{"id":42,"date":"2026-10-29T16:27:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/?p=42"},"modified":"2026-10-29T19:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:13:15","slug":"why-my-old-book-spells-rajawali-with-a-dj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/?p=42","title":{"rendered":"Why My Old Book Spells Rajawali with a \u2018dj\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look at the cover of this book. The title is Sia Tiauw Eng Hiong<\/em>, and the subtitle says Memanah Burung Radjawali<\/em>, \u201cShooting the Eagle.\u201d Today, an Indonesian would write that last word as rajawali<\/em>. The \u201cdj\u201d is a fossil, and it tells you roughly when this book was printed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out Indonesian has gone through several spelling systems in the last century, and you can date an old book by the letters alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generation one: Van Ophuijsen (1901)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first official system was designed by a Dutch scholar, Charles van Ophuijsen, and it was written for Dutch eyes. That is why the \u201cu\u201d sound was written oe<\/strong>, as in Dutch. Soekarno<\/em>, boekoe<\/em>, roemah<\/em>. The consonants also followed Dutch habits: dj<\/strong>, tj<\/strong>, j<\/strong> for the \u201cy\u201d sound, nj<\/strong>, sj<\/strong>. 1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generation two: the Republican spelling (1947)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After independence, the \u201coe\u201d was dropped and replaced with a plain u<\/strong>. Soekarno<\/em> became Sukarno<\/em>. But the consonants stayed the same, so djalan<\/em> and tjinta<\/em> were still written the old way. My book belongs to this generation: \u201cBurung\u201d has a normal u, but \u201cRadjawali\u201d still has its dj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generation three: EYD (1972)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1972 Indonesia introduced the Ejaan yang Disempurnakan<\/em> (the \u201cPerfected Spelling\u201d), usually shortened to EYD. It removed the last Dutch habits, and it came with a Malaysian counterpart so the two countries could share one system. 2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the full comparison:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sound<\/th>Van Ophuijsen (1901)<\/th>Republican (1947)<\/th>EYD (1972)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
u<\/td>oe (boekoe)<\/td>u (buku)<\/td>u<\/td><\/tr>
j<\/td>dj (djalan)<\/td>dj (djalan)<\/td>j (jalan)<\/td><\/tr>
c<\/td>tj (tjinta)<\/td>tj (tjinta)<\/td>c (cinta)<\/td><\/tr>
y<\/td>j (jang)<\/td>j (jang)<\/td>y (yang)<\/td><\/tr>
ny<\/td>nj (njanji)<\/td>nj (njanji)<\/td>ny (nyanyi)<\/td><\/tr>
sy<\/td>sj (sjarat)<\/td>sj (sjarat)<\/td>sy (syarat)<\/td><\/tr>
kh<\/td>ch (chusus)<\/td>ch (chusus)<\/td>kh (khusus)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few more details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The 1901 system also used apostrophes for glottal stops, as in\u00a0ma\u2019af<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Under the Republican spelling, repeated words could be written with a \u201c2\u201d, like\u00a0anak2<\/em>\u00a0for\u00a0anak-anak<\/em>. You can still see this in old handwriting and in text messages today.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The letters f, v, and z were officially recognised as part of the Indonesian alphabet in the 1972 reform.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    How to date an old book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you find \u201coe\u201d in a book, it was probably printed before 1947. If you find a normal \u201cu\u201d but still see \u201cdj\u201d or \u201ctj\u201d, it is probably between 1947 and 1972. If it has \u201cj\u201d and \u201cc\u201d like we write today, it is from 1972 or later. This is only a rough rule, because printers did not always switch on the same day, but it is a good first clue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The names are in Hokkien, too<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The spelling of the names is another layer. In my childhood the hero is\u00a0Kwee Ceng<\/strong>, the Hokkien reading of the characters that Mandarin speakers pronounce\u00a0Guo Jing<\/strong> (\u90ed\u9756). Indonesian translators of that era, many of them Chinese-Indonesian, used Hokkien because that was the dialect most of their readers spoke at home. The title itself,\u00a0Sia Tiauw Eng Hiong<\/em>, is the same phrase as the Mandarin\u00a0Sh\u00e8 Di\u0101o Y\u012bngxi\u00f3ng<\/em> (\u5c04\u9d70\u82f1\u96c4)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Look at the cover of this book. The title is Sia Tiauw Eng Hiong, and the subtitle says Memanah Burung Radjawali, \u201cShooting the Eagle.\u201d Today, an Indonesian would write that last word as rajawali. The \u201cdj\u201d is a fossil, and it tells you roughly when this book was printed. It turns out Indonesian has gone through several spelling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suiyuanexpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}