Petjo

Petjo, also known as Petjoh, Petjok, Pecok, Petjoek (Javanese: ꦥꦼꦕꦺꦴꦏ꧀, romanized: pecok, lit. 'to cut') is a Dutch-based creole language that originated among the Indos, people of mixed Dutch and Indonesian ancestry in the former Dutch East Indies. The language has influences from Dutch and then depending on the region Javanese, Malay, Sundanese and Betawi. Its speakers presently live mostly in Indonesia and the Netherlands. The language is expected to become gradually extinct by the end of the 21st century, due to Indos' shift toward Indonesian in Indonesia and Dutch in the Netherlands.

Petjo
Native to	Indonesia, Netherlands
Ethnicity	Indo Dutch
Native speakers	"some" (2007)[1]
Language family	Dutch-based creole Petjo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pey
Glottolog	petj1238
ELP	Petjo

Background

Just as the Indo (Eurasian) community historically originated from relationships between European males and Indonesian females, its language reflects this same origin. Typified as a mixed-marriage language, the grammar of Petjok is based on the maternal Malay language and the lexicon on the paternal Dutch language.

The main contact mechanisms responsible for the creation of Petjok are lexical re-orientation; selective replication and convergence. The original speakers of the language do not necessarily want to maintain their first language, but rather create a second one. These creative speakers of the language were probably bilingual, but more fluent in the dominant lingua franca i.e., native Malay language, than Dutch language.

In its overall split between grammar and lexicon, the structure of Petjok is very similar to the Media Lengua spoken in Ecuador by the Quechua people, with the critical difference that the much older language, Pecok, has undergone late system morphemes and syntactic blends.

The most important author that published literary work in this language is the Indo (Eurasian) writer Tjalie Robinson.^[2]

Dialect continuum in Indonesian-Dutch language contact^[3]

Grammatical features	Dutch	Indies Dutch	Pecok	Malay
Dutch
Verb Second	+
Inversion	+
Copula	+
Dutch inflection	+	+
Dutch lexicon	+	+	+
Emphatic PRO		+
Malay/Indonesian
Malay morphology			+	+
Topic-deletion			+	+
Malay particles			+	+

Largely an oral language, there is no standard spelling for the language. Texts may be written using what is known as the old spelling (Ejaan Tempo Dulu) or the Indonesian Enhanced Spelling (Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan). Some spelling differences (new vs old) are: j=dj, u=oe, y=j, c=tj, ny=nj, sy=sj, and kh=ch.

Each urban area with a large Indo community had their own variation of Petjok. For example: the Petjok of Batavia was influenced by a form of Malay which contained many Chinese words, in Bandung, many Sundanese words were used, while in Semarang and Surabaya many Javanese words were in use. Petjo should not be confused with Javindo, a different creole language spoken by Indos in the Dutch East Indies. With the loss of the generation that lived in the Dutch East Indies era, that language has almost died out, but it become identity for Indo descent.^[4] In contrast, the colonial society saw the creole languages as a corrupted Dutch which should be corrected as quickly as possible.^[5]

Comparison between Javindo and Petjo^[6]

	Javindo	Petjo
Actor vs non-actor	strong preference for non-actor-oriented sentences
Lexifier language	Dutch
Origin of the Speakers	Semarang	Batavia
Substrate language	Javanese	Batavian Malay
Speaker as actor indicator	taq, tak, ta`	ku-
Hearer as actor	koq	kau- / absent
Affixation by suffix		lack of

Phonology

Petjo's phonology is based on the Malay phonology. This means that both words in Malay and in Dutch sound sequences in syllables are lengthened, consonants and vowels are likely to overlap each other (CVCV); some consonants that follow each other (consonant clusters) are most likely to be avoided. The following will give an example of an 'e' which is spoken unstressed (schwa insertion) or the consonant is omitted.^[7]

English	Dutch	Petjo	Indonesian Cognate	Indonesian Synonyms
headquarters	hoofdbureau	obiro	hopbiro	kantor pusat, markas
arrest	arresteren	asseret	arès	menahan
syrup	stroop	seterop	setrup	sirup

Consonants

Consonant shifts

The suprasegmental aspects – word stress and intonation – in Petjo are very similar to Malay; Petjo has a striking zinsmelodie (rhythm) compared to Dutch. In addition, Petjo has a different consonant pronunciation compared to Dutch. Below is a shift in the pronunciation of voiced consonants to voiceless in Petjo.^[8]

Dutch	Petjo	Examples
z	s	zeg [seg] (say); zwart [swart] (black)
v	f	vreemd [freem] (foreign); over [ofer] (about)
v/f	p	verlop [perlop] (expire)
h	g/ch	huis [chuis] (house); hem [chem] (him)
g/ch	h	tegen [tehen] (against); vergeten [verheten] (to forget)
j	ie-j	ja [ijo] (yes)

Consonant blends

The combination of consonants also for many Petjo speakers becomes an insurmountable problem. Petjo speakers will usually omit some sounds or add others in between to get a slightly flexible tongue to pronounce a combination of consonants.^[7]

Dutch	Petjo	Examples
schr	sr	schrik [srik] (fright)
nk	ng	denk [deng] (think)
e (schwa)	-	luisteren [leist’ren] (listen)
-	e (schwa)	straks [sêtêraks] (soon)
-	d/t	er in [d’rin] (in it); is er [ister] (is there)
t	-	vent [fen] (guy); hond [chon] (dog)

Vowels

In Petjo's pronunciation, all vowels are pronounced nasally. Long and closed sounds are pronounced open or wide. Long sounds are often pronounced shorter and short sounds made longer compared to Dutch pronunciation:^[8]

Dutch	Petjo	Examples
a	aa	man [maan] (man)
oo	o	dood [dhó] (dead)
uu	ie	natuurlijk [natierlijk] (naturally)
u	i	stuk [stik] (piece)
e	aa	geweldig [haaweldih] (awesome)

Language samples

English	Petjo	Dutch	Indonesian
Where did you get those cigarettes, Ntiet?	Fanwaar rokok-nja, Ntiet?	Waar heb je die sigaretten vandaan, Ntiet?	Dari mana rokoknya, Ntiet?[9]
Where are you going Koos?	Jij haat naarwaar Koos?	Waar ga je naar toe Koos?	Kamu mau pergi ke mana, Koos?[10]
The clothes that were washed by that woman	Kleren njang di-wassen door die frouw	De kleren die door die vrouw worden gewassen	Pakaian yang dicuci oleh wanita itu[9]
See that quid?	Je siet proempie-nja?	Zie je die pruim (pruimtabak)?	Lihat premnya?
The water that flows gently	De water, njang stromen sachjes	Het water, dat zachtjes stroomt	Air, yang mengalir perlahan

Fragment from Petjoh van Batavia

From Tjalie Robinson, Ik en Bentiet:^[9]

I say: "Als so, alleen djoeloeng-djoeloeng jij fang!"

He say: "Itoe diejè!"

I say: "Njang klein-klein fóór wat?"

He say: "Foor kwamaroem".

I say: "Foor wat?"

He say: Foor waramoeki".

I say: So-euven jij seh anders".

He say: "Ha-a. Muuleke woort dese. Laat maar dese woort, alsmaar ding-nja hoet".

I say: "Wat foor ding, dese ding. Lekker?"

He say: "Masa lekker. Als jij denken freten door maar-door jij".