Why standard Indonesian is not spoken throughout Indonesia • Hacker News Board

Re: Why standard Indonesian is not spoken throughout Indonesia

#161

Post by vram22 » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:19 PM UTC

vram22 wrote: post #160

forapurpose wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not sure how true all of that is, though. I have a healthy skepticism about historians Is that supposed to be an argument against it? Have you examined the arguments and evidence, which thousands of experts have examined and been convinced by? What exactly do you object to?

> Have you examined the arguments and evidence, which thousands of experts have examined and been convinced by? Which "thousands of experts", are you referring to, exactly? Sure, there could be many thousands of "expert" historians. My point is, have you personally "examined the arguments and evidence" of those thousands of experts, who you claim have been convinced by said evidence? If not, why are you arguing on th…

And if you are asking me if I have examined the evidence of those historians, what is your evidence for making this statement (in an earlier comment above, by you)? :

>it wasn't due to lots of Sanskrit speakers vacationing in France.

It may be true or false, but have you examined the evidence for it, if any? If not, how are you saying it categorically, and questioning my doing the same on another point (about historians)?

Re: Why standard Indonesian is not spoken throughout Indonesia

#162

Post by vram22 » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:32 PM UTC

forapurpose wrote: post #159

vram22 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check this out, as one example, in the History section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia >The influence could have gone the other way Can be, sure. My saying that there was influence in one direction did not rule out it happening the other way as well Good point. >often influences are very indirect, such as Sanskrit's influence on European languages - it wasn't due to lots of Sanskrit speakers vacationing in F…

> Not sure how true all of that is, though. I have a healthy skepticism about historians Is that supposed to be an argument against it? Have you examined the arguments and evidence, which thousands of experts have examined and been convinced by? What exactly do you object to?

> which thousands of experts have examined

Who determines that they are experts? You? If so, are you more qualified than them, so that you can determine that they are experts? Where's your evidence for being a better expert than those "thousands of experts"?

Re: Why standard Indonesian is not spoken throughout Indonesia

#163

Post by taejo » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 8:44 AM UTC

lioeters wrote: post #151

vram22 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the Javanese in one village might not be mutually intelligible (in the practical sense, anyway) with the Javanese spoken in another village a few miles away. >The word "Bahasa" means "language", and in Indonesian languages always seemed to be prefixed with ""Bahasa", e.g. "bahasa Indonesia", "bahasa Inggris", "bahasa Jerman". It is probably derived from the Sanskrit word "bhaashaa" (writing it phonetically, if that…

I find this fascinating too. From where I live, I've noticed and started learning more about Sanskrit's influence on European and Slavic languages. Maybe if I studied Sanskrit, it could help me learn more languages quicker, with a somewhat common vocabulary of root words.

Sanskrit and most European languages do share a common ancestor. But Sanskrit is not that common ancestor, and the influence of Sanskrit itself on European languages is trivial, mostly limited to words relating to Indian religions, yoga, and so on.

I think this confusion arose because it was similarities between Greek, Latin and Sanskrit that first alerted scholars to the existence of a common ancestor.

You can see a family tree of the Indo-European languages at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/IndoEuro...