Reframing Pre-Modern Language Contact through Trade in Eastern Indonesia: Javanese Linguistic Influence in the Moluccas

Abstract

In the pre-modern period, Java and Javanese traders were at the center of a complex web of regional and long-distance trade networks extending from India and China to New Guinea. In particular, the Javanese were key players in the spice trade, transporting these from their native Moluccas to the world through the ports of Java. Despite the pivotal role of the Javanese in this trade for hundreds or possibly even a thousand years, the Javanese language has not been considered as a source for loanwords in the Moluccas. Rather, it has typically been assumed by linguists that Malay was the vehicle of transmission of loanwords in the Moluccas, including those with ultimately Javanese origins. This article challenges this prevailing narrative, showing that there is clear evidence for direct borrowing from Javanese. We show that many Javanese loanwords in the Moluccas have dispersed across the region under the influence of the powerful clove-trading sultanates, particularly Ternate and Tidore. Recognition of Javanese as an influential language in trade in the pre- and early-modern period represents an important reframing of eastern Indonesia’s linguistic history.