In:Dutch and Contact Linguistics: The Dutch language outside the Low Countries
Edited by Christopher Joby and Nicoline van der Sijs
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 55] 2025
► pp. 342–391
Chapter 11Rethinking language contact in the Malay archipelago
Published online: 4 July 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.55.11sal
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.55.11sal
Abstract
This contribution on language contact in the Malay archipelago starts from the discovery around 1520 of Malay by
Pigafetta and its ensuing contact with Portuguese. A century later, Dutch was added to the mix by De Houtman in his
Malay-Dutch guide of 1603. Exploring such contacts I’ll take my cue from the Dutch linguist Gonda and his 1941 survey of
Indonesian multilingualism and its diversity. In the Capita Selecta that follow — covering both the Dutch VOC
period (1602–1799) and the Dutch Kingdom (1816–1950) — I’ll be pursuing such questions as: What about early Malay scholars
like Werndly and their achievements in grammar, dictionary making and bible translation?, How did Radermacher‘s New
Vocabulary (1780) revolutionize the study of contemporary trilingualism?, What new discoveries on the mixed
Malayo-Portuguese formerly spoken in Batavia did Schuchardt add in his Creole Studies (1890)?, What insights
have these and other linguists contributed on Dutch-Indonesian language mixing and its varieties?
Keywords: multilingualism,
lingua franca
, language contact and mixing, Dutch and its Indies varieties, Portuguese and Portuguese-based creoles (Tugu), and Malay pioneers: Pigafetta, De Houtman, Werndly, Mohr, Radermacher, De Hollander, Schuchardt, Van Ginneken, Gonda, Van den Toorn, Tjalie Robinson, Teeuw, De Vries
Article outline
- 1.Early language contact — Pigafetta and the discovery of Malay
- 2.Questions and focus — Gonda (1941) and the diversity of languages
- 3.Dictionaries and Bible translations — Dutch, Malay and Portuguese during the VOC-period (1602–1799)
- 4.The New Vocabulary of 1780 — trilingual Batavia in a new key
- 5.Unity and diversity — One language, and many others as well
- 5.1Towards a united Indonesian language
- 5.2Discovering and describing the other languages in the archipelago
- 6.Language contact, Sprachmischung and Creolistics
- 6.1Hugo Schuchardt and the Portuguese Creole of Batavia and Tugu (1890)
- 6.2Schuchardt’s impact on Dutch and Creole linguistics
- 7.Varieties of mixing in Indies Dutch
- 7.1Mixing between Dutch and Indonesian: Before the first world war
- 7.2Before the Second World War: Kijdsmeir and others on Indo Dutch
- 7.3After the second world war: Tjalie Robinson, M.C. van den Toorn,
Jan de Vries
- (1)Tjalie Robinson (1949; 1976)
- (2)M.C. van den Toorn (1957)
- (3)Jan de Vries (2005)
- 7.4Nicoline van der Sijs (2010)
- 7.4.2Of the four mixed languages
- 7.4.3Betawi — Batavia — Jakarta
- 8.Revisiting Gonda and Schuchardt
Notes
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