Language of Dutch East Indies
- Thread starter Cahaya Purnama
- Start date
I'm not sure if it's what you meant but Indonesian traditionally used a Dutch-based orthography. Check Van Ophuijsen Spelling System.
Borrowing grammar is very rare with languages. Given Malay related languages like OTLs Bahasa Indonesia are so very, very different from IndoEuropean languages like Dutch, I'd have to say the chances of borrowing grammar go down even furthers.
Bits of grammar can be borrowed relatively easily, or can be shown to be present in several languages (usually related AFAIK) probably because of contact rather than inheritance. However, adopting substantial parts of a different grammar (which I take means morphology and syntax) into another, unrelated language is probably pretty rare.
The most borrowable part of a language system is lexicon. When it gets to the point that large section of grammatical structures are borrowed, lexicon is likely changed substantially. That could be more like language substitution, if not decreolisation, than simple borrowing.
However, my understanding is that while Dutch lexical items have entered Indonesian in significant numbers, the grammatical structure of the language was hardly much affected (which does not mean it was not changed. Indonesian is widely known among specialists as one of the most heavily "engineered" modern languages. Just not changed into an overall "Dutch" structure).
Yeah, but they tend to borrow foreign lexicon into native grammar (though I'm sure it's not this straightforward), while the OP seems to be suggesting the other way round.
Actually, creoles tend to come up with a rather simplified grammar, often different from both (all) parents. Grammatically, 'creolization' is a thing - i.e. that many creoles share strong similarities (grammatically) to each other. Use of oblique forms of pronouns in all positions, rather than the subject/nominative form is one I remember. Introducing auxiliary verbs, especially for tenses, is another (and note that some of THAT happened as Latin simplified in Europe into the modern Romance languages).
Yes, you put it better than I did. Although pronouns would count as vocabulary, rather than grammar, in this context.
This is possible had the Dutch been interested in doing that. When they arrived, they found Malay, the basis of modern Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia, already entrenched as widely spread local lingua franca. As such, it already has a rather simple grammar (I guess it could be said that this includes "creole-like" traits in this).
My understanding is that the Dutch took the path of least resistance in using the trade language already in use all over the place (and, in doing so, they spread it considerably further). Further down the line, they adopted an interesting educational policy consisting in favoring (for the higher Native classes) education and publishing in local languages (particularly Malay) converted into Latin script. Thus, many educated Indonesians had only limited incentives to learn Dutch (as opposed to what had happened in India, for example) However, it is not unconceivable that at some the Dutch government would choose to try to enforce Dutch instead. Perhaps a policy is mandated at some point from the metropolis aiming at "uplifting" the natives in a way akin to the French "Mission civilisatrice" (I'm not familiar with Dutch internal politics, but I suppose this would require some significant change in The Hague). This won't civilise anything, but just might establish Dutch as the dominant language in which the elite is mostly literate. For this to work better, you'd probably had this happen before Latin script for local languages is codified and disseminated. If the native language stick to Jawi script and other local alphabets, the only literacy that matters in the colonial context will be seen as associated with Dutch.
This might of course backfire after-independence and bring about some reversal policies, but at that point Dutch will have a powerful position, and the various Indonesian leaders might be unable to agree on an alternative national language (say, with the Javanese complaning if Malay is picked, and vice versa).