Influence of Dutch language

Last year I read in your newspaper an article concerning the origin and the future development of Bahasa Indonesia. I was astonished to notice that the writer (I don't remember his name) apparently did not know that there are about five thousand words derived from the Dutch language in the Indonesian language.

I was again astonished when I read the article by Mr. Setiono in your Oct. 16 edition to discover that a lot of examples given of words supposed to be of English origin were not so. In fact, without exception all examples mentioned in the article were drawn from the Dutch language. Although they were written slightly differently, they were pronounced almost the same as in present day Holland.

I often have the impression that emotional contemplations obstruct a scientific approach to the fact that the Dutch influences are a reality.

The English as well as the French imposed their languages in their colonies, the Dutch did not. On the contrary, they promoted and used themselves what was called "Maleis", which was derived from Malay.

A discussion about the origin of Bahasa Indonesia without mentioning these facts is not complete.

M. GROENENDIJK

Amsterdam