Petjo, also known as Petjoh, Petjok, Pecok, Petjoek ( pey, Peco') is a
Dutch-based creole language that originated among the
Indos, people of mixed
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n ancestry in the former
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
. The language has influences from
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and then depending on the region
Javanese,
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
,
Sundanese
Sundanese may refer to:
* Sundanese people
* Sundanese language
* Sundanese script
Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (' ...
and
Betawi. Its speakers presently live mostly in Indonesia and the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. The language is expected to become gradually extinct by the end of the 21st century, due to Indos' shift toward Indonesian in Indonesia and Dutch in the Netherlands.
Background
Just as the
Indo
Indo may refer to:
* Indo-, a prefix indicating India or the Indian Subcontinent
* Indonesia, a country in Asia
** INDO LINES, callsign of Indonesian Airlines
** Indo people, people of mixed European and Indonesian ancestry
** Indo cuisine, fusion ...
(Eurasian) community historically originated from relationships between European males and Indonesian females, its language reflects this same origin. Typified as a mixed-marriage language, the grammar of Petjok is based on the maternal Malay language and the lexicon on the paternal Dutch language.
The main contact mechanisms responsible for the creation of Petjok are
lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lex ...
re-orientation; selective replication and
convergence
Convergence may refer to:
Arts and media Literature
*''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen
*Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics:
**A four-part crossover storyline that ...
. The original speakers of the language do not necessarily want to maintain their first language, but rather create a second one. These creative speakers of the language were probably
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
, but more fluent in the dominant lingua franca i.e., native
Malay language
Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...
, than Dutch language.
In its overall split between grammar and lexicon, the structure of Petjok is very similar to the
Media Lengua
Media Lengua, also known as ''Chaupi-lengua'', ''Chaupi-Quichua'', , or , is typically a derogatory term used by Kichwa-speakers to describe their language. However, it also appears to describe Media Lengua in the Imbabura Communities. It is ...
spoken in Ecuador by the Quechua Indians, with the critical difference that the much older language, Pecok, has undergone late system
morphemes
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone a ...
and syntactic blends.
The most important author that published literary work in this language is the
Indo
Indo may refer to:
* Indo-, a prefix indicating India or the Indian Subcontinent
* Indonesia, a country in Asia
** INDO LINES, callsign of Indonesian Airlines
** Indo people, people of mixed European and Indonesian ancestry
** Indo cuisine, fusion ...
(Eurasian) writer
Tjalie Robinson
Tjalie Robinson is the main alias of the Indo (Eurasian) intellectual and writer Jan Boon (born Nijmegen, 10 January 1911; died The Hague, 22 April 1974) also known as Vincent Mahieu. His father Cornelis Boon, a Royal Netherlands East Indies Army ...
.
Website of Tjalie Robinsons Dutch biographer
/ref>
Each urban area with a large Indo community had their own variation of Petjok. For example: the Petjok of Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
was influenced by a form of Malay which contained many Chinese words, in Bandung
Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...
, many Sundanese words were used, while in Semarang
Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...
and Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...
many Javanese words were in use.
Petjo should not be confused with Javindo, a different creole language spoken by Indos in the Dutch East Indies
The Indo people ( nl, Indische Nederlanders, or Indos) are Eurasian people living in or connected with Indonesia. In its narrowest sense, the term refers to people in the former Dutch East Indies who held European legal status but were of m ...
.
Largely an oral language, there is no standard spelling for the language. Texts may be written using what is known as the old spelling (''Ejaan Tempo Dulu'') or the Indonesian Enhanced Spelling (''Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan''). Some spelling differences (new vs old) are: j=dj, u=oe, y=j, c=tj, ny=nj, sy=sj, and kh=ch.
Phonology
Petjo's phonology is based on the Malay phonology. This means that both words in Malay and in Dutch sound sequences in syllables are lengthened, consonants and vowels are likely to overlap each other (CVCV); some consonants that follow each other (consonant clusters) are most likely to be avoided. The following will give an example of an 'e' which is spoken unstressed (schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
insertion) or the consonant is omitted.
Consonants
Consonant shifts
The suprasegmental aspects – word stress and intonation – in Petjo are very similar to Malay; Petjo has a striking ''zinsmelodie'' (rhythm) compared to Dutch. In addition, Petjo has a different consonant pronunciation compared to Dutch. Below is a shift in the pronunciation of voiced consonants to voiceless in Petjo.
Consonant blends
The combination of consonants also for many Petjo speakers becomes an insurmountable problem. Petjo speakers will usually omit some sounds or add others in between to get a slightly flexible tongue to pronounce a combination of consonants.
Vowels
In Petjo's pronunciation, all vowels are pronounced nasally. Long and closed sounds are pronounced open or wide. Long sounds are often pronounced shorter and short sounds made longer compared to Dutch pronunciation, or speakers of these languages change the sound:
Language samples
Fragment from ''Petjoh van Batavia''
From Tjalie Robinson
Tjalie Robinson is the main alias of the Indo (Eurasian) intellectual and writer Jan Boon (born Nijmegen, 10 January 1911; died The Hague, 22 April 1974) also known as Vincent Mahieu. His father Cornelis Boon, a Royal Netherlands East Indies Army ...
, ''Ik en Bentiet'':
I say: "Als so, alleen djoeloeng-djoeloeng jij fang!"
He say: "Itoe diejè!"
I say: "Njang klein-klein fóór wat?"
He say: "Foor kwamaroem".
I say: "Foor wat?"
He say: Foor waramoeki".
I say: So-euven jij seh anders".
He say: "Ha-a. Muuleke woort dese. Laat maar dese woort, alsmaar ding-nja hoet".
I say: "Wat foor ding, dese ding. Lekker?"
He say: "Masa lekker. Als jij denken freten door maar-door jij".
References
Citations
Bibliography
*Cress, R.(1998): Petjoh. Woorden en wetenswaardigheden uit het Indische verleden. Amsterdam, Prometheus.
*Rickford, J.R. & Mc Worther, J (1997): “Language contact and language generation: Pidgins and Creoles”. In: F. Coulmas (red), The handbook of sociolinguistics. Oxford, Blackwell, p. 238–256.
*Riyanto, Sugeng (1996): “Het ontstaan en de structuur van het Petjoek”, In: Darmojuwono, Setiawati; Suratminto, Lilie (red): Duapuluh lima tahun studi Belanda di Indonesia/ Vijfentwintig jaar studie Nederlands in Indonesië. p. 209–218
*Van Rheeden, Hadewych A. (1995): "Het Petjo van Batavia – ontstaan en structuur van de taal van de Indo's", Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam, Instituut voor Algemene Taalwetenschap
External links
University of Colorado paper by Elly Amade
{{Languages of Indonesia
Dutch-based pidgins and creoles
Languages of Indonesia
Dutch language in Asia