (younger) brother or sister; no distinction is made between girlfriend and boyfriend. In order to specify gender, an adjective has to be added: adik laki-laki corresponds to brother but really means male younger sibling. There is no word like the English man that can refer both to a male person and to a human being in general. Note: There are some words that are gendered, for instance putri means daughter, and putra means son; words like these are usually absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from Sanskrit through the Old Javanese language). In Jakarta and some other areas, abang may be used for older brother; kakak (older sibling) is then used to mean older sister. Plurals are expressed by means of reduplication, but only when the plural is not implied by the context. Thus person is orang, and people is orang-orang, but one thousand people is seribu orang, as the numeral makes it unnecessary to mark the plural form. (Reduplication has many other functions, however). There are two forms of we, depending on whether you are including the person being talked to. The basic word order is SVO. Verbs are not inflected for person or number, and there are no tenses; tense is denoted by time adverbs (such as yesterday) or by other tense indicators, such as sudah, meaning already. On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and denote active-passive voices. Such affixes include prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and their combinations; all of which are often ignored in daily conversations.

Vocabulary

Indonesian as a modern dialect of Malay has borrowed heavily from many languages, among others: Sanskrit, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and many other languages, including other Austronesian languages. It is estimated that there are some 750 Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indonesian, 1000 Arabic (Persian and some Hebrew) ones, some 125 Portuguese (also Spanish and Italian) ones and a staggering number of some 10,000 loanwords from Dutch. The latter also comprises many words from other European languages, which came via Dutch, the so-called "International Vocabulary". The vast majority of Indonesian words, however, come from the root lexical stock of its Austronesian heritage. Although Hinduism and Buddhism are no longer the major religions of Indonesia, Sanskrit which was the language vehicle for these religions, is (still) held in high esteem and is comparable with the status of Latin in English and other West European languages. Residents of Bali and Java tend to be particularly proud of the Hindu-Buddhist heritage. Sanskrit is also the main source for neologisms. These are usually formed from Sanskrit roots. The loanwords from Sanskrit cover many aspects of religion, art and everyday lives. The Sanskrit influence came from contacts with India long ago from the beginning of the Common Era. The words are either directly borrowed from India or with the intermediary of the (Old) Javanese language. In the classical language of Java, Old Javanese, the number of Sanskrit loanwords is far greater. The Old Javanese - English dictionary by prof. P.J. Zoetmulder, S.J. (1982) contains no fewer than 25,500 entries. Almost half are Sanskrit loanwords. Unlike other loanwords, Sanskrit loanwords have entered the basic vocabulary of Indonesian, so by many these aren't felt as foreign anymore. The loanwords from Arabic are mainly concerned with religion, in particular with Islam, as can be expected. Many early Bible translators, when they came across some unusual Hebrew words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer translations this practice is discontinued. They now turn to Greek names or use the original Hebrew Word. For example, the name Jesus was initially translated as Isa, but is now spelt as Yesus. Psalms used to be translated as Zabur, the Arabic name, but now it is called Mazmur which corresponds more with Hebrew. The Portuguese loans are common words, which were mainly, connected with articles the early European traders and explorers brought to Southeast Asia. The Portuguese were among the first westerners who sailed east to the "Spice Islands". The Chinese loanwords are usually concerned with cuisine, trade or often just exclusively things Chinese. There is a considerable Chinese presence in the whole of Southeast Asia. According to the Indonesian government, the relative number of people of Chinese descent in Indonesia is only 3.5%. Whether this is true or not is still a matter of debate, many think the number is much higher. But what is sure is that in urban centres the number can be as high as between 10-25%. The former colonial power, the Netherlands, left an impressive vocabulary. These Dutch loanwords, and also from other non Italo-Iberian, European languages loanwords which came via Dutch, cover all aspects of life. Some Dutch loanwords, having clusters of several consonants, pose difficulties to speakers of Indonesian. This problem is usually solved by insertion of the schwa. For example Dutch schroef ['sxruf] => sekrup [sĕ'krup]. As modern Indonesian draws many of its words from foreign sources, there are many synonyms. For example, Indonesian has three words for book, i.e. pustaka (from Sanskrit), kitab (from Arabic) and buku (from Dutch). These words have, as can be expected, slight different meanings. A pustaka is often connected with ancient wisdom or sometimes with esoteric knowledge. A derived form, perpustakaan means a library. A kitab is usually a religious scripture or a book containing moral guidances. The Indonesian word for the Bible is Alkitab, thus directly derived from Arabic. The book containing the penal code is also called the kitab. Buku is the most common word for books. In addition to those above, there are also direct borrowings from various languages in the world, such as "karaoke" from Japanese, and "modem" from English. See also List of borrowed words in Indonesian
Writing system
Indonesian is written using the Latin alphabet. It is more phonetically consistent than many languages—the correspondence between sounds and their written forms is generally regular. One common source of confusion for foreign readers, particularly when reading place names, is the spelling changes in the language that have occurred since Indonesian independence. Commonly-used changes include: The first of these changes (oe to u) occurred around the time of independence in 1947; all of the others were a part of an officially-mandated spelling reform in 1972. Some of the old spellings, which were more closely derived from the Dutch language, do survive in proper names; for example, the name of a former president of the Indonesia is still sometimes written Soeharto, and the central Java city of Yogyakarta is sometimes written Jogjakarta, which is how it is pronounced.
See also

- Common phrases in different languages
- Language families and languages
- Demographics of Indonesia
- Indonesian slang language
- Differences between Malay and Indonesian
External links

- [http://www.seasite.niu.edu/indonesian/percakapan/indonesia7days/indo7days_fs.htm Learning Indonesian in 7 Days (SEAsite)]
- [http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/ind.htm Free online resources for learners]
- [http://www.seasite.niu.edu/indodict/diction.htm Indonesia-English dictionary in one page (SEAsite) (can save to disk)]
- [http://www.dicts.info/di1.php?k1=1&k2=47 Indonesian dictionary (All free dictionaries)]
- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=ind Ethnologue report for Indonesian]
- [http://www.indonetcafe.com/indonesian-dutch/kamus.php Indonesia-Dutch dictionary] Category:Malayo-Polynesian languages Category:Languages of Indonesia
- Category:Austronesian languages ko:인도네시아어 ms:Bahasa Indonesia ja:インドネシア語 th:ภาษาอินโดนีเซีย

Javanese language

The Javanese language is the inferred language of the people in the central and eastern part of the island of Java, in Indonesia. It is the inferred language of more than 75,500,000 people. The Javanese language is part of the Austronesian family, and is therefore related to Indonesian and Malay. Many speakers of Javanese also speak Indonesian for official and business purposes, and to communicate with non-Javanese Indonesians.

Introduction

Javanese belongs to the Sundic sub-branch of the Western Malayo-Polynesian (also called Hesperonesian) branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subfamily of the Austronesian super family. It is a close linguistic relative of Malay, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, and to a lesser extent, of various Sumatran and Borneo languages, including Malagasy. Javanese is spoken in Central and East Java, as well as on the north coast of West Java. In Madura, Bali, Lombok and the Sunda region of West Java, Javanese is also used as a literary language. It was the court language in Palembang, South Sumatra until their palace was sacked by the Dutch in the late 18th century. Javanese can be regarded as one of the classical languages of the world, with a vast literature spanning more than 12 centuries. Scholars divide the development of Javanese language in four different stages:
- Old Javanese, from the 9th century
- Middle Javanese, from the 13th century
- New Javanese, from the 16th century
- Modern Javanese, from 20th century (this classification is not used universally) Javanese is written with the Javanese script, (a descendant of the Brahmi script of India), Arabo-Javanese script, Arabic script (modified for Javanese) and Latin script. Although not currently an official language anywhere, Javanese is by far the Austronesian language with the largest number of native speakers. It is spoken or understood by approximately 80 million people. At least 45% of the total population of Indonesia are of Javanese descent or live in an area where Javanese is the dominant language. Four out of five Indonesian presidents since 1945 are of Javanese descent. It is therefore not surprising that Javanese has a deep impact on the development of Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), the national language of Indonesia, which is a modern dialect of Malay. There are three main dialects of Modern Javanese: Central Javanese, Eastern Javanese and Western Javanese. There is a dialect continuum from Banten in the extreme west of Java to Banyuwangi, in the foremost eastern corner of the island. All Javanese dialects are more or less mutually intelligible.

Phonology

The phonemes of Modern Standard Javanese. Vowels:

Front	Central	Back

The pronunciation of the vowels is rather complicated. The main characteristic of the standard dialect of Surakarta is that in open-word final syllables and penultimate syllables is pronounced as (as in English hot or in French os).

Consonants:

Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal

Stop p b t d k g ʔ

Fricative s () h

Semi-vowels w l r j

Nasal m n ()

Note: The phonemes between parentheses are allophones. A Javanese syllable can be of the following type: nCsvVC. n= nasal, C=consonant, sv= semivowel (/y/, /r/, /l/ and /w/) and V=vowel. In Modern Javanese, however, a bi-syllabic root is of the following type: nCsvVnCsvVC. As in other Austronesian languages, native Javanese roots consist of two syllables; words consisting of more than three syllables are broken up into groups of bi-syllabic words for pronunciation. Javanese, together with Madurese, are the only Austronesian languages to possess retroflex phonemes. (Madurese even possesses aspirated phonemes including at least one aspirated retroflex phoneme.) Some scholars assume this might be an influence of the Sanskrit, but others believe this could be an independent development within the Austronesian super family. It is interesting to note that a sibilant before a retroflex stop in Sanskrit loanwords is pronounced as a retroflex sibilant whereas in modern Indian languages it is pronounced as a palatal sibilant. Though Achinese and Balinese also possess a retroflex voiceless stop, this is merely an allophone of .

Morphology

Javanese, like other Austronesian languages, is an agglutinative language, where base words are modified through extensive use of affixes.

Syntax

Modern Javanese usually employs SVO word order. However, Old Javanese particularly had VSO or sometimes VOS word orders. Even in Modern Javanese archaic sentences using VSO structure can still be made. Examples:
- Modern Javanese: "Dheweke (S) těka (V) neng (pp.) kĕdhaton (O)".
- Old Javanese: "Těka (V) ta (part.) sira (S) ri (pp.) ng (def. art.) kadhatwan (O)". Both sentences mean: "He (S) comes (V) in (pp.) the (def. art.) palace (O)". In the Old Javanese sentence, the verb is placed at the beginning and is separated by the particle ta from the rest of the sentence. In Modern Javanese the definite article is lost in prepositions (it is expressed in another way). Verbs are not inflected for person or number. Tense is not indicated either, but is expressed by auxiliary words such as "yesterday", "already", etc. There is also a complex system of verb affixes to express the different status of the subject and object. However, in general the structure of Javanese sentences both Old and Modern can be described using the so-called topic-comment model without having to refer to classical grammatical or syntactical categories such as the aforementioned subject, object, predicates, etc. The topic is the head of the sentence; the comment is the modifier. So our Javanese above-mentioned sentence could then be described as follows: Dheweke = topic; tĕka = comment; neng kĕdhaton = setting.

Vocabulary

Javanese has a rich vocabulary, with many borrowed foreign words as well as the native Austronesian base. Sanskrit has had a deep and lasting impact on the vocabulary of the Javanese language. The "Old Javanese – English Dictionary", written by professor P.J. Zoetmulder in 1982, contains approximately 25.500 entries, no less than 12.500 of which are borrowings from Sanskrit. Clearly this large number is not a gauge of usage, but it is an indication that the Ancient Javanese knew and employed these Sanskrit words in their literary works. In any given Old Javanese literary work, approximately 25% of the vocabulary is derived from Sanskrit. Many Sanskrit words are still in current usage. Modern Javanese speakers refer to much of the Old Javanese and Sanskrit words as kawi words, which can be roughly translated as "literary". There is significant word borrowing from Arabic, Dutch and Malay as well, but none as extensively as from Sanskrit. There are far fewer Arabic loanwords in Javanese than in Malay. These Arabic loanwords are usually concerned with Islamic religion, but some words have entered the basic vocabulary such as pikir ("to think" from the Arabic fikr), badan ("body"), mripat ("eye" thought to be derived from the Arabic ma'rifah, meaning "knowledge" or "vision"). However, these Arabic words typically have native Austronesian and/or Sanskrit equivalents. In this case, pikir = galih, idhĕp (Austronesian), manah, cipta, or cita (Sanskrit), badan = awak (Austronesian), slira, sarira, or angga (Sanskrit), and mripat = mata (Austronesian), soca, or netra (Sanskrit). Dutch loanwords usually have the same form and meaning as in Indonesian but there are few exceptions. Consider this table:

Javanese	Indonesian	Dutch	English
pit	sepeda	fiets	bicycle
pit montor	sepeda motor	motorfiets	motor bicycle
sepur	kereta api	spoor, i.e. (rail)track	train

The latter is interesting, as the word sepur also exists in Indonesian. Its meaning has preserved the Dutch meaning more faithfully, meaning "railway tracks". Malay was the lingua franca of the Indonesian archipelago before the proclamation of Indonesia in 1945 and is currently the official national language of Indonesia. As such, there has been an influx of Malay and Indonesian vocabulary into Javanese recently. Many of these words are concerned with the bureaucracy or politics.

Politeness

Javanese speech varies depending on social context, yielding three distinct styles, or registers. Each style employs its own vocabulary, grammatical rules and even prosody. This is not unique to Javanese; neighbouring Austronesian languages as well as East Asian languages such as Korean, Japanese and Thai share similar constructions. In Javanese these styles are called: #Ngoko is informal speech, used between friends and close relatives. It is also used by persons of higher status to persons of lower status, such as elders to younger people or bosses to subordinates. #Madya is the intermediary form between ngoko and krama. An example of the context where one would use madya is an interaction between strangers on the street, where one wants to be neither too formal nor too informal. #Krama is the polite and formal style. It is used between persons of the same status who do not wish to be informal. It is also the official style for public speeches, announcements, etc. It is also used by persons of lower status to persons of higher status, such as youngsters to elder people or subordinates to bosses. In addition, there are also "meta-style" words — the honorifics and humilifics. When one talks about oneself, one has to be humble. But when one speaks of someone else with a higher status or to whom one wants to be respectful, honorific terms are used. Status is defined by age, social position and other factors. The humilific words are called krama andhap words while the honorific words are called krama inggil words. For example, children often use the ngoko style when talking to the parents, but they must use both krama inggil and krama andhap. Below some examples are provided to explain these different styles.
- Ngoko: Aku arěp mangan (I want to eat)
- Madya: Kula ajěng nědha.
- Krama:
- (Neutral) Kula badhe nědha.
- (Humble) Dalěm badhe nědha.
- Mixed:
- (Honorific - Addressed to someone with a high(er) status.) Bapak kěrsa dhahar? (Do you want to eat? Literally meaning: Does father want to eat?)
- (reply towards persons with lower status) Iya, aku kěrsa dhahar. (Yes, I want to eat).
- (reply towards persons with lower status, but without having the need to express one's superiority) Iya, aku arěp mangan.
- (reply towards persons with the same status) Inggih, kula badhe nědha. The use of these different styles is complicated and requires thorough knowledge of the Javanese culture. This is one element that makes it difficult for foreigners to learn Javanese. On the other hand, these different styles of speech are actually not mastered by the majority of Javanese. Most people only master the first style and a rudimentary form of the second style. Persons who have correct mastery of the different styles are held in high esteem.

Dialects

There are three main groups of Javanese dialects based on the subregion where the speakers live. They are: Western Javanese, Central Javanese and Eastern Javanese. The differences between these dialectical groups are primarily pronunciation and, to a lesser extent, vocabulary. All Javanese dialects are more or less mutually intelligible.

The dialects

The Central Javanese variant, based on the speech of Surakarta (and also to a degree of Yogyakarta), is considered as the most "refined" Javanese dialect. Accordingly standard Javanese is based on this dialect. These two cities are the seats of the four Javanese principalities, heirs to the dynasty of Mataram II, which once reigned over almost the whole of Java and beyond. Speakers spread fom north to south of the Central Java province and utilize many dialects, such as Muria and Semarangan, as well as Surakarta and Yogyakarta. Western Javanese, spoken in the western part of the Central Java province and throughout the West Java province (particularly in the north coast region), contains dialects distinct for their Sundanese influences and which still maintain many archaic words. The dialects include North Banten, Banyumasan, Tegal, Jawa Serang, North coast, Indramayu (or Dermayon) and Cirebonan (or Basa Cerbon). Eastern Javanese speakers range from the eastern banks of Kali Brantas in Kertosono to Banyuwangi, comprising the majority of the East Java province, excluding Madura island. However, the dialect has been influenced by Madurese, and is always referred to as Surabayan speech. Since 2003, an East Java local television station (JTV) has broadcast some of its programmes in East Javanese dialect. Three such programmes are Pojok kampung (News), Kuis RT/RW and Pojok Perkoro (a criminal programme). The most aberrant dialect is spoken in Balambangan (or Banyuwangi) in the eastern-most part of Java. It is generally known as Basa Osing. Osing is the word for negation and is a cognate of the Balinese tusing, Balinese being the neighbouring language directly to the east. In the past this area of Java was in possession of Balinese kings and warlords.

Pronunciation

Most Javanese people, except those who live in West Java, accept the pronunciation of the phoneme "a" as (ø). Therefore, there is a different pronunciation of many words; for example apa (Eng.=what) is pronounced (apa?) in Western Javanese and (ø:Pø:) in Central and Eastern Javanese. When there is a condition of phoneme stem VCV (Vowel-Consonant-Vowel) with the same vowels, Central Javanese speakers drop the second vowel into another sound, with the following formula: (i) becomes (e) and (u) becomes (o), the Easterns drop both of the vowels, whereas Western Javanese maintains the sounds (i) and (u). So the word cilik (Eng.= small), is pronounced (čile?) in Central, (če:le?) in Eastern, and (čilik) in Western Javanese; the word tutup is pronounced (tutop) in Central, (to:top) in Eastern, and (tutup) in Western Javanese.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Javanese language is enriched by dialectal words. For example, to get the meaning of "you", Western Javanese speakers say rika (rika?), Eastern Javanese use kon (køn), and Central Javanese speakers say kowe (kowe). Another example is the expression of "how": the Tegal dialect of Western Javanese uses kepriben (kěpribèn), the Banyumasan dialect of Western Javanese employs kepriwe (kěpriwe) or kepriwen (kěpriwen), Eastern Javanese speakers say yok apa (yø?øpø) - originally means "like what" (Javanese: kaya apa), and Central Javanese speakers say piye (piye).

Brief history of the Javanese language

Old Javanese

While evidence of writing in Java dates to the Sanskrit "Tarumanegara inscription" of 450, the oldest example written entirely in Javanese, called the "Sukabumi inscription", is dated March 25, 804. This inscription, located in the district of Pare in the Kediri regency of East Java, is actually a copy of the original, dated some 120 years earlier; only this copy has been preserved. Its contents concern the construction of a dam for an irrigation canal near the river Śrī Hariñjing (nowadays Srinjing). This inscription is the last of its kind to be written using Pallava script; all consequent examples are written using Javanese script. The 8th and 9th centuries are marked with the emergence of the Javanese literary tradition with Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan, a Buddhist treatise and the Kakawin Ramayana, a Javanese rendering in Indian metres of the Vishnuistic Sanskrit epic, Rāmâyaṇa. Although Javanese as a written language appeared considerably later than Malay (extant in the 7th century), the Javanese literary tradition is continuous from its inception to present day. The oldest works, such as the above mentioned Rāmâyaņa, and a Javanese rendering of the Indian Mahabharata epic are studied assiduously today. The expansion of the Javanese culture, including Javanese script and language, began in 1293 with the eastward push of the Hindu-Buddhist East-Javanese Empire Majapahit, toward Madura and Bali. The Javanese campaign in Bali in 1363 has had a deep and lasting impact. With the introduction of the Javanese administration, Javanese replaced Balinese as the language of administration and literature. Though the Balinese people preserved much of the older literature of Java and even created their own in Javanese idioms, Balinese ceased to be written until the 19th century. :See also: Kawi language

Middle Javanese

The Majapahit Empire also saw the rise of a new language, Middle Javanese, which is an intermediate form between Old Javanese and New Javanese. In fact, Middle Javanese is so similar to New Javanese that works written in Middle Javanese should be easily comprehended by Modern Javanese speakers who are well acquainted with literary Javanese. The Majapahit Empire fell due to internal disturbances and attacks by Islamic forces of the Demak kingdom on the north coast of Java. There is a Javanese chronogram concerning the fall which reads, "sirna ilang krĕtaning bumi" ("vanished and gone was the prosperity of the world"), indicating the date AD 1478. Thus there is a popular belief that Majapahit collapsed in 1478, though it may have lasted into the 1500s. This was the last Hindu Javanese empire.

New Javanese

In the 16th century a new era in Javanese history began with the rise of the Islamic Central Javanese empire Mataram II, originally a vassal state of Majapahit. Ironically, the Mataram Empire rose as an Islamic kingdom which sought revenge for the demise of the Hindu Majapahit Empire by first crushing Demak, the first Javanese Islamic kingdom. Javanese culture spread westward as Mataram conquered many previously Sundanese areas in western parts of Java; and Javanese became the dominant language in more than a third of this area. As in Bali, the Sundanese language ceased to be written until the 19th century. In the meantime it was heavily influenced by Javanese, and some 40% of Sundanese vocabulary is believed to have been derived from Javanese. Though Islamic in name, the Mataram II empire preserved many elements of the older culture, incorporating them into the new religion. This is the reason why Javanese script is still in use as opposed to the writing of Old-Malay for example. After the Malays were converted, they dropped their form of indigenous writing and changed to a form of the "script of the Divine", the Arabic script. In addition to the rise of Islam, the 16th century saw the emergence of the New Javanese language. The first Islamic documents in Javanese were already written in New Javanese, although still in antiquated idioms and with numerous Arabic loanwords. This is to be expected as these early New Javanese documents are Islamic treatises. Later, intensive contacts with the Dutch and with other Indonesians gave rise to a simplified form of Javanese and influx of foreign loanwords.

Modern Javanese

Some scholars dub the spoken form of Javanese in the 20th century Modern Javanese, although it is essentially still the same language as New Javanese.

Demographic distribution of Javanese speakers

Javanese is spoken throughout Indonesia, neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, the Netherlands, Suriname, New Caledonia and other countries. However, the greatest concentration of the speakers is found in the six provinces of Java itself, and in the neighbouring Sumatran province of Lampung. Below a table with an estimated number of native speakers is provided.

Province	Total Population	Number of Javanese Speakers	% of TP
Banten	9.000.000	> 500.000	>5%
Jakarta	10.000.000	unknown	n.a.
West Java	30.000.000	5.700.000	15%
Central Java	34.000.000	32.980.000	97%
Yogyakarta	3.500.000	2.800.000	80%
East Java	38.000.000	30.400.000	78%
Lampung	7.000.000	4.270.000	61%
Suriname	500.000	75.000	15%
Total	139.500.000	76.725.000	a

Table data from various sources. In Banten, the descendants of the Central Javanese conquerors who founded the Islamic Sultanate there in the 16th century still speak an archaic form of Javanese. The rest of the population mainly speak Sundanese and Indonesian as this province borders directly on Jakarta. Many commuters live in the Jakartan suburbs in Banten, comprising 33% of the total population there. The number of the descendants of the Central Javanese conquerors with their distinct dialect is at least 500.000. It is estimated that at least 33% of the population of Jakarta is of Javanese descent and as such speak Javanese or have knowledge of it. In Jakarta, all regional languages of Indonesia are spoken and also various foreign languages such as English, Dutch, and various Indian and Chinese languages. In the province of West Java, many people speak Javanese, especially those living in the areas bordering Central Java, the cultural homeland of the Javanese. Yogyakarta, which also lies in Central Java, is a special district based on the former sultanate of Yogyakarta; the area is given special privileges and has the status of a province. The many universities and schools in this area attract people from throughout Indonesia and the world, and thus the number of the speakers of Javanese is somewhat lower than would be expected given its location. The province of East Java is also home of the Madurese people who number almost a quarter of the population (mostly on the island of Madura), but many Madurese actually have some knowledge of colloquial Javanese. Since the 19th century, Madurese was also written with the Javanese script. Unfortunately, the aspirated phonemes of Madurese are not reproduced in writing. The 19th century scribes apparently 'forgot' or were ignorant of the fact that the Javanese script does possess these characters. In Lampung the original inhabitants, the Lampungese, only make up some 10% of population. The rest are the so-called transmigrants, most of whom are Javanese who settled there since the 19th century. In the former Dutch colony of Suriname (formerly called Dutch Guiana), approximately 15% of the population of some 500.000, is of Javanese descent, thus accounting for 75.000 speakers of Javanese. Although Javanese is not an official language, it has a recognised status as a regional language in three Indonesian provinces where the biggest concentration of the Javanese people are found, i.e. Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java. Javanese is taught at schools and is also used in mass media, both electronically and printed. There is, however, no longer a daily newspaper in Javanese.

mass media

External links

- [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/javanese.htm Javanese Writing System]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=518 Ethnologue report on Javanese] Category:Austronesian languages Category:Malayo-Polynesian languages Category:Languages of Indonesia Category:Languages of Malaysia ms:Bahasa Jawa ja:ジャワ語

Sundanese language

Sundanese (Basa Sunda, literally "language of Sunda") is the language of about 27,000,000 people from the western third of Java or about 15% of Indonesian population. It is classified in Austronesian - Malayo-Polynesian - Western Malayo-Polynesian - Sundic language family and has several dialects based on the locations of the people:
- Banten,
- Bogor,
- Priangan, and
- Cirebon. Priangan, which cover the most area of Sunda, is the main dialect of Sundanese language taught in elementary till junior-high schools (equivalent to ninth-year school grade).

Phonology

Currently, Sundanese is written in Latin script and is highly phonetical. There are five pure vowel sounds: a (similar to the sound in bus), é (as in get), i (shorter than in eat), o (shorter than in dawn), u (as in put), and two neutral vowels like the second vowel of water which is spelled e, and eu (as 'eau' in plateau); and no diphthong. The consonantic phonemes are rendered by the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c (pronounced like the ch in cheese), j, h, ng (which also occurs initially), ny (as in canyon), m, n, s (unvoiced, as in sun or cats), w, l, r (trilled or flapped) and y. Other consonants that originally appear in Indonesian loanwords mostly transferred into main consonants: f -> p, v -> p, sy -> s, sh -> s, z -> j, and kh (as in loch) -> h.

Basic grammar

Anging.

Root word

(to be written).

Active form

(to be written).

Negation

(to be written).

Question

(to be written).

Passive form

(to be written).

Adjectives

(to be written).

Prepositions

Place

English	Sundanese (normal)	Sundanese (polite)
above ..	diluhureun ..	diluhureun ..
behind ..	ditukangeun ..	dipengkereun ..
under ..	dihandapeun ..	dihandapeun ..
inside ..	di jero ..	di lebet ..
outside ..	di luar ..	di luar ..
between .. and ..	di antara .. jeung ..	di antawis .. sareng ..

Time

English	Sundanese (normal)	Sundanese (polite)
before	saacan	sateuacan
after	sanggeus	saparantos
during	basa	nalika

Miscellaneous

English	Sundanese (normal)	Sundanese (polite)
from	tina	tina

Conjuctives

(to be written).

External links

- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=sun ethnologue report on Sundanese] Category:Languages of Indonesia Category:Malayo-Polynesian languages Category:Austronesian languages ms:Bahasa Sunda

Island

in New York, USA]] An island or isle is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water. Very small islands are called islets. Although seldom adhered to, it is also proper to call an emergent land feature on an atoll an islet, since an atoll is a type of island. A key or cay is also another name for a relatively small island. Groups of related islands are called archipelagos. There are three main types of islands: continental islands, river islands, and volcanic islands. There are also some artificial islands. The word island derives ultimately from the Old English word igland. It was originally spelled phonetically: iland. The letter "s" was added out of the mistaken belief that it derived from isle (< Old French < Latin insula) + land, where no such etymological relationship existed.

Continental islands

Continental islands are bodies of land that are connected by the continental shelf to a continent. That is, these islands are part of an adjacent continent and are located on the continental shelf of that continent. Examples include Greenland and Sable Island off North America, Barbados and Trinidad off South America, Sicily off Europe, Sumatra and Java off Asia, New Guinea and Tasmania off Australia. A special type of continental island is the microcontinental island, which results when a continent is rifted. The best example is Madagascar off Africa. The Kerguelen Islands and some of the Seychelles are also examples. Another subtype is the barrier island: accumulations of sand on the continental shelf.

River islands

River islands occur in river deltas and in large rivers. They are caused by deposition of sediment at points in the flow where the current loses some of its carrying capacity. In essence, they are river bars, isolated in the stream. While some are ephemeral, and may disappear if the river's water volume or speed changes, others are stable and long-lived.

Volcanic islands

Volcanic islands are built by volcanoes. Mid-ocean examples are not geologically part of any continent. One type of volcanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring. Examples include the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands are the only Atlantic Ocean examples. Another type of volcanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples: Iceland, which is the world's largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen—both are in the Atlantic. The last type of volcanic island are those formed over volcanic hotspots. A hot spot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually eroded down and "drowned" by isostatic adjustment, becoming a seamount. Plate movement across a hot-spot produces a line of islands oriented in the direction of the plate movement. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure, which then extends beneath the sea surface in a more northerly direction as the Emperor Seamounts. Another chain with similar orientation is the Tuamotu Archipelago; its older, northerly trend is the Line Islands. The southernmost chain is the Austral Islands, with its northerly trending part the atolls in the nation of Tuvalu. Tristan da Cunha is an example of a hotspot volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. An atoll is an island formed from a coral reef that has grown on an eroded and submerged volcanic island. The reef rises above the surface of the water and forms a new island. Atolls are typically ring-shaped with a central, shallow lagoon. Examples include the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Bora Bora in the Pacific.

External links

- [http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part8.htm Definition of island] from United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Category:Islands Category:Landforms zh-min-nan:Tó-sū ko:섬 ms:Pulau ja:島 simple:Island th:เกาะ

Capital

:This article concerns places that serve as centers of government and politics. For alternative meanings see capital (disambiguation) In politics, a capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has an alternative meaning based on an alternative meaning of "capital") is the principal city or town associated with its government. It is almost always the city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and fixed by law. The word capital is derived from the Latin caput meaning "head," and the related term capitol refers to the building where government-business is chiefly conducted. Seats of government in major substate jurisdictions are usually called "capitals", but at lower administrative subdivisions, terms such as county town, county seat, or borough seat are also used. As the focal point of power for the country or region, the capital naturally attracts the politically motivated and those whose skills are needed for efficient administration of government such as lawyers, journalists, and public policy researchers. Older capitals have often developed into prime economic, cultural, or intellectual centers as well. Such is certainly the case with Paris and Buenos Aires among national capitals, and Irkutsk or Salt Lake City in their respective state or province. Such concentration may be controversial. The siting of Brasília in Brazil's heartland was done in order to bring progress to the interior of the country, since the old capital, Rio de Janeiro, along with entire Southeastern Brazil was already crowded. The government of South Korea announced in 2004 it would move its capital from Seoul to Yeongi-Gongju — even though the word Seoul itself means "capital" in the Korean language. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal. Traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, as occurred with Thebes by Alexandria, Nanjing by Shanghai, or Edinburgh by Glasgow. The decline of a dynasty or culture could mean the extinction of its capital city as well, as occurred with Babylon and Cahokia. And many modern capital cities, such as Abuja and Ottawa, were deliberately fixed outside existing economic areas, and may not have established themselves as new commercial or industrial hubs since.

Multiple capitals

:See also: List of multiple capitals A number of cases exist where states or other entities have multiple capitals. In South Africa, for example, the administrative capital is Pretoria, the legislative capital is Cape Town, and the judicial capital is Bloemfontein, the outcome of the compromise that created the Union of South Africa in 1910. In others, the "effective" and "official" capital may differ for pragmatic reasons, resulting in a situation where a city known as "the capital" is not, in fact, host to the seat of government:
- Yamoussoukro was designated the national capital of Côte d'Ivoire in 1983, but as of 2004 most government offices and embassies were still located in Abidjan
- Sucre is still the constitutional capital of Bolivia, but most of the national government long abandoned that region for La Paz
- Amsterdam is the nominal national capital of the Netherlands even though the Dutch government and supreme court are both located in The Hague. In such cases, the city housing the administrative capital is usually understood to be the "national capital" among outsiders. For instance, Santiago is understood to be the capital of Chile even though its Congress is in Valparaiso.

Capital as symbol

With the rise of modern empires and the nation-state, the capital city has become a symbol for the state and its government, and imbued with political meaning. Unlike medieval capitals, which were declared wherever a monarch held his or her court, the selection, relocation, founding, or capture of a modern capital city is an emotional affair. For example:
- Ruined and almost uninhabited Athens was made capital of newly independent Greece with the romantic notion of reviving the glory of the ancients;
- Peter I of Russia moved his government to Saint Petersburg to give the Russian Empire a western orientation, while Kemal Atatürk did the same by ironically moving east to Ankara, away from Ottoman Istanbul;
- The selection or founding of a "neutral" city, one unencumbered by regional or political identity, represented the unity of a new state with Madrid in Spain, Washington, D.C. in the United States, and Canberra in Australia among others;
- During the American Civil War, tremendous resources were expended to defend Washington, D.C. from Confederate attack even though the small federal government could have been moved relatively easily in the era of railroads and telegraph.
- Berlin has risen from the ashes of World War II (Stunde Null) to become the new/old capital city of the third most prosperous nation in the World, Germany.

The effects of the capital

The capital city is almost always the main target in a war, as capturing it usually guarantees capture of much of the enemy government, and victory for the attacking forces. In the tradition of drama, capital cities are usually associated with high stake final battles, such as in the Lord of the Rings series where the forces of Mordor besiege the Gondorian capital of Minas Tirith; it is assumed if the city falls, Gondor falls with it. In old China, the relatively fragile dynasties could easily be toppled with the fall of their capital. In the Three Kingdoms period, both Shu and Wu fell when their respective capitals of Cheng Du and Jian Ye fell. The Ming were destroyed when the Manchus took their seat of power, and this pattern endlessly repeats itself in Chinese history. In the West, things were vastly different. The Byzantine Empire lasted for nearly 60 years after Crusaders took their capital city of Constantinople. The American revolutionaries lost their capital of Philadelphia, but survived the blow.

Largest national capital cities

Some of the largest cities in the world are not national capitals. The largest national capitals on each continent, by urban/metropolitan area population, are:
- Africa: Cairo (11,146,000)
- Asia: Tokyo (35,237,000)
- Europe: Moscow (13,600,000)
- North America: Mexico City (17,809,471)
- Oceania: Wellington (367,600)
- South America: Buenos Aires (13,349,000)

Lists of capitals

- Lists of national capitals
- by name
- by country (with also the largest city)
- by continent and country
- List of historical national capitals
- List of capitals of subnational entities
- List of multiple capitals
- List of countries that have the name of their capital included in their name
- List of countries whose capital is not their largest city Category:Capitals Category:Political geography als:Hauptstadt ko:수도 ja:首都 ms:Ibu negara simple:Capital (city) th:เมืองหลวง zh-min-nan:Siú-to·

Jakarta

:This page is about the capital city of Indonesia. For The Apache Jakarta project, see Jakarta Project.

Jakarta

Jakarta Project

Motto: "Jaya Raya"
(Indonesian): "Prosper and Great"

Indonesian

Founded

22 June 1527

Governor

Sutiyoso

Area

661.52 km²

Population
- Total (2004):
- Density:

8,792,000
13,290/km²

Time zone

UTC+7

Jakarta (also Djakarta or DKI Jakarta, formerly known as Batavia) is the capital and the largest city of Indonesia, located on the northwest coast of the island of Java, at . It has an area of 661.52 km² and a population of 8,792,000 (2004).

History

2004 The first recorded settlement at what is now Jakarta was the port of Kalapa, near the mouth of the Ciliwung River. Its origin can be traced to a Hindu settlement as early as the 5th century. By the 12th century, it was a major port for the Hindu kingdom of Sunda. The Portuguese were reported to be the first Europeans to visit the port of Kalapa. A Hindu king granted Portuguese traders permission to build a fort at Kalapa in the early 16th century. Jakarta's port is still called Sunda Kelapa today, after this early settlement. In 1527, the city was conquered by Fatahillah (or Faletehan), a young leader from a nearby kingdom from the north. Fatahillah changed the name Kalapa into Jayakarta (meaning "victorious and prosperous" in Javanese) on 22 June, 1527. This particular date is regarded as the official birth date of Jakarta. The Dutch came to Jayakarta at the end of the 16th century. In 1619 the forces of the Dutch East India Company, led by Jan Pieterszoon Coen, conquered the city and renamed Jayakarta to Batavia, the Latin name for a tribe that lived in the Netherlands during Roman times. Batavia was the capital of the colonial Dutch East Indies. In the early 19th century, the city was expanded as the Dutch began moving to the south, to higher-elevation areas thought to be healthier. The British captured Java in 1811 and occupied the island for five years while the Netherlands were occupied with the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, before returning it to Dutch control. With formal, direct rule by the Netherlands expanding to more parts of the archipelago during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the importance of the colonial Batavia (Jakarta) increased. Dutch tactics to maintain control and tax revenue at times required nearly all exports from anywhere in the region to be shipped through the city, establishing for the city an overwhelming political and economic dominance that it retains today. Japan took possession of the city in 1942 during World War II and renamed it Jakarta, to gain local favor. Following Japan's defeat in 1945, the Dutch reoccupied the city despite the declaration of independence by the Indonesians on August 17, 1945. Jakarta was the center of the Dutch effort to retain control over their former colony during the war of independence that ended with the establishment of Indonesia in 1949.

Administration

1949 Unlike other cities in Indonesia, Jakarta has a special provincial status. The city is headed by a governor instead of a mayor. Jakarta is divided into five districts called kota (formerly kotamadya), each headed by a mayor (walikota).
- Central Jakarta
- East Jakarta
- North Jakarta
- South Jakarta
- West Jakarta The Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu) to the north of Jakarta is also part of Jakarta. It has the status of a regency.

Culture

Being the capital of Indonesia and the center of governance, politics, and economy, Jakarta attracts many foreign as well as domestic immigrants. As a result, Jakarta has a decidedly cosmopolitan flavor and a diverse culture. Many of the immigrants are from the other parts of Java, bringing along a mixture of dialects of Javanese and Sundanese language, and their traditional foods and customs. Orang Betawi ("people of Batavia") is a term used to describe the descendants of the people living around Batavia from around the 17th century. Orang Betawi are mostly descended from various Southeast Asian ethnic groups brought to or attracted to Batavia to meet labour needs, including people from various parts of Indonesia. They have a culture and language distinct from the Sundanese and Javanese. Jakarta also has a large Chinese community which has been here for centuries. It is estimated that about 10% of the population is of Chinese descent. Chinese Jakarta has several performance centers, such as the Senayan center. Traditional music is often found at high-class hotels, including wayang and gamelan performances. As the largest city Jakarta has attracted many regional talents to relocate in hopes of finding a better audience and more opportunities for their arts and crafts. The concentration of wealth and political influence in the city means that it has much more noticeable foreign influence on its landscape and culture; many major international fast-food chains have locations in the city, for example.

Transportation

gamelan There are railways throughout Jakarta; however, they are inadequate in providing transportation for the citizens of Jakarta. In peak hours, the number of passengers simply overloads the capacity provided. The railroad tracks connect Jakarta to its neighboring cities: Depok and Bogor to the south, Tangerang and Serpong to the west, and Bekasi, Karawang, and Cikampek to the east. The major rail stations are Gambir, Jatinegara, Manggarai, and Jakarta Kota. Buses and transport cars (local language: angkutan kota/angkot) are also popular. Like trains, they also become overloaded during peak hours. In 2003, the government formed a busway system named TransJakarta; it serves a route running from Jakarta Kota to Blok M. The busway takes less than half an hour to traverse a route which would normally take more than an hour during peak hours. The second phase of the busway will be constructed in 2005, serving the route from Pulogadung to Kalideres. Despite the presence of many large, wide boulevards, Jakarta suffers from congestion due to heavy traffic, especially in the central business district. To reduce traffic jams, some major roads in Jakarta have a three in one rule during rush hours, prohibiting vehicles carrying less than three passengers on certain roads. In 2005, this rule covers the areas of Sudirman and Gatot Subroto. Jakarta's road is notorious for behaviour of the traffic; the rules of the road are broken with impunity as a simple bribe of a few US dollars will simply make all ones legal problems disappear. Furthermore in recent years the number of motorcycles on the streets has being growing almost exponentially, ensuring many a problem due to ill-disciplined motorcyclists. Jakarta's transportation also depends on tollroads. The major tollroad is the inner ring road from Tanjung Priok-Cawang-Grogol-Tanjung Priok. The outer ring road is now being constructed and is partly operational from Cilincing-Cakung-Pasar Rebo-Pondok Pinang-Daan Mogot-Cengkareng. A tollroad connects Jakarta to the Soekarno-Hatta International airport in the north of Jakarta. Also connected via tollroad is the port of Merak and Tangerang to the west, Serpong to the southwest, Depok and Bogor to the south, and Bekasi, Cibitung and Karawang, Purwakarta and eventually to Bandung to the east. Two lines of the Jakarta Monorail are under construction: the green line serving Semanggi-Casablanca-Kuningan-Semanggi and the blue line serving Kampung Melayu-Casablanca-Tanah Abang-Roxy. In addition, there are plans for a two-line subway (MRT) system, with a north-south line between Kota and Fatmawati, with connections to both monorail lines; and an east-west line, which willl connect with the north-south line at the Sawah Besar station. The government is also considering waterbus ferries as a cheaper means of transportation along the canals in Jakarta. The primary airport for Jakarta is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which has daily flights from major airlines.

Education

Jakarta is the home of several universities:
- Universitas Indonesia (a big part of it is now relocated to Depok)
- [http://www.trisakti.ac.id Universitas Trisakti]
- [http://www.tarumanagara.ac.id Universitas Tarumanagara]
- [http://www.binus.ac.id Universitas Bina Nusantara]
- [http://www.ukrida.ac.id Universitas Kristen Krida Wacana]
- Universitas Kristen Indonesia
- Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta
- [http://www.atmajaya.ac.id Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya]
- [http://www.uph.edu Universitas Pelita Harapan]
- Universitas Jayabaya
- Universitas Gunadarma
- Universitas Pembangunan Nasional
- [http://www.presuniv.com President University]

Recreational Places

- Monas
- Ragunan Zoo
- Taman Impian Jaya Ancol
- Taman Ismail Marzuki
- Taman Mini Indonesia Indah
- Thousand Islands

Shopping malls

Being the home of many of the country's political and economic elites, Jakarta boasts far more shopping venues than elsewhere in Indonesia. While these malls are too expensive to be accessible to many Jakarta residents, they dominate the high-end retail industry. Recent development of satellite cities in the surrounding areas, usually built around their own mega malls, parks, entertainment centers, and in some instances schools, has significantly expanded what is considered to be the practical border of Jakarta.

Sports

Jakarta is the home of popular football team Persija Jakarta, which regularly plays its matches in the stadium of Lebak Bulus. The biggest stadium is Bung Karno Stadium. With a capacity of more than 100,000 seats, it is one of the biggest stadiums in the world. The Senayan sports complex is comprised of several sport venues, which include: Gelora Bung Karno soccer stadium, Stadion Madya athletic stadium, Istora senayan, a shooting range, a tennis court and a golf driving range.

Problems

Istora Like many big cities in developing countries, Jakarta suffers from major urbanization problems. The population has sharply risen from 2.7 million in 1960 to 8.3 million in 2000. The rapid population growth has outgrown the government's ability to provide basic needs for its residents. As the biggest economy in Indonesia, Jakarta has attracted a large number of workers from its surrounding areas. The population during weekdays is almost double that of weeknights or weekends, due to the influx of workers residing in the surrounding areas. Because of government's inability to provide adequate transportation for its large population, Jakarta also suffers from severe traffic jams that occur almost every workday. During the wet season, Jakarta suffers from flooding due to clogged sewage pipes and waterways. Rainforest depletion due to rapid urbanization on the hill areas south of Jakarta near Bogor and Depok has also contributed to the floods.

External links

- [http://www.jakarta.go.id Official website]
-
- [http://www.indo.com/jakarta/ Jakarta Online at indo.com]
- [http://www.jsx.co.id Jakarta Stock Exchange]
- [http://www.emp.pdx.edu/htliono/jkt.html Travelling to Jakarta]
- [http://www.expat.or.id/ Living in Jakarta for expatriates]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-6.200409,106.851654&spn=0.330085,0.468361&t=k&hl=en Satellite picture by Google Maps]
- [http://www.hernan.ameijeiras.com/indonesie-indonesia.html Pictures from Jakarta]
- Category:Capitals in Asia Category:Cities in Indonesia Category:Coastal cities Category:Provinces of Indonesia zh-min-nan:Jakarta ms:Jakarta ja:ジャカルタ simple:Jakarta th:จาการ์ตา

Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the world's smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Australia's neighbouring countries are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the northeast, and New Zealand to the southeast. The continent of Australia has been inhabited for over 40,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and by European explorers and merchants starting in the 17th century, the eastern half of the continent was claimed by the British in 1770 and officially settled as the penal colony of New South Wales on 26 January 1788. As the population grew and new areas were explored, another five largely self-governing Crown Colonies were successively established over the course of the 19th century. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth Realm. The current population of around 20.4 million is concentrated mainly in the large coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Origin and history of the name

The name Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning southern. Legends of an "unknown southern land" (terra australis incognita) date back to the Roman times and were commonplace in mediæval geography, but they were not based on any actual knowledge of the continent. The Dutch adjectival form Australische ("Australian," in the sense of "southern") was used by Dutch officials in Batavia to refer to the newly discovered land to the south as early as 1638. The first English language writer to use the word "Australia" was Alexander Dalrymple in An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, published in 1771. He used the term to refer to the entire South Pacific region, not specifically to the Australian continent. In 1793, George Shaw and Sir James Smith published Zoology and Botany of New Holland, in which they wrote of "the vast island, or rather continent, of Australia, Australasia or New Holland." New Holland was established on this site.]] The name "Australia" was popularised by the 1814 work A Voyage to Terra Australis by the navigator Matthew Flinders. Despite its title, which reflected the view of the Admiralty, Flinders used the word "Australia" in the book, which was widely read and gave the term general currency. Governor

Java (island)

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Java (disambiguation)

Indonesian language

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Javanese language

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Jakarta

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