Ternate - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

TERNATE 138
THE TERNATESE LANGUAGE
seems to draw the wrong conclusion from this (1877, 4th ed. [sic], p. 383) when he says that
Ternatese is a corrupted form of Malay. Certainly it is true that Malay words often replace
the original ones and that Arabic, after the conversion to Islam, asserted its rights on
religious grounds, just as a corrupted form of Dutch plays an important role in all
Indonesian languages for more recent affairs. I am of the opinion, however, that these
influences have now drawn to a halt, since trade is not expanding appreciably, there is no
Moslem propaganda, and the [p. 193] self-government of the rulers keeps European
influence within narrow limits.
In my opinion Ternatese, although closely related to other dialects of this region and
perhaps originating from them, has claim to the name of language, since it has a wealth of
words and linguistic forms totally sufficient for the people who speak it. Indeed, it is an
important language because of many peculiarities which have until now escaped the
attention of linguists.
With the conversion of the inhabitants to Islam and their acquisition of Arabic
script, the Arabic alphabet came to be used to write Ternatese as it was used to write
Malay, and has spread so much since then that every headman with even minimal
education knows the Arabic characters. Since they have little or no inclination to adopt
Latin alphabetic writing from us and documents with Arabic characters can be read
without any problem on Sumatra, I have retained that writing in my study of Ternatese
idioms and have followed the spellings as they were given to me. This is done without any
intention to defend or agree with the practice, but only because it has resulted in a
uniformity of spelling.
Except for the glossary in van der Crab’s [1862] “De Moluksche Eilanden” (“The
Moluccan Island”) and the material by the same author in “Geschiedenis van Ternate”
(“History of Ternate [by Naidah]”, van der Crab, TKI), what is known about the Ternatese
language is limited to a few narratives published by Riedel in the Tijdschrift voor
Nederlands-Indië, 3rd series, V, and a few Pantuns reported by Campen and included in
the Tijdscrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap XXX. Campen, in his many contributions to
the knowledge of Halmahera, did better than most other writers by reporting the native
names of many things, although on a few occasions he confused Ternatese with the Alfuru
dialects. A comparison of these sources for the study of the Ternatese language leads me to
the conclusion [p. 194] that van der Crab’s glossary was compiled very carelessly and
contains a large number of mistakes; that the “Geschiedenis” [“History”] has been poorly
transcribed and is often unintelligible due to incorrect punctuation⎯nor does the Malay
(and to a lesser extent the Dutch) text explain the obscurities in the book; that the
narratives have been reprinted very incompletely and corrected by a person who did not
understand anything of the language (a Tidorese song in it is called Ternatese, for
example), although it is readily admitted that the translation faithfully reflects the text;
and finally that the words given by Campen from the Pantuns are generally reliable,
although many forms are often difficult to recognize, in part because of their peculiar
spelling.
The reader will have to excuse me for not trying to justify these opinions with
examples, but anyone who occupies himself with the study of the Ternatese language will
see these defects soon enough, and, I trust, appreciate that I have tried to avoid the
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