Java in the 14th Century: A Study in Cultural History

The present second volume of the Nنgara-Kertنgama edition contains those notes on the tex.t and the translation of the major poem and the appended minor writings and charters that may be of interest to students of the J avanese language. Perusal of these notes on idiom and linguistics will be found the more fruitful if the glossary ( volume V of the present edition) is consulted continuously. No lengthy discussions of linguistic subjects are to be found in the present volume. They would be out of place in this new Nنgara- Kertنgama edition, for its tenor is primarily sociological. Exceptions have been made only for some places where short grammatical discus- sions seemed in place in order to elucidate points of the translation. In the notes on the contemporaneous minor writings and charters differences between the scholarly idiom of Court Iiterature (Nنgara- Kertنgama and Royal charters) on the one side and the popular ver- nacular idiom of daily life on the other have been pointed out repeatedly. The close relationship of the 14th century Majapahit vemacular with modern J avanese is apparent. Occasional remarks on words betonging to regional idioms, either Eastem Javanese Majapahit or Ka