Influence of Dutch language

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