Sabirin, the Man Behind the Word Anda
When Indonesia had just gained independence, people had not yet adopted a perfect Indonesian. In fact, the word Anda as the second-person singular pronoun did not yet exist. Who was the figure who coined the word Anda?
Quoted from the collection of Rare Newspaper Library documents at the National Library of the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia’s National Library), in the 1930s there was a primary-school-aged child who was astonished to see many people around him still speaking Dutch rather than Malay.
Some indigenous people spoke Dutch fluently and correctly. But others spoke in fragments, mixed with Malay.
Words that were frequently spoken in Malay mixed speech were such as “ikke” replacing the word “I” and the word “ij” whose sound “i” often replaced the words “Kamu”, “Engkau”, or “kau”. However, many people who had never studied Dutch nonetheless echoed words from the Dutch language.
The primary school child who observed these language behaviours was named Sabirin. He was born in Bukittinggi on 5 August 1917. From the third grade of elementary school he often read the weekly Pandji Poestaka, published by Balai Pustaka. This habit grew because his father subscribed to that weekly. The books in the school library were predominantly published by Balai Pustaka.
In that era, schools—especially in West Sumatra—taught Indonesian using Arabic script. Sabirin’s school did too. Sabirin was quite strong in the subject of Malay written in Arabic script. Therefore, he was meticulous and fond of language lessons.
In 1939 in Padang the Jeughd Organisatie Minangkabau (Minangkabau Youth Organisation) was formed—the first. Sabirin joined this organisation.
On that occasion he was unsettled by the phenomenon of many Indonesians using words from Dutch in daily life. He wondered why Indonesian could not be used instead.
Time passed, and Sabirin sought a solution to his unease. He attempted to express his thoughts through a piece in the readers’ column of the Harian Penerangan on Wednesday 20 July 1949.
Origin of the Word Anda
In 1953, a lecture on the Indonesian language was held in Padang. At that time Sabirin was a member of the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) with the rank of Letnan (Lieutenant).
Letnan Sabirin sought a native Indonesian second-person pronoun. Not derived from foreign words such as “you” or “U”.
On 14 December 1955, he purchased the modern Indonesian dictionary compiled by Sutan Muhammad Zaid. He read this dictionary several times.
On page 36, Sabirin found something considered interesting. He found the word “anakanda” along with its explanation: that anakanda or anakda or ananda means a noble child. The suffix Anda, nda, or d originated from this. Initially from Kawi language meaning ‘the noble one’.
Initially, anakanda was used only for royal children. Then it came into everyday use, when people showed respect to someone worthy of being called child.
For days Sabirin observed the word Anda. He tried to write about the concept that related to Anda. Concept after concept was refined and perfected.
In short, on 21 February 1957, he sent a manuscript to the editorial office of the Pedoman newspaper, located on Jalan Budi Kemuliaan in Jakarta. The manuscript was forwarded to the Chair of the Language and Cultural Institute of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at UI, the Chair of the EPP and the DPR at that time, Moh Yamin, Prof Sultan Takdir Alijahbana, and Air Force Major Suryono.
On 28 February 1957, in the Pedoman daily (no. 300), Sabirin’s article appeared with the title: Introducing the new word “ANDA”. In that article it was stated that Anda has a meaning similar to ‘you’ in English. The word Anda could serve as a substitute for the words ‘kamu’ and ‘kau’ which were considered too informal.
Since that time, Indonesians gradually began to get used to using the word Anda. Behind the word Anda lies the contribution of an air force soldier named Sabirin.