Description, technical data of "Architecture of carved rhythm".	Date of this page : 11 SEP 2004

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Spelling

Spelling of English is American. It has been decided that foreign words remain invariable in singular and plural forms. One bonang, two bonang ; one kendang, two kendang. But words of foreign origin that came to English follow the plural form : one gamelan, two gamelans ; a durian, many durians ; an orang-outan, many orangs-outans ; etc. For the word gong, it depends : the specific instrument and musical ensemble term is invariable but the English word is not. One gong ageng, two gong ageng ; one gong kebyar, two gong kebyar ; a flat gong, two flat gongs. A Javanese way of spelling kendang, slentem, gedé, Garuda, Borobudur, etc. is kendhang, slenthem, gedhe, Garudha, Borobudhur, etc. We prefer not using it, to avoid confusion with Kawi and Sanskrit aspirates. To know whether a t or d of a word is dental or retroflex, look up that word in this Website's dictionary. Accented e's (é and è) are used to show their difference from the unaccented e (pronounced like the u of but). Gedé, gendér, Madé, Ketut, ketuk, bémo, bem, etc. Some modern Indonesian works have the tendency of writing the unaccented e with a circumflex (ê) but we don't like it for the circumflex is normally an accent. The bilabial semivowel written w in Indonesian languages and Singhalese has usually been written v when transliterated from Sanskrit. We prefer to keep w for Sanskrit and Indian words, to have more coherence. Examples : Wajrayana, Wairocana, déwa (instead of deva), dwipa (dvipa looks so ugly), Rawana, etc. Also, v in Europe is not bilabial but labio-dental. We have chosen to show the difference between the palatal ñ and dental n. In words transliterated from languages like Sanskrit, Kawi, Javanese and Malay, the n of nj and nc is always a palatal one, different from the true n. In this Website, the tilde (~) is always used, even for Malay words : ñj, ñc. This does not much affect readability, for example rañcak is easily read as rancak. Other examples : peñcon, Añjani. When ñ isn't followed by c or j, its usual transliteration is ny, like in nyonya or penyambut. We will write ñoña and peñambut. Other examples : Ñoman, Pañembrama.