Language

The extensive prevalence of the Javan language, and its connexion with the languages of continental India, were not overlooked by those intelligent Europeans who visited these islands at an early period; for we find Valentyn quoting the authority of Flaccourt, who published in 1661, and of the Portuguese Jan de Barros, for conclusions with regard to the extent of Javan commerce in remote ages, drawn from the resemblance then traced between the languages of Java and those of Madagascar and Ambon (Amboina). “The Javans,” observes this author, “must doubtless have visited Coro“mandel and Malabar, for the high or court language is, in three parts out “of four, derived from the Sanscrit or Brahminical language. Many Malabar “words also enter into the composition, and it is besides composed in a “great measure from the Dekan, which is the ancient language of India, “in the same manner as the Sanscrit is the sacred language.”

Little known to Europeans

The alphabet has been exhibited, though imperfectly, by Valentyn, LeBrun, and Reland, and an Alphabetum Bantemense is said to have been found amongst the posthumous papers of the learned Hyde; but the language does not appear to have been regularly cultivated by Europeans until within the last very few years.