Materials for a Rejang-Indonesian-English Dictionary
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PACIFIC LING U1STICS Series D - No. 58 MATERIALS FOR A REJANG - INDONESIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY collected by M.A. Jaspan With a fragmentary sketch of the . Rejang language by W. Aichele, and a preface and additional annotations by P. Voorhoeve (MATERIALS IN LANGUAGES OF INDONESIA, No. 27) W.A.L. Stokhof, Series Editor Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Jaspan, M.A. editor. Materials for a Rejang-Indonesian-English dictionary. D-58, x + 172 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1984. DOI:10.15144/PL-D58.cover ©1984 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is issued through the Linguistic Circle of Canberra and consists of four series: SERIES A - Occasional Papers SERIES B - Monographs SERIES C - Books SERIES D - Special Publications EDITOR: S.A. Wurm ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock, C.L. Voorhoeve, D.T. Tryon, T.E. Dutton EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B.W. Bender K.A. McElhanon University of Hawaii University of Texas David Bradley H.P. McKaughan La Trobe University University of Hawaii A. Capell P. MUhlhiiusler University of Sydney Linacre College, Oxford Michael G. Clyne G.N. O'Grady Monash University University of Victoria, B.C. S.H. Elbert A.K. Pawley University of Hawaii University of Auckland K.J. Franklin K.L. Pike University of Michigan; Summer Institute of Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics W.W. Glover E.C. Polome Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Texas G.W. Grace Malcolm Ross University of Hawaii University of Papua New Guinea M.A.K. Halliday Gillian Sankoff University of Sydney University of Pennsylvania E. Haugen W.A.L. Stokhof National Center for Harvard University Language Development, Jakarta; A. Healey University of Leiden Summer Institute of Linguistics B.K. T'sou L.A. Hercus Murdoch University; Australian National University University of Hong Kong Nguygn Dll.ng LiI�m E.M. Uhlenbeck University of Hawaii University of Leiden John Lynch J.W.M. Verhaar University of Papua New Guinea Gonzaga University, Spokane All correspondence concerning PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Secretary PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies The Australian National University . Canberra, A.C.T. 2601 Australia. Copyright @ The Authors First Published 1984 Typeset by Dianne Stacey Printed by A.N.U. Printing Service Bound by Adriatic Bookbinders Pty Ltd The editors are indebted to the Australian National University for assistance in the production of this series. This publication was made possible by an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. National Library of Australia Card Number and ISBN 0 85883 312 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS page MAP iv PRE FACE v AB BREVI ATIONS x Materials for a Rejang -:In donesian - English dictionary M. A. JASP AN 1 Supplement 136 A fragmentary sketch of the Rejang language W. AICHELE 145 BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 iii iv lofts' Redjang Country LOCATION OF MERGO BOUNDARIES ... AND PRINCIPAL VILLAGES . .. .... .... ....... ,.-.. .. �s LEGEND G) ULAU RAWEUS tiD OJtllAlAND -- BOUNOARY OF AEOJANG COUNUY KUUPATEH <l> SUItAU III @S(M"O ... (i) SECOND LEVU AUTONOMOUS GOVER... M£NT ® SUICAU 11111 @ PAll' @ tlUPUA LUONG ® BIOWA BESA' ® BE"ANAI OJIItAlA... O @lAt MAIH ROAD ® 8U1"''''''' AI @ BlOW", "AOANG • KABUPATEH CAPItAL (j) tLUPUA OJ.t."'G ® STUHEVN ® HWEO ............... C.\PIlAl ® MIGAlltLOeAIt @ K(fA't:UH KEfJ ... ", ... '''''' TOWN ® 90""''''101 LOT @PUIO o PRINCIPAL 'tf'IU.t.G[ @ HIGA. ICElIHpANG HOUHt"IN PE AI( " R upit " / / , putu'n ----------_ / . � / / - -- / r (U/>fut /' / / . / // - / -- -{ / // , / I, SA9.fJIJR ,, I I / / / / / / / / ,LUBUK LlNGGAU / / " / / / ,," / @ / / / / / / / I / I / I / / / I N D I A N ... ., ' .. .. ... Ampat Lowang o C £ A N .... ... .... ..... " """"' Serawai " . .. .. .. ... ..... .... ..... ... PREFACE M. A. Jaspan did anthropological fieldwork in the Rej ang country in 1961-63 . His research was based at Topos in Lebong and he learnt to speak the Lebong dialect of Rejang fluently. He was able to record folktales on a typewriter without the help of a tape-recorder. still in the field he began collecting materials for a Rejang dictionary. This he did not merely as a contribution to linguistic science, but perhaps in the first place in order to give the Rej ang people a document of their linguistic heritage . The need of such a dictionary was widely felt among Jaspan 's Rejang friends and informants. It should not only give English translations , but also Indonesian equivalents . A small committee on lexicography was formed with whom the problems of the dictionary were discussed. One of the first problems was that there is no established orthography of Rejang in Latin characters. This does not mean that there is no tradition of literacy. The traditional script is a form of the South-Sumatran Ka-Ga-Nga syllabary , sometimes called rencong script or simply Rej ang script. This last name is mis leading because the use of this script is by no means restricted to the Rej ang area. Jaspan became much interested in the traditional script . He collected every written text which he could find in the country and began copying and trans literating Ka-Ga-Nga texts preserved in museums and libraries in Europe . In 1964 the Au stralian National Un iversity published his Redjang Ka-Ga-Nga Texts , for which a special typewriter was constructed . In the card file for the dictionary the entry-headings are given in Latin and in Ka-Ga-Nga script in Jaspan 's handwriting . This use of the Ka-Ga-Nga script was a novelty. The traditional script had never been used to write the Rej ang colloquial. It was part of a tradition which used a general South-Sumatran literary language which is fundamentally Malay. Occasionally a special Rejang word may be used , and in reading such a text it is adapted to Rej ang pronunciation . The Middle-Malay word serambah, for instance , will be pronounced sramea ', though in writing the traditional orthography sarambah is used . Very seldom does one find special Rejang spellings in old Ka-Ga-Nga texts, such as -m- for -mb- . There is one exception: the Rej ang rencong script has no buwah ngimbang , special signs for nasal plus unvoiced stop clusters (ngk, nc, nt , mp) . A text of unknown provenance without buwah ng i mbang is very probably from Rej ang , where these clusters have become k, c, t and p. Neither the Rej ang language nor the Ka-Ga-Nga script was ever used in the schools, but the idea that language and writing belong together was firmly established through the school system . Jaspan accepted this idea , and so he and the Rejang v vi committee were confronted with the problem of devising a practical orthography for Rej ang in Latin script and also of adapting the old literary script to the spoken language , for which it was utterly unfit. The rencong script has no sign for the e(pepet) sound . A syllable without a vowel sign can have the vowel a or e(pepet) . In many Middle-Malay texts a distinction is made through writing a,h for a in open syllables and no vowel sign for e(pepet) . Jaspan 's helpers found another solution by inventing a new sign for e(pepet) . This sign is never found in old manuscripts. In nfncong script there is no fixed tradition regarding the spelling of the glottal stop . Various methods are used, and this has caused much confusion in modern ised Ka-Ga-Nga writing . But the most serious drawback in writing colloquial Rej ang in rencong script is that it has no signs for the frequent Rejang diphthongs ea , ea , ia, oa and ua; that there is no traditional method of writing consonant clusters such as bl , 51 etc. , and that the 'barred nasals' can only be written with the signs for the clusters from which they have developed . These signs are modifications of the signs for the voiced stops , whereas in the Rej ang 'barred nasals' these stops are nearly inaudible . For all these reasons it would be a difficult task to construct a satisfactory orthography for Rej ang in rencong script . The entries in this script in the dictionary are not consistent and it is no great loss that they cannot be reproduced in this edition . with few exceptions they are clearly derived from the orthography in Latin characters. In a few cases, however, some additional information can be derived from them . As Jaspan began making notes in Rejang during an early stage of his fieldwork and almost nothing had been published in this language previously , he had to find his own answers to all the problems of writing it in Latin script. During the time he wor ked on his thesis in Canberra he received some advice from professional linguists , but until the end of his life he never felt quite satisfied with his orthography and kept on ma king changes. Fo r readers of his publications it is difficult to understand his system because of the use of the non-existent word 'fringilisation '. Thereby Jaspan tried to describe the 'pharyngeal ' sound of the diphthongs in which the second component part is a. In using Jaspan 's unpublished folktales , proverbs etc . (now in the Brynmor Jones Un iversity Library , Hull) one should be aware of the development in his ortho graphy . Then one will find them a precious source of information . One weak point always remained: the glottal stop had often been neglected in Jaspan 's notations. He tried to get the help of a Rejang speaker when he was editing the dictionary in Hull, but without success. He himself often felt uncertain on this point .