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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. 392–426

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Chapter 12
Dutch loanwords in Ternate and their circulation in the Moluccas

ORCiD logo with link | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Lacito-CNRS
ORCiD logo with link | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Published online: 4 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.55.12sch
Abstract
This chapter examines the appearance of Dutch loanwords in Ternate, a Papuan language spoken on a small volcanic island in the North Moluccas that was at the centre of the clove trade at the time of European arrival in the region. The Dutch maintained a near continuous presence in Ternate from 1606 and although communities of Dutch speakers here were at all times small, a number of loanwords bear witness to their presence and influence. We catalogue the Dutch loanwords that are peculiar to Ternate, and their dispersal into other languages of the region in order to create a picture of the dynamics and chronology of lexical borrowing from Dutch in eastern Indonesia. We argue that loanwords from Dutch indicate that Ternate was an important contact language in the early period of the Dutch presence in the Moluccas, a fact that is easily overlooked given the subsequent dominance of Malay.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language situation in the Moluccas and surrounds
  • 3.Microcosms of contact
  • 4.The Ternate language, its history and importance
    • 4.1Language use in European contact
    • 4.2Spheres of lexical influence
  • 5.Out of the microcosm: Dutch borrowings in Ternate and beyond
    • 5.1Dutch loans in Ternate
    • 5.2Dutch loans spread from Ternate to non-Malay languages
    • 5.3Dutch loans spread from Ternate into Malay varieties
  • 6.Concluding discussion
  • Notes
  • References
References (51)
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